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Monty Don's French Gardens


Gardian
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OK, I'll try the longer one again.

We live near Catherine Street. My first year in England was in 1970, in Winchester, so I got to use the old money (I must be thinking French as I typed monet) for one year. I still have some. But then, I also have some francs. We would love to own a house near Sarlat as we have holidays at a campsite near Daglan using Eurocamp. They provide large tents with all the 'trimmings', so it really isn't camping. There used to be a company near St Albans called French Country Camping that we used and it got taken over by Eurocamp. We used be able to drive right to their office and book our holiday. We recently had the opportunity to buy a used mobile home in Brittany near Pont Aven  for £3,000 from somebody we met in a pub, but we couldn't afford the yearly fees. We need to find somebody to share it with. 

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Hi again, David, I must say you sure know how to pick out beautiful cities to live in:  Winchester AND St Albans, very good choices.

Alas, I don't live anywhere near Sarlat and haven't even visited yet but that pleasure is to come [:)]

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[quote user="Hoddy"]David - I remember you. I spent ages on my knees at Repton and a short time at St Albans. Hoddy[/quote]

Well, well, the world is truly a "global village", don't you think?

I have never been to Repton but I went out for a short time with a chap who'd gone to the public school in Repton.  That didn't last very long; he was too chinless and la-di-dah and I was too independent and bolshie[:)]

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[quote user="Hoddy"]Clarkson is another ex-pupil. Hoddy[/quote]

Clarkson!  Is that where he learned his er....charming manners?[blink]

So, I guess I made a good choice with my present OH from a mere grammar school in South Wales [:D]

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Yes, I worked with Martin, but I was in love with Harold Taylor. One of the happiest memories of my life is spending a lunchtime sitting on the scaffolding above the nave of the church with him explaining to me the kind of rituals that might have gone on.

I will PM you.

One the subject of the School, both of my stepsons went there and I better not say what I think of their manners.

Hoddy

Hoddy

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LOL, a very good example of why Mods shouldn't reprove people when they go off topic.

But for us drifting into all sorts of areas OTHER than Monty Don and his French gardens, Hoddy and David would never have found each other and we would never have known that Hoddy was once in love with someone called Harold [:D]

Don't you just love the Forum?  Far better than any so-called social networking sites [:P]

 

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I quite agree, Sweet! A really interesting spread of topics on this thread! (Did you get my message, by the way?)

A relative by marriage used to work at Repton, and her children attended Repton School. I think they had reduced fees because of her working there, not that they needed help with paying! I must add that we are their poor relatives!  [:D]

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No message, GG [:(]

Could you please send as a PM and I will reply, using the email address which I reserve for family and friends.

I am thinking of visiting some gardens myself, after this thread![:)]

OH has put out the spring multi-coloured primroses that we bought at Aldi but we are having to bring them in every night as we still can't trust the weather.  The anemones, however, have been out for a while and I think they look magnificent!

Also, for the first time, we brought in 4 of our geraniums and they have thrived very well throughout the winter on the veranda even through snow, frost, etc.

We tried what Clair advised about cutting off till near the soil and keeping them in the sous-sol with some light and no feeding or watering but they didn't survive, not last winter and not this one.  So, Clair must have much greener fingers than we do.

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And the famous cricketer CB Fry is buried near the site we dug next to the church. They recently put a new, bigger headstone on his grave. Monty Don was in France at the time or he would have been there to dedicate it.
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I got your PM and, yes, I remember you, or at least your name. I still have the Repton Dig Lists from 1983 and 1985. Even though Alan Titchmarsh, Tommy Boyd, and Charlie Dimmock did a lot of digging on Ground Force, none of them were at Repton. Nor was Monty Don or Geoff Hamilton.

Ah yes, good old Harold Taylor, the doyen (as M Biddle used to say) of Anglo Saxon architecture. He also taught mathematics. I assume that since he was 80ish then, he is no longer with us. Didn't he marry his much younger secretary? He locked his keys in his car and using my Ameican 'knowhow', I broke in and recovered them for him. I also calculated the height of the church tower for him using the theodolite and my pocket calculator. Hey, I was probably close.

I started out at Repton supervising a site on the cliff beside The Hall digging the remains of the ditch. I, and they, realised that I was better working by myself, so I planned for the rest of my years there, first by the church, then on the mound with Helen Bamford, then here in St Albans. I met a woman at a Wine Society dinner in France near the Society's headquarters at Montrieul (?sp) who knew Helen, but Helen didn't know who I was referring to. Old age, I guess.

I assume you know that Birthe Biddle passed away a couple of years ago. My wife and I and several others from St Albans attended her funeral in Winchester Cathedral. I saw Hamish, now a Dentist, Helen, the Biddle kids, and Mark Horton, also of Coast and Time Team, there. Mark worked on the mound and in St Albans. Monty Don wasn't available...

David

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[quote user="dwmcn"]And the famous cricketer CB Fry is buried near the site we dug next to the church. They recently put a new, bigger headstone on his grave. Monty Don was in France at the time or he would have been there to dedicate it.[/quote]My connection with Repton is a tadge tenuous. My maternal grandfather was at Repton with C B Fry and taught him how to long jump. Fry went on to break the world record for this event. Fry was also allegedly offered the throne of Albania but turned it down.
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Ivor Nidea - it’s not just in state schools that people get hung on pegs in the cloakroom. One of my stepsons spent from break to lunchtime on such a peg in Repton. The boy who led the gang is now a member of the House of Lords.

Yes David, my hero, David McCarter Taylor died in 1995. he was eighty seven. Phil Rahtz wrote that he was “unfailingly, elegant, witty, gracious and neat”. I knew that Birthe died.

I’m afraid I took against Mark Horton on sight. I turn the TV off when he comes on.

Meanwhile, back on the subject of Monty Don’s gardens....

I liked it that he tried to speak French, even if he did it badly. I could easily have done without the ridiculous hat and braces. That said, I didn’t find all his links to art were specious. The well designed gardens are works of art, in my opinion. Maybe we need separate words for the different kinds of gardeners. One word for the people who design great gardens and another for people like Carol Klein who are more interested in the plants.

Hoddy

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David, I applaud your efforts to keep to topic![:D]

As for the throne of Albania, I have heard of at least 2 people who were "offered" it so I can only assume that these stories are apochryphal (excuse me if the spelling's off- can't spell these days!)

And, for the last time, it's not that I object to MD speaking his ghastly brand of French but that he spoke to camera and assaulted my ears.  Now that girl, what's her name, who presented the 100-years' war, she obviously speaks French but she didn't attempt to speak to camera.

Alas, the only Brit in the public eye who did speak French well was the now discredited Tony Blair and they showed him speaking it just fine when he addressed the French parliament.

If only that man had turned his talents to good use, like presenting a gardening programme, as per MD- see, David, I am learning how to keep on topic[:P]

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Well, Hoddy, Gyles Brandreth has, in the past, done a perfectly respectable job.

But, I can't stand Michael Portillo so his programme on railways was spoilt for me by his presence.

You know how it is, sometimes you watch for the content of the programme and not for the presenter.

Anyway, back to MD, you only have to see the bemusement on the faces of the French gardeners when he was wittering on about "art" to realise that they planted beautiful gardens which were beautiful in their own right and did not have to be somehow linked to some arty-farty concept that MD was trying so hard to push.

Also, I wished I could have seen rather more of Mont St Victoire than MD behind the wheel of the duex chevaux [+o(]

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Mark Horton removed several layers of the mound that he shouldn't have and the scar remained until the site was finished. Monty Don wouldn't have done that. He chose to dig in the wrong place on Time Team. Monty wouldn't...

Carol Klein sounds like she is laughing when she talks and her garden looks like a mess to me. A bit like ours.

We have been to Villandry, Chenenceau, gardens in Paris, and several chateaus in the Dordogne.

Have you seen Rhatz's ten things about archaeology?

My French, like with most Americans, is relatively nonexistent. I can read menus and bits of local newspapers to look for vide greniers, brocante, and the like. My wife speaks very good French, which, unmfortunately, means I don't need to try. 

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