Comice Agricole - Canton de Luzy, Day 1

I am a country girl at heart, happiest at our cottage in France, surrounded by fields, cows and being just the right distance from the nearest neighbours. I am not a hermit here, quite the opposite, we have a very active social life, but I love solitude, the peace and quiet, the country smells, the beautiful views and all the wonderful fairs the French love so much. They have fairs for just about anything you can think of, so weekends even without brocantes are never boring. For example, there is an 'escargots' fair in a village not far from us this weekend. Hmm. Probably won't visit that one, lol. But one thing we did visit was the big two day event in the town closest to us, Luzy, last weekend. Look at how they advertised the event for weeks before it started, a huge figure made of straw bales. Shame that the heavy thunderstorm the night before the fair had ripped some of the writing off -

Every road approaching the town was decorated with thousands and thousands of paper flowers in the hedges and fences along the roadside. This was on the track approaching the huge farm where the agricultural events were being held on Day One.

Day One was the agricultural day, with exhibitions of farm machinery old and new, country competitions and for the children ( and me ), farm animals to admire. 

So let me start with those. I can spend ages talking to the animals. Yep, I do that, I know, its bonkers, but I can't help myself. Just look at these little piggies, they are so cute, you just got to tell them that, right? -

Gotta love the goats as well, they give us such delicious goat cheese -

I have always been very fond of sheep, I remember being a little girl, pushing my way through a big flock of sheep which the shepherd drove past my grandparents' house a few times a year, and trying to play with them. I can still remember that so vividly -

Gorgeous, but I find them quite scary -

Awww, this little rabbit looked so scared -

Farm horses, magnificent creatures, but best admired from a distance, lol -

And my favourites, donkeys! The baby donkey was quite shy, took a while before he came out of hiding -

I love old farm machinery and tools, so I spent quite some time admiring all the old tractors -

Of course there were plenty of new machines as well, nice and colourful -

Of course, you would never ever find a fair, brocante, vide greniers or any kind of gathering without a bar, and by now I am used to seeing the men drinking beer, wine, eau de vie all morning long -

It was fun seeing the ploughing competition, to see who could plough the straightest furrows. First competition was for the old machinery -

And then the more modern ones did their thing -

And then there were all kinds of competition to do with wood cutting. This one was to see who was fastest at taking a slice off the tree trunk without cutting into or marking the platform it was resting on. Not easy when you are using a chainsaw -

These odd contraptions had me puzzled. Until the guys started their competition to see who was fastest at clearing branches off a tree trunk, that is -

I think we got a clear winner -

I have already shown these next two photos last Sunday for the word challenge at Our Beautiful World blog, but here they are again in their proper context ( wood chopping competitions )-

My favourite photo of the day has got to be this one though, the little girl in her pink shoes, playing with her dog in the middle of a stubbly field, blissfully unaware of everything else going on around her -

I thoroughly enjoyed spending a few hours this way. Thankfully the weather improved during the day, after a very dark and drizzly morning start. It was a lovely day, but I have to say, that Sunday was even better! I'll post photos ( many, many photos, lol, so be prepared ) tomorrow, it was just such a joyous occasion, I couldn't help but take tons of happy photos.

Until then, toodlepip, xxx