This week’s A Lingering Look at Windows, Dawn’s wonderfully laid back weekly photo challenge, has me remembering a visit to the delightful town of Bordeilles in the Dordogne region of southwestern France in the summer of 2012. Transported as I was to window heaven, I snapped away. Here are just a few of those photos:
I just love the mix of the new with the old, the painted wooden window frames, some in bright colours;
Bordeilles – Dordogne region of southwestern France
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Some in warm wood with outside shutters, delicate lace curtains hanging prettily on the inside:
Bordeilles – Dordogne region of southwestern France
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Or the not so pretty curtains, but still rustically beautiful hung as they are in ill-fitting windows framed by sun-bleached shutters. In this photo I wanted to capture the door as well as the window, both a thing of beauty to me set in grey stone so typical of the types of buildings found in rural France.
Notice the chair and just a peek of a small table to the left of the slightly-ajar door? Perfectly positioned for al fresco dining in the cool-brick shade away from the heat of a French high-summer, mere inches away.
Bordeilles – Dordogne Region of southwestern France
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014
Yet what sets these windows off so perfectly are the themed pot plants perched on their stone window ledges. They are lovingly watered and nurtured to keep their natural beauty alive for all who wander by to lazily admire.
These windows keep the heat out and the cool in but they don’t close out the world. They don’t say “Keep out” or “Go away”. With their carefully placed accessories they say, “Look at me, look at how endearing and welcoming we are, all for your pleasure”.
I would like to clothe my windows with outside colour so here, in England, I grow a rambling rose-bush around them. I don’t have stone window ledges but if I did they would be home to a mismatched line-up of terracotta pots stuffed full of red geraniums and I would sit down on a rickety chair just outside my old, heavy-wooden slightly-ajar door and I would say to you, “Won’t you join me for a glass of something to wile away the hours? Acclamations à vous tous! Cheers to you all!”
Well, we can all dream, can’t we?
A View From My Summerhouse 
Oh I dream of rural France all the time, Sherri – my favourite place. Happy to say we’re of to the Dordogne region in July for a bit of touring, wine tasting and cave exploration. Wonderful area. Your photos make me want to be there NOW.
And I’d be just the same – lots of miss-matched pots with geraniums: my kind of gardening 🙂
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Oh Jenny, how wonderful! We are going the last week of July to stay with our friends at their farmhouse again! Hey, you never know, maybe we will bump into each other at a winery or in the middle of a cave or two! Voila 🙂
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Well – you never know – your dates sound pretty similar to ours!
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We’ll have to keep an eye out…wouldn’t that be something? I’ll be sure to pack my pink shorts so you can’t miss me… 😉
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Sorry, I’ve just told Viveka that I’ll give up wine for Evian water. Don’t suppose you have any of that in your imaginary world? 🙂
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A glass of something…anything…cheers Jo 🙂
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Love the blue painted window with the terracotta pots on the window sill. Just what I’d like in my next home 🙂 In Ludlow you find houses opening on to the street with groups of pots outside because they don’t have a garden – they too look very welcoming and I love to see what people manage to grow in a container.(So I can copy them… shsh don’t tell)
Jude xx
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I love that one too Jude, my favourite. I would love a house with windows like that! What a lovely look for Ludlow, I really like the sound of that. So much easier than having a lawn to mow!! I’m a great believer in pots and they do look so welcoming don’t they? I’m sure you have come across some wonderful ideas for your pots and your secret is safe with me…I do the same,ha! 🙂 xx
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I love them, Sherri. All of them. I love all the potted plants and I love the blue window frames in the first pic and the stone ledges. They are all so French.
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They are all so rustic and beautiful and wish I could have windows like that. Thanks so much Rachel 🙂
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My dad and I took a bike trip through the Loire Valley a couple years ago and I was enamored by the charm and quaintness of rural France. I would gladly join you for a cool drink under your window of red geraniums! 😉
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What a wonderful trip to take with your dad Heather, the Loire Valley is beautiful. Oh I would love you to join me for a cool drink under my window, you are always welcome, no matter the hour or the day… 🙂
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As you talked about the windows my eyes were taking in all the pots and how homey, inviting and attractive all the pots were. Love the windows too, of course. The windows set them up to be admired. 🙂 🙂
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They are beautiful windows aren’t they? I couldn’t stop snapping them, which is just as well as now I can share them here with you all here 🙂 🙂 😉
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*smiles*
I most certainly did enjoy your window photos.
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Thank you Tess 🙂 🙂 🙂
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😀
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Oh Sherri, these are all so beautiful. The blue window with the terracotta pots, lined on the window sill, makes me want to gaze outside for hours. You’re an excellent “Peeping Tom.” 🙂
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Ha Ha! I hope only a peeping Tom in a good way 😉 The windows are so beautiful aren’t they Jill? I would love to live in a house with windows like this… 🙂
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Oh yes, a peeping Tom in the most innocent way. 🙂 They are so beautiful, thank you for sharing. xo
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Ha ha! Thanks again Jill 🙂 xo
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What a wonderful variety, Sherri. While I love the blue borders of the first picture, I’m most drawn to the natural windows with the lace curtains inside and the coleus plants in pots lining the outside ledge. It’s been a very long time since I traveled in Europe, but your assorted windows bring back memories of charming alley paths in Italy, Germany and France. And at the ends of the streets, around corners, you could count on cafes serving specialty drinks and desserts, or wonderful breads with creamery butter. Your pictures make me want to travel again!
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Oh yes, those little alleys with the cafes and sitting outside watching the world go by enjoying the local food and drink. Never mind my pictures making you want to travel Marylin, your comments make ME want to!! You describe it so perfectly 🙂
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Love the photos, but that door looks a beaut… can imagine you sitting outside your door inviting people to loin you… and it sounds very inviting too…
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That door is amazing isn’t it? I love doors just as much as windows and yes, you know you are always very welcome Bulldog, anytime… 🙂
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I love the window photos. I wonder why you and I find windows (for me it’s also doors), so appealing? I kind of think of windows in buildings as kind of like eyes in humans. They’re windows to the soul (building).
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I love doors too Donna, just as much as windows and I have always taken photos of them whenever I’ve travelled. I’m glad now to be able to share the pics here on my blog! I wonder too, perhaps it is as you say, as I always wonder what kind of stories are being played out behind those windows…and doors…. 😉
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So welcoming, pour me a glass and i’ll bring a baguette from Boulangerie.
We’ll sit and talk of writing and of your wonderful talent!!
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Glass poured, fresh baguette just out of the oven…let’s sit and talk and wile away the hours together… 😉
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Oh Sherri, these are so charming! You are fueling my desire to travel there with every post. I will definitely join you if I’m ever able. 🙂
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Wouldn’t that be wonderful Diane? We could have that fabulous ladies’ lunch after all… just outside one of those delightful windows… 🙂
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My dad lived in rural France for five years (on the Normandy/Brittany border). It was beautiful to visit but sadly for them the reality of living there didn’t match the dream and they are now happy back in the UK. I do love how the french love to fill their windowsills with flowers. I was told that they often use geraniums because it helps to keep wasps away. I’ve no idea if this is true but it’s a good excuse…
Lovely photos as always.
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I’ve not been to that part of France but I know that for some of those who moved to France, and to Spain, their dream didn’t materialise and I’m sorry that this was the case with your dad but glad to know he is happily back in the UK now. I had no idea about geraniums keeping wasps away Dylan, but it makes sense as you see them everywhere on the Med don’t you? No wonder I love them so much – geraniums that is, not wasps!!! – and will make sure to really stock up this year!! Thanks for the great gardening tip and also glad you enjoyed the pics 🙂
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What a lovely mix of very charming windows Sherri. Thank you for the short trip to Bordeilles, France. Beautiful photos!
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So glad you enjoyed this little afternoon spent in Bordeilles Theresa, thank you. It is a charming French town, I will have to try and do a longer post about it 🙂
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Love the photos Sherri, I think my favourite is actually the one with the down at heel curtains – the contrast of those curtains with the beautifully kept pots and the gorgeous door makes it all the more intriguing as to who lives there and why they don’t change their curtains! 🙂
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That was my thought exactly! The way the pots are kept outside and the ajar door with the chair outside, I just love the whole picture and what it says. I love contrasts like this, old, rustic and untidy curtains yet also charmingly orderly and as you say, kept. So glad you enjoyed this Andrea, thank you 🙂
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Dream windows. The potted plants and flowers made a huge difference. Beautiful.
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Thank you IT, glad you enjoyed this lingering look at some beautiful windows in rural France and yes, the potted plants and flowers really do make them 🙂
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When I left France for the US, I missed windows the most. When I return to Normandy where I am from, the first thing I do is to push my bedroom window wide open onto my parents’ garden. Here in the US I have many potted geraniums, a habit from my native France.
Beautiful photos, as always, Sherri.
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Oh Evelyne, I can well imagine! I have always grown geraniums wherever I am, just love them. I loved being able to keep them growing all year round in California even through the winter when they looked dead but then came back more beautiful than ever in the spring and summer 🙂
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What incredible windows! (There’s something I don’t exclaim every day.) Great shots. This is what I think of when I think of France, really. If I were ever to move there, forget Paris; I’d be gunning for a place exactly like this!
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Ha Ha!! That isn’t something anybody would just shout out randomly is it? I loved the architecture in Paris but the rustic beauty of rural France is in a world of its own. You would love it JG 🙂
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Such lovely images.
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Thank you very much, I’m so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
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Yes, we can dream. Thanks for sharing images of what our dreams are made of.
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How lovely, thanks so much Dawn 🙂
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fun window post – and bald you included the extras like the door, pots and stones too – 🙂
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Thanks Y, really glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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I’ll bring some beer. I’m good at sitting and enjoying the view for hours.
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You and me both…that sounds perfect TB, looking forward to it…
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