The time of the season

:speech_balloon: Grab a chair, kick off your shoes, chill and chat.
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RobertArthur
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Location: Nièvre

The time of the season

#1 Post by RobertArthur »

Holidays are over, time for la rentrée in France. Seasons come and go, but nowadays with our precision watches we have brought order to these transitions, precise dates please: The French Ministry of National Education and Literacy has set the date for the start of the next school year as Monday, 11 September.

From the early Middle Ages onwards, monks brought order to the chaos of life with prayers, songs and masses for specific times and days. They recorded this order in prayer books, which became increasingly elaborate and artistically decorated. From the thirteenth century onwards, the nobility also showed an interest in such calendars. The most famous example is an extremely luxurious book of hours « Les très riches heures du duc de Berry». Not very easy to see all these pictures. However, because the book needs to be rebound and restored, all 121 miniatures are on display until 5 October at the Château de Chantilly, just north of Paris.

If you want to avoid the inevitable crowds there, or simply because it is too far away for a casual trip, browsing through the various wiki pages is also very enjoyable. It offers a momentary escape from the daily headlines.

About la rentrée and the month of September this high definition picture, click to enlarge. Perhaps a white Christmas in December?

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Blaze
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The time of the season

#2 Post by Blaze »

French life seems to revolve around school holidays .... the news is full of la rentrée though it makes a welcome relief from "this weekend will be a black one for people returning after the holidays" etc. These things happen every year yet they make headline news every time.

This summer hasn't been particularly hot or summery but the vegetation is still green and not burnt brown. Some trees are losing their leaves, self-preservation but this morning felt particularly autumnal. We were rather hoping to go away in our caravan next week but the forecast is pretty abysmal so we may be out of luck for a bit. A caravan with wet dogs isn't very inviting !

MAD87
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The time of the season

#3 Post by MAD87 »

My grandchildren start back next Tuesday - Monday seems to be reserved for teachers, think swapping holiday tales, drinking coffee....

As for the weather, ours has hardly changed. We were promised rain all week, but who's got it?

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Blaze
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The time of the season

#4 Post by Blaze »

MAD87 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 28, 2025 4:10 pm We were promised rain all week, but who's got it?
We have !!!
Two tractors have been going past all afternoon - we're at the end of a small road which fizzles out to a track. Both tractors are towing large bennes which look as if they've contained dredged mud which they've dumped somewhere. So our little road was covered in mud after a couple of hours, and then the rain came with a fury. It seems they're not obliged to clear up afterwards - fortunately the sun's come out so it should all dry off ....

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