Le Grand-Pressigny ~ 1 ~

Twice last year when I was out driving around in the countryside with friends, I spent a few hours in the village called Le Grand-Pressigny. It's a picturesque little town in what is called le Sud Touraine, the south end of the Touraine province. It's about 40 miles from Saint-Aignan.

Le Sud Touraine — the area south of the city of Tours

Above is a map that that I got from the IGN (Institut Géographique National) website. It shows where Le Grand-Pressigny (look for the big blue star) is located in relation to Saint-Aignan (the red star). You'll see that Loches is half-way between the two. This map doesn't show all the little back roads you can take to make the trip shorter than it looks, but what road your choose it will take about an hour to do the drive.

Here's a satellite photo of Le Grand-Pressigny. I got it from the IGN site as well (giving credit where credit is due).

Satellite view of the village called Le Grand-Pressigny

Le Grand-Pressigny is a lot like the village of Palluau-sur-Indre (other Palluau blog entries here and here), which is located about 25 miles east and which, like Saint-Aignan, is typical of so many French towns. It's dominated by a château (a medieval or Renaissance castle) or the ruins of one, has a population of between one and five thousand, and is the site of an old church, a small business district, and many old houses on steep narrow streets.

The first time I went to Le Grand-Pressigny was on April 11, 2006. I remember the date because it was our friend Sue's birthday. She was staying with us at the time, and she, Walt, and I took a driving trip that day to celebrate. We went to Le Grand-Pressigny and several other villages and towns, including Angles-sur-l'Anglin, to take pictures. We had a nice lunch in a little restaurant.

The weather last April 11 was spectacular and Le Grand- Pressigny was an especially photogenic place. I went back to see it again in July with another friend.

Now I'm going to post some pictures of it in a series of blog entries.

(As usual, click on the maps and pictures to see them at full size.)

Above is the château de Pressigny-le-Grand , which is mostly ruins.