A View of Beaulieu-lès-Loches

Beaulieu-lès-Loches sits just across the Indre river from Loches. Many of its buildings have a sort of warm and crumbling antique look, very picturesque. The huge church spire in the middle distance is attached to the remains of an enormous abbey commissioned by Fulk Nerra ('the Black Falcon'), Count of Anjou. This remarkably active and long lived 10-11th century war lord is buried in the church here and it is his legacy that the Plantagenet kings of England inherited when his descendent Geoffrey Plantagenet married Matilda of England in 1128.

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Fungi Foray: The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine is holding a fungi foray in the Forest of Preuilly on Sunday 27 October. Meet at 2.30 pm in the Etang de la Ribaloche car park. From Preuilly, take the D725 towards Azay-le-Ferron. After 5 km, at the lieu-dit La Lieutenauderie, turn left onto the D63c towards Obterre. The Etang is 2 km along this road. Coming from Loches or Ligueil, don't go all the way into Preuilly, but take the D725 to Azay-le-Ferron. As usual, the fungi collected will be laid out and identified by experts at the end of the outing. The emphasis is on identifying all types of fungi, but there is nothing to preclude you concentrating on collecting edible specimens for personal use.

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Registering to Vote: Yesterday we took ourselves off to the mairie armed with identification documents (UK passports) and proof of address (taxe foncière, electricity and water bills). We filled out the forms to get us on the auxiliary electoral roll so we can vote in European Parliamentary elections and local municipal elections. We cannot vote in French national elections because we are not French citizens. We can vote in the European elections because we are citizens of an EU country resident in the EU. We can vote in the local elections because we are EU citizens who live here permanently, but any EU citizen who owns a property in France and has paid their local taxes for a minimum of 5 years consecutively is also allowed to vote, meaning that many second home owners can vote. We cannot vote in Australian elections because we have been out of the country for more than 5 years. We could register to vote in British elections, but it feels a bit inappropriate since we no longer live there, even though we still have family there and financial ties.

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Results of Yesterday's Quiz: Jim and Pauline are the runaway winners with 6 points. The post has been updated with the answers.