Berry Big Sky

All these photos were taken on the road between Chateauroux and Issoudun, east of us, beyond the Brenne, in mid-August. The harvest is just in, serving to emphasis the open, featureless nature of the countryside. It is, I think, a difficult landscape to love. There is no shelter, no place to hide. It is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, with nothing to stop the wind, and very little shade.


These are big grain farms, and have clearly been like this for decades, maybe centuries. Even the old stone farmyards are composed of massive unadorned buildings pragmatically arranged in rectangles, as if the occupants are making a stockade against the landscape and perhaps hoping for a more human scale safe haven in the centre. Long driveways planted with avenues of trees form one of the few concessions to aesthetics.

In the distance and distorted by heat haze, the gigantic silos of Issoudun.

Susan