A day in Mailly-la-Ville

 A grey and drizzly day.  A good day to do our tax return on-line!  Somehow this always gets me riled and today was no exception.

Before tackling that thorny issue I went for a walk to buy 3 carrots (there were only 6 on the shelf) and a baguette from the tiny “Petit Marché” which stocks just about everything including DIY basics and knitting wool, all in very small quantities, and  is also a “depot de pain” (a shop that sells bread that is not baked on the premises).  After my perusal of the knotting wool (I was sorely tempted but there was not enough of any one lot to actually make anything), I took a stroll into the countryside away from the canal.  What struck me most is how nice it smells here.  Everywhere there is the scent of flowers, herbs, grasses, I can’t even imagine what, but it was all good and clean and earthy and sweet. Unfortunately, I did not take the camera with me seeing I had only intended to go and buy bread!

After that came the tax return, and many four letter words, but it got done eventually.  Good grief, we are retired now, it should not be such an ordeal but on-line submissions come up with all sorts of fields that don’t quite equate to our circumstances and you have to “interpret” what they want.

After all that I went for another walk to blow the cobwebs away, and this time I took the camera with me. 

A statue/ planter outside the Mairie.  I particularly liked the little ferrety thing on the bottom left of the planter.

A wash house in the middle of a field! 

and a bridge in the middle of the the same field.  I presume the river once ran through here but was possibly redirected with the building of the canal.

The church on the left bank of the river...

...whihc has no steeple but an interesting bell tower alonside, with a very old tower alongside it.

Weeds...

...but they sure are pretty

There used to be 3 water mills in this town, I think this might have been one of them, now it is private property so you can't get close to it.

Another statue to finish off.  This one is at the downstream entrance to the lock.