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Category: Doors
Thursday Doors – A Few Gothic Studs & A Door Knocker
It’s been strange not participating in Thursday Doors this last couple of weeks but at last I’ve had a little free time to get out and about with the camera for a spot of door hunting. A stroll around some of the narrow streets in the old part of the town of Angoulême this week uncovered…
Thursday Doors – Former Glory
I thought I’d share another church door for this week’s Thursday Doors post. Unlike the delightful tiny gem featured last week, this is a large village church which feels a little neglected these days but which must have been quite magnificent centuries ago in its heyday. Built, as so many of the local churches, during…
Thursday Doors – A Tiny Village Church
There is a tiny hamlet not far from the hillside which despite its diminutive size, boasts a number of lovely old buildings, a ‘town hall’ or Mairie and one of the sweetest little churches I have ever come across. The postage stamp grounds around it are always immaculately kept, the hedges and bushes trimmed and…
Thursday Doors – At the End of the Tunnel
We’re visiting another abbey for my Thursday Doors post this week but this time it is not a ruin but a functioning monastery. The wonderful buildings of the Abbey of Saint Etienne, founded in the year 1003, were home until 3 years ago to 6 missionary monks of the order of Saint Theresa. These 6…
Thursday Doors – A Village House and Giant Gates
There is a well-known saying that an Englishman’s home is his castle – a love for privacy and a patch of personal territory on our overcrowded island is perhaps the explanation of this notion – but since moving to France we have been more than a little impressed by the Frenchman’s approach to presenting and…
Thursday Doors – The Abandoned Cellar
I’m cheating slightly with my Thursday Doors post this week. The entrance door of my subject building – a long-since abandoned village shop – is certainly old and nicely weatherworn but it’s the doors to the cellar which really caught my eye. These small doors which give a very limited access from the street to…
Thursday Doors – A Gentle Shade
For this week’s Thursday Doors I’m back to the churches again. The church itself is another wonderful example dating from the 12th to 13th century but the door this time is rather different. Instead of the ancient heavy oak, the door is a fairly sober painted affair (in a beautiful and very French greeny grey)…
Thursday Doors – Iron Bars and Studs
This is another amazing door from our trip to Périgueux, just a few steps further along Rue Tranquille. I have no idea of the history of this door or the building behind it but it has the same feeling of incredible age and history as my previous example. Perhaps a checkered history in this case…
Thursday Doors – The Abandoned Farm Cottage
My offering for Thursday Doors this week is not exactly pretty and certainly not an impressive example of a door but I found this farm cottage on the edge of a quiet lane a compelling subject for a few photos. It seemed to be almost out of place amongst the lush vineyards of south western…
Thursday Doors – Curlicues and Rosettes
There is some evidence in a dusty local archive, that way back in the 12th century, the Hillside was the site of a religious ‘paroisse’, the French version of our word ‘parish’. This could mean quite simply that a lone monk lived up here in contemplative seclusion or that he had fellow monks and a…
Thursday Doors – Rue Tranquille
Exploring some of the beautiful, narrow backstreets in the old town of Périgueux in the Dordogne, we came across this stunning ancient doorway. The heavy oak and iron studded door itself made it more than worthy of a photo but the wonderful carving around the door in the warm local limestone made it something extra…
Thursday Doors – La Dimerie Blanzac
I risk repeating myself a little with today’s post for Thursday Doors, as I’m posting another tower, but this time the tower is quite small and the door that leads into it is very small and must surely have been built for a race of fairy people. The tower and the building it is attached…
Once Upon a Moonlit Night
She stood shivering behind the cover of the ancient yew tree, wisps of hair blowing across her face in the gentle breeze, trying not to breathe too loudly. They were sure to hear her, she just knew it, even the pounding of her heart could give her away but she could not stop now. If…
Thursday Doors – The Chapel of the Knights Templar, Cressac
There is something irresistibly fascinating about doors and doorways, whether old or new they seem to pique our innate curiosity and love of mystery. I have posted a couple of times already with some of my favourites but having just discovered some other fellow door-lovers and the ‘Thursday Doors’ spot hosted by ‘Norm 2.0′ –…
Doors Part 3 – Jonzac – Seven Doors and a Window
Now that the summer is over and we return to our normal opening hours here on the hillside (5 days a week instead of 7) we are able, on rare occasions, to indulge in the odd visit to pastures new, to wallow in some slightly different scenery and recharge our batteries. Usually our ‘grand days…
Doors Part 2 – Rust Never Sleeps
The disadvantages of living in an old property are numerous and invariably very costly – the leaky roofs, the damp, the rubbish heating and falling masonry to name but a minor few – the advantages, however are equally numerous and noteworthy; amongst these positive benefits being a vast catalogue of photographic delights to focus the…
Doors – Part 1
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.’ Alexander Graham Bell ALL PHOTOS © JANE MORLEY
View from a French Hillside 