MY HOME IS A CASTLE--the tale of how and why I became a chatelain , four times .This is my present home. If you are visiting for the first time you may care to read the older posts first.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

GUESS WHAT WE FOUND!

Putting aside blogging withdrawal symptoms, we have just spent a wonderful Easter. My daughter, her husband and three of my lovely grandchildren came to stay for the whole week. Chris stood up to invasion remarkably well and loved all the fuss and attention directed his way!

Leaving the two men behind to do their thing, us girls took the kids out exploring and guess what we found in the centre of a ' petit village' called Noyant right in the centre of France?




We stumbled across a part of
INDO-CHINA!!

This statue is enormous !

Noyant from the turn of the 19th/20th century was a coal mining town, and virtually all the male villagers were employed down the mines. By 1955 the source became dry and the subsequent unemployment sparked off a mass exodus! In order to re-populate the empty village, the local authorities agreed to repatriate a large community ( over 1000) of vietnamese who took over the empty miners houses. In 1982 they constructed this huge Pagoda set into gardens of peace and tranquility where they could meet and worship. So for half a century now the Indo-Chinese have lived in perfect harmony with the french in this pretty little village;


Below is their place of worship...

Once a year the buddhists come over to pay their respects....



and, finally, a little picture of my three little monkeys and their Mum--I am missing them already!




Back to my story tomorrow, I hope you all enjoyed a great Easter!

16 comments:

  1. so glad you are back delphine! wonderful post and am going to make the husband read it...he would like it! glad to hear your mike is doing better.

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  2. Dear Delphine,
    Who knew? A little part of Indo-China in France! How interesting!
    Your family is adorable as monkeys and
    glad Chris is doing well!
    Welcome back to the blog set! I missed you!

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  3. What a great surprise! It's just beautiful.
    Wouldn't a trip to China be wonderful?
    I'm so glad you had a lovely visit with your family... it must be so hard to see them go.

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  4. I have read many wonderfully enlightening books by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk, and he has a community called 'Plum Village' in Meyrac, Loubes-Bernac, France...wherever that is...

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  5. Holy gosh! Huge! (I also love Thich Nhat Hanh and have read a few of his comforting books.)

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  6. Love the photo of your monkeys! And how interesting what you stumbled upon, beautiful photos.

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  7. Hello Kritter keeper, is you husband interested in that part of the world then? It is supposed to be really beautiful, and the people very gentle.

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  8. I missed you all too, Cottage Girl, it is strange isn't it how blogging can come to mean so much!The Pagoda in Noyant is truly fascinating and came as a complete surprise!

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  9. Hello Anet, I would love to visit thse fascinating countries, unfortunately I have to find courage to fly first!

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  10. Delwyn, Thankyou so much for that information about ' Plum Village'-- I have looked it up and found it! It is just close to St. Foy le Grande in the Dordogne, and is not too far from where we live, about 2/3 hours drive, so Chris and I have bookmarked it for a future visit!

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  11. Hi Maggie May, looking forward to popping in to visit you today, hope you had a good easter too!

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  12. Hello Sandy, Oh it is so good to be back, thankyou for your comments on Alex's poems on my other blog! When we saw the signs to a ' Pagoda' we just expected to find a statue, not an important part of recent history.

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  13. Welcome back! It sounds as if you had a lovely holiday week! And what an amazing discovery! Very interesting! I'll bet the "little monkeys" were enthralled.

    Oh, in case you don't go back over to Bear Swamp, my DH is in France right now, Avignon and Marseilles on business. Isn't that funny!

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  14. That's a great posting. Love those monkeys too.

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  15. Susan, Oh that's a surprise, I expect DH will be enjoying Avignon its a great town, lots of young people there! Our second Chateua was not far from there!

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  16. Thankyou Winifred- I am missing those monkeys the place seems equiet without them!

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