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| 2005 |
In the period preceding the year 1000 or so, the French king had set up counts in various regions and cities in the surrounding provinces, especially along the Loire River. France at the time was just Paris and the territory surrounding it. Counts in Angers, Blois, and Orléans, for example, held considerable power. Foulques Nerra started expanding his territory toward the east, taking over the Touraine province and clashing with Eudes, the count of Blois. Foulques had fortifications built at Montrésor (1005) and Montrichard, among others.
2006
Foulques Nerra's army defeated the count of Blois in 1016 in a battle on the plain surrounding the old town of Pontlevoy, just north of Montrichard on the road to Blois. A decade or more later, Foulques Nerra would take Saint-Aignan (10 miles upriver from Montrichard) away from the counts of Blois as well. Foulques Nerra died in 1040. In English the name is Fulk, and you can read the Wikipedia article here. Fulk's descendants became the kings of England when Henry II Plantagenet took the throne there in 1133. The Plantagenets reigned over England for several centuries.
I wonder if the ruins, as a private property, are classified as a monument historique, because the vegetation and trees growing on and in the walls are a danger for their integrity, and people below, and should be removed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can look that up. There must be a liste des monuments historiques somewhere on the internet.
ReplyDeleteSure, for the papers we are strong (I am frensh) , all the monuments are classed, but there is no money for all the historic monuments. Even for the best (Versailles, Chambord.. ) , we need sponsors ! So you can see a wall classed with a tree inside, it's sad. Thank you les Américains.
ReplyDeleteThere's Base Merimee, http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/inventai/patrimoine/
ReplyDeleteWhen we're trying to decide if a place is visitable, I use the Monumentum website which I think is based on Base Merimee but adds a satellite view and maybe a photo.
http://www.monumentum.fr/
Ken, this series has been fun. I hope there will be more.
I would not want to be the homeowner next to the ruined towers.
You have to wonder how old that house next to, or under, the ruined towers really is. Have people been living there for centuries?
DeleteOh, and I used momumentum.fr too, but there's not a lot there about Montrésor.
DeleteInteresting to see the old half-timbered houses in Montresor. They look almost English in style, but I guess that's what Norman is.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about England, so the half-timbered houses to me are especially French. Rouen, where I lived for a year decades ago and return to often, is full of them. Also Troyes, not far southeast of Paris, and even Tours, near here.
DeleteThese days, half-timbering seems to be marketed as a particularly English style. But most of the oldest examples date from the 15th century or thereabouts, so perhaps that building method crossed the Channel with the Normans.
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