The town that I posted about yesterday, with such spectacular ruins of medieval buildings perched on a big rock outcropping overlooking a river, is Chauvigny. It's just 60 miles south of Saint-Aignan or Tours. It's in the old Poitou province, 15 miles east of Poitiers, and 180 miles southwest of Paris. I assumed CHM would recognize it, because he and I visited Chauvigny (pop. 7,000) on a nice July day in 2006.
Chauvigny has, according to French Wikipédia, pas moins de cinq châteaux [qui] forment un ensemble fortifié de premier plan, peu commun en Europe. One of the town's attractions is a summertime birds-of-prey show called Les Géants du Ciel, and the châtau des Évêques (bishops), one of Chauvigny's five, is also known as Le Château des Aigles. Here's one more image showing the town's "skyline" — it is a panorama that you can enlarge to see more detail. Then scroll horizontally.
For some reason, the Chauvigny's skyline didn't record in my memory as some others in France do. The birds of prey show did, though! I'm trying to remember if I biked from Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe to Chauvigny eighty decades ago!
ReplyDeleteWe're going to have to start calling you CHMethuselah if your memories go back 80 decades!
DeleteLOL!
DeleteIt just dawned on me it was eighty years or eight decades ago! Lol, again.
DeleteI was going to ask if you two went to the show. It looks quite good per the link!
DeleteAs far as I recall, we did.
DeleteThe timestamps on my photos show that we arrived at Chauvigny at 5:15 p.m. and we were at the next château, Toufou, 5 kilometers north, by 5:57. So we weren't at Chauvigny long. However, I do have several (not very good) photos of big birds soaring in the air overhead.
DeleteJust like you, Ken, I remember those soaring birds. Was it the show or did we just happen to be there when it was on? I don't know.
DeleteAha...I knew I recognised it! We had lunch at the restaurant in one of the pictures but I couldn't just recall exactly where it was!
ReplyDeleteAhhh! Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteAnd another town goes in the list, thanks!
ReplyDeleteKen, very good NYT article about NC Outer Banks today: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/climate/outer-banks-tax-climate-change.html
ReplyDeleteAmazing photos.
Thanks for the NYT article, D. The Outer Banks really aren't land, just sandbars.
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