Miniatures

Thursday afternoon I was eating saucisson with a piece of bread. Suddenly I heard a load crack and instantly a front tooth was creating pain. I knew Elisabeth would be at the mini-farmers market that is held in Blanot each Thursday at 5 PM, so I headed down the hill for help in finding a dentist. Elisabeth contacted several people and several dentists. Then she called Marie-Annick and voila, I had an appointment in Macon for the next morning at 9:20. The end result...Friday morning the tooth got pulled and my upper denture that had cracked in half got repaired...all for 134 euros. At the pharmacy 4 bottles of antiseptic rinse, pain pills that really work, and the antibiotics cost 26 euros! Needing medical care was actually affordable. (The last I heard the euro was equal to about $1.26.)

Saturday began with a trip to the open market in Cluny. Carol tried to get cash from an ATM, but her credit card wasn't accepted. She can't call her bank until Tuesday so I get to be a banker for a few days. We came home for lunch. Around 3 PM we took off for Bonnay. I had planned a route mostly on roads I had not yet traveled. Along the way I just had to take a picture of one house that was covered with red roses!

The signs on small back roads are so good that we had no problem finding Bonnay, and then the signs for the fellow who makes wood miniatures led us to his home and showroom.

I bought a bird cage with the birds, a goat, and a chicken with her chicks...I would have loved to have bought one or two of his music boxes, but they would have been far too much for my suitcases.

See his music boxes below...

Then Carol and I found the music boxes that were not for sale...and the people and critters in those dioramas were all moving! The one above is the last of 3 Christmas scenes that light up with music one after the other.

The lady playing a harp is off to the right...I had to take this in 2 shots & only one is shown here.

A frog jumped on a trampoline while other frogs cheered him on, Santa hammered toys, children ice skated on a pond, everything in a barnyard was working, a quartet played...it was magical. The pictures I've included here are only a hint of what we experienced.

Here ladies are doing the wash at a lavoir.

I wanted to get to the fellow who makes tops so we headed in the direction of Sigy le Chatel. We crossed the Guye River and saw kids at a swimming hole...they were on the left but disappeared just before my camera was ready!

When we reached the spinning tops place it was closed...turned out that Saturday is his one day off...but we had noticed the remains of a castle or chateau at the top of a hill and decided to check it out.

After a few wrong turns we finally were climbing the right hill...and BB made it!

We couldn't get right up to the ruins; they were private property, but we were close enough to be satisfied. One section of outpost had apparently been turned into someone's home, though it didn't look as if anyone had been around recently.


On our way out of town Carol spotted a ball of mistletoe hanging from a tree. Look familiar? Now we know where the idea for a mistletoe ball came from.

 We were off to Prissy to meet Lauryne and exchange BB for a rental car. This is BB. The rental is a fire engine red Fiat. Looks sharp, but BB has so much more character...she'll be missed. Sunday we leave for the Mediterranean! It's supposed to be rainy the whole time we are there, but we're taking our bathing suits anyway! (The laptop will stay in Blanot.)    

By the time this is posted, we have returned from our trip to the south of France. It didn't rain...we had fabulous weather and a ton of adventures! Hang in while I get the next posts ready!