06.02 Day 143 . . Under A Blood Red Sky

Despite our very late night we were all up at 9am for breakfast. Tre had made sure we had bought most of the stock of croissants and pastries in readiness for this morning - so we all over indulged.
After the very relaxed brekkie we got ourselves ready and headed off to Niort at about lunchtime. Parked up we wandered over to the main bridge to see the river and church set upon the hill.
Eglise Saint-André de Niort is proudly erected on the highest hill of Niort, the church of Pierre-Théophile Segrétain, the first architect of the historical monuments of Deux-Sèvres, gives itself the appearance of a cathedral with its two arrows of 70 meters high.
Present since the 11th century, it experienced the wars of Religion and the Revolution before being entirely rebuilt in the 19th century in the neo-gothic style.
At the end of the seventeenth century, the church of Saint-André was said to be “the most beautiful and largest in the province” and also historically older than Notre-Dame.
During the Revolution, largely destroyed, it was de-adapted and called the ‘Temple of the Mountain’.
In 2015, it was added to the list of Historical Monuments by the same builder as the Church of Saint-Hilaire in Niort.
We then walked many of the backstreets taking in the various styles of architecture and woodworking.
We ended up back near to the main market area and visited Tre and my favourite cafe for a hot drinks. We then went for a further wander before ending up sitting outside in the sunshine for baguettes and another hot drink.
After food we walked back to the car and drive out of the main town and to Decathlon for a little retail therapy. I think I was the only one that bought anything in the end - although we were in there for ages.
We then headed home and stopped in Melle at SuperU for food and drinks. We certainly stocked up well on wine, beer and crisps 😂
On the way home from Melle we could see a fantastic sunset starting and so back at home we dashed to the end of the road to catch the sunset in all its glory. The sky was almost red, but actually remained a very intense burnt orange for as far as could be seen. After taking far too many photos we returned home, unloaded the car and sat down for our lasagne that Tre had prepped yesterday. An apple tart with cream from SuperU was the only way to go for pud, washed down with some wine.
We spent the evening chatting and finishing more wine and undertook our first attempt at an impromptu music quiz - which definitely needs some more rules set in any future games.
We called it a day at about 11pm as we were up early for market tomorrow.

Then we two scorched the earth - set fire to the sky 
We stooped so low to reach so high 
A link is lost - the chain undone 
We wait all day for night to come 
And it comes like a hunter, child.Read more