Grande rue

This narrow street leads from the 'new' market square, where you can see the fountain and the plane tree in the distance, to the old market square. Walking back from the village shop this morning I noticed how many empty houses there are in this street - at least half a dozen. One remise (store or garage) has a lovely stone archway with the date 1727 carved into it, and all these houses are probably at least as old as that. They are small, they need renovating and they don't have gardens or car-parking spaces, so I suppose those are the reasons that people would prefer new houses. But we like living in the old village because whenever we step outside the door we meet and talk to friends and neighbours, and our house is sheltered from the worst of the weather by other buildings. Our garden is on the hill above the village among a lot of other plots, where there is another community of friends and gardeners.

I think it's sad to leave these houses empty and to plan to build nearly 100 new houses just outside the village, next to our garden.... we just hope it won't change the character of the village too much.