Right place at the right time .... or some would say, ... Wrong place at the wrong time!

The high plateau end of Angoulême is one of our favourite places to wander around ... the ancient, irregular and slippery stone and cobbled streets of the old town criss-cross and offer absolutely no obvious reference points, so we two Australians have an almost 100% hit rate of getting ourselves lost on each visit.  The narrow streets and alleys of the Angoulême plateau are sometimes dank, empty and a little grubby, but other times they are thriving with students and other pedestrians as the stroll around the muralled walls of the ancient lanes.   

The precinct offers a feast of various cuisines from around the world, served from dozens of little restaurants in this "petit coin d'Angoulême".  There's our favourite creperie, Crêpes par Faim, where you can sit in the laneway, out on the back terrace or down in the vaulted basement.  Or perhaps Jardin de Kashmir or Siam Gourmet if you prefer Asian cuisine, or  Restaurant Le St André if you want something a little fancy ... or the newer Le Lion Rouge for an Italian meal in a fantastic architectural delight.  Or walk down to Les Halles, Angoulême's indoor marketplace, for something fresh and "au comptoir".  The choice is rich.

In the summer of 2019 we came upon a new little book store during on one of our meanderings.  Browsing through the new book shop we are drawn to the collection of books on the local Charente region.  We have a number of books with beautiful photographs of the local area and its landmarks in our house.  We noticed a new coffee table book (un beau-livre) on the Charente region.  The book is titled "Charente", by Stéphane Charbeau and was published just the previous month (May, 2019).

As usual, we first target the pages outlining the area around our little village to see if any of the local landmarks made an entry.  Perhaps the beautiful church at Lichères sitting in fields of sunflowers?  Or the iconic view of the château in Verteuil with its Rapunzelesque towers taken from the village bridge?  Or one of the numerous neolithic dolmen stones strewn around the local countryside marking burial sites and other lost-in-time functions. 

The new book offered all this.  And then, leafing through it, to our surprise on page 94 was a pretty outstanding photo of two fellows standing outside the abbey in Nanteuil, a village very close to ours.  With backs to the camera, they were obviously studying wooden door of the 800's abbey and the local annouces on it. 

​A closer examination revealed that it was us!!! (probably taken in the summer of 2018 or 2017).
(autographs freely provided).