Where does this take you too from La Maison de Maitre?
We always tell our guests to turn into the White Lane. You have arrived. GPS systems actually take our guests directly to the gite. Thought we do ask them to come up to the house.
The White Lane. Where does it go to? Actually there are two houses down there. One is lived in permanently and the other is a ‘maison secondaire’. Owned by a Parisian Architect. The chemin is basically a lane to give the farmers access to their fields. This one is a 2 kms circular one. I great for a morning jog or walk with the dogs and is a quick hack for the horses. We are very lucky as there is a lot of ‘off road’ riding providing great circuits for getting the horses fit. It’s easy to go out and do 10 to 12 kms without meeting a car or tractor, though at this time there are many tractors working as the farmers try to catch up.
The Tractor and Franck
At one time all of the land immediately around the gite is was owned by La Bourjonnerie. A total of 90 hectares. We now only have 3.80 hectares. With our 7 horses we could do with a little more but actually with the good management of Laura it is more than enough. Our neighbouring farmer grows maize, barley and sunflowers.I am hoping we will have a field of sunflowers this year. The weather has finally improved enough to get on the ground and try and catch up with the ploughing. The locals reckon they are at least three weeks behind.
Last year Franck planted maize in this field. After the combine had passed anyone who wants too can go ‘gleaning’ to gather the missed cobs of corn. Unfortunately this corn is grown for cattle food but my chickens love it! (Saves on buying corn for them). I need to train Jaeger our black Labrador to gather the corn for me! You can just see him in the picture. We had a very large flock of doves living with us over the winter as there was an excellent food source for them. They have left but the swallows have reappeared. Spring has finally arrived, but I don’t think she has unpacked her bags yet and decided to stay. Here’s hoping.