we’ve gone Disney!!

Indubitably you already know that our Frenchie hometown of Saintes, Charente-Maritime, is a City of Art & History and also a Villes Fleuris, a “Town in Bloom” with four flowers, the highest level of a Villes Fleuris, which means that our public spaces are adorned with seasonally changing horticultural arrangements.

Today was apparently the first day of the changeover to the winter plantings. When I walked across Bernard-Palissy bridge just before 3 PM this afternoon, the fall season planters were still in evidence.

Looking out my living room window two hours later, the majority of them have disappeared and the naked bridge is eagerly awaiting its new decorations. Well, I am anyway.

What has been redecorated already is the roundabout connecting the bridge and Rue Gambetta, the main drag on Rive Droite. When we drove around it last Saturday in the little market choo-choo [to be explained very soon] the center of this roundabout was still in its “Jumelage” decoration. You see, Saintes celebrated 25 years of twinning with the British town of Salisbury this year, which explains the odd plethora of UK-style phone booths all over town.

However, Dr. Who’s sacred home base vanished and is in the process of being replaced with pink pine trees of dubious origin. And then there are the blue ones … oy vey.