Pierrefontaine les Blamont, Doubs, France

The picturesque village of Pierrefontaine-les-Blamont (département Doubs, Franche-Comté) features a remarkable stone fountain (Pierrefontaine), one which has undoubtedly satisfied many of the region's animals over the years.  This beautifully restored fountain is fed by one of six mountain springs which dot the area.

As I took a brief stroll to the edge of the village and beyond, I was impressed by the careful gardening and colourful plantings which live up to the village's proud designation, village fleuri (village of flowers).

'Honey wagon' going through village's main street

One road leading away from Pierrefontaine-les-Blamont climbed briefly before offering a view of the surrounding farmlands and a peak of the rooftops and church steeples of Blamont.

View of Blamont from outside Pierrefontaine-les-Blamont

View of Blamont from outside Pierrefontaine-les-Blamont

Someone cleverly transformed the stumps of two fallen trees into morel mushrooms (real delicacies of the woods).

 

A welcoming Montbéliarde cow.

We then drove a short distance to the Brisepoutot Farms, where Janice's Great-great Grandmother (Catherine Richard) was born in 1831 and married to Christian Lugbill/Lugbull in 1851.  These farms obtained their water from two limestone springs (visit the website, then click on Hydrologie).

Gerberoy, Ville des roses

The beautiful medieval town of Gerberoy is now known as the "Village of Roses".   Royal permission was granted in 1202 enabling Gerberoy to be called a 'Ville'.  It is located in the present département of Oise in Northern France (Picardy), in the center of a triangle formed by Beauvais, Amiens and Rouen, one of the theatres for the disastrous Hundred Years War. 

Now classified as one of the 'most beautiful villages in France', this formerly neglected farming village was rediscovered in 1901 by various artists, including Auguste Delaherche and Henri le Sidaner.  Sidaner's avid interest in roses led him to plant them everywhere, not just at his home but all around the village, the ancient fort ruins, along paths leading into the village, everywhere.  Before long, citified retirees discovered the charm of the village's old half-timbered structures from the 17th and 18th centuries and its buildings made of brick, as well as the wonderful views the village offered of the surrounding lush farmland.Begun in 1928, Gerberoy's famed Fête des roses now attracts thousands of tourists annually.  If you can visit Gerberoy on the third Sunday of June, you will see the village's flowers at their peak, during this festival.  (These photos were taken in the afternoon of June 14th, 2011, at the end of a very dry spring; rains were just returning.)