Views from above... The first is a photo that I took in February 2005. I was up on the château grounds, looking down on the part of the town that's towards the north. I've only eaten at the Café de la Ville once, and I can't remember when that was. I may have some more photos, since that was another time I was in Montrésor, but I haven't yet found them.
I don't remember the meal I had at the Café de la Ville as being especially good. It was some kind of beef stew with a side dish of green beans. As my friend Chris, with whom I was having lunch, said: it's funny that they serve green beans out of a can here. That's what the beans tasted like. I need to go back there for lunch on some nice warm day and see what the menu and cuisine are like now.
Yesterday CHM left a comment with a link to a video taken from a drone flying over Montrésor. I grabbed a still shot from that video to post here. It gives a good overview of the village. The Café de la Ville is hidden behind the château in this photo. You can see Foulque Nerra's medieval fort, though, as well as Imbert de Bastarnay's Renaissance logis (residence).
Because I was somewhat confused about the setting of the chateau's different buildings (mainly as regards the location of the communs), I looked for an aerial view of Montrésor. That's how I found this amusing little video.
ReplyDeleteIf you wait a little at the end of the video, YouTube will direct you to a longer one showing the interrior of the chateau and, then, another much longer one. And so on...?
I looked again at the video to see if it followed the same pattern showing the chateau's interior. Unfortunately, it didn't and at the end of the video, it showed something quite different. Sorry.
DeleteHere is a link to the interior of the chateau. It is not the one YouTube directed me to. This one is longer, about 10 minute-long.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov6xBTFgsow
It seems that one third of the population of Montrésor has Polish ancestry, like the chateau's owners.
There are photos of the Montrésor interiors here.
DeleteThese are all such excellent views, and the café looks so quintessentially café-y :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to images of the interior chm. I will check it out.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the town has so much Polish ancestry. They must have come during the good old days when you could just pick a place and move there, without cartes, forms, papier work, notaires, etc.
Nice video. Although many chateaux were said to have been built as hunting lodges, Montresor really does have the feeling of being one.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend with many hobbies and one of them is the creation of miniature rooms. The first photo, the part of the Cafe especially, has so much the feeling of one of those miniature creations. Even the trees have that look... Montressor is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI looked at that photo, thinking, "Have I been there?" The green bean story cinched it. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Chris, my question to you is: do you remember what year that was. I think it was just you and I who had lunch there. Tony wasn't here and Walt must have stayed home that day. I'd like to see if I have any photos of Montrésor from that day of the famous green beans lunch.
DeleteI've read that a number of small French towns imported both Polish and Italian workers, farm laborers post-WW One to augment greatly diminished populations. Perhaps the town's ancestry comes in part from this?
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question: April 2008, pretty sure. I sent you an email with more detail. -- Chris
ReplyDeleteHi Chris, I did get your e-mail — thanks — and ever since I've been busy looking for the "lost" Montrésor photos I thought I might have taken that day. No luck, however. I'm still searching. I can't remember who I was with the day I took the unfindable photos, and since my photos are filed by date only it's pretty much impossible to find them unless I can remember when friends visited.
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