I am dismayed to see that part of the nature strip near the médiathèque has been dug up and planted with garden plants that, whilst certainly eye-catching, are rather ordinary. 

 Lovely pocket of wild bee and orchid friendly habitat on the left. Banal bed of primulas on the right.

Smoky Polypore Bjerkandera adusta (Fr. Polypore brûlé) is a grey-brown velvety bracket fungus with a white edge. The white underside has tiny pores, which become grey with age. 

Smoky Polypore brackets on a birch trunk that has snapped in the wind, in the Forest of Preuilly, February 2026.

 Apéro. It's a legendary part of the French lifestyle.

Want to feel embedded in la France Profonde ? Here's what you should be drinking at apéro in the late afternoon/early evening, before dinner...

If you are young it's easy. Beer. Doesn't matter what sort.