Around here

I don't really know how to start blogging. So I will with a short description of where I landed a few years back when I left Chicago.

This area of Ile de France is called La Vallee de la Juine, not too far (about 45 min south) from Paris.

When I first came here some years ago, before my definitive move, I can say I thought -' this is it', this is what I was unconsciously seeing in those wonderful pictures taken by an artist- can't remember the name- and displayed annually at the art fair at Merchandise Mart, and not only.
It was there where I found myself staring away at giant vibrant pictures of narrow streets, stone houses with colored stores and flowers hanging off the fences, sun, storylike gardens. And the famous french glycine (above) which you do need to smell at least once in your lifetime.

I actually saw peackoks in trees!! It was a castle garden, not all trees here have peackoks....

This time of year the yellow fields of colza flowers are breathtaking - just teoretically because they smell...bad. 

As for house architecture, there are two traditional styles that came with the original settings around here - the Maison de maitre aka the master's house, and the ferme/maison en pierre aka the stone cottage house and sometimes the 'barn' house. Even today I am still oscillating between which one I would have, if I could choose the perfect of one style.
I admit I am daily looking at houses, for pleasure and recently for business, since I re-started working in the real estate this year (there are many more styles today but the 2 remain the prettiest and most sought after).

There are plenty of castles close by, which make the strolls so much more pleasant especially now in the spring. I will come back with pics, a bientôt!