This week's treat from the Jardins des plantes in Orléans. With the mild weather the Magnolia soulangiana have just come into flower and this is a rather fine specimen.
Mild weather but also a lot of rain. The Loire has risen a bit more but still has a long way to go. It usually covers the island at least once a year.
This is the path from which I took the duck photo. They are now swimming along it!Today's strange event. I saw a muslim lady with the full veil kit (niqba?). Not that frequent in Orléans, just the slit for the eyes. I was quite close to her when she approached a car driven by a young lady, in western atire, with a young family. Just in front of me, so I had a full frontal, the muslim lady whipped off her veil and gave bissous to the kids. Are we managing to introduce French reasonableness by subterfuge?
3 commentaires:
Magnolias really are a treat, aren't they? We have four of them coming into bloom in the middle of a drab old car park in town. They're so...pink!
Did you know that they were named after a botanist called Pierre Magnol, from Montpellier? (And do you care?)
I can be a bit nerdy sometimes.
gigi I didn't know that. I found it on Wikipedia now.
In Nantes they are very proud of their Magnolias. The streets are lined with them. In the botanical garden they explain that Nantes and Weymoth were the first two European cities to grow Magnolias. Further, the Magnolias we grow in the garden are mainly hybrids. The original hybrids were developed in Nantes by the duc de soulange, hence the name soulangiana. Two nerds.
When I lived in Rozel, Jersey, there was (and still is) a house that has now become an hotel (chateau la Chaire). The gardens were originally planted by Samuel Curtis in the mid-19th century - unfortunately subsequent owners never really kept up the gardens, they were also looted during the last War when the Germans dug up some of the more rare plants and sent them back to Germany, but there is still a magnolia grandiflora in the grounds which was planted by Curtis, and when in flower it is spectacular.
Three nerds?
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