These are photos I took in June 2006 when Walt and I visited Carrouges with our friend Sue. We were on our way to Domfront and the Mont Saint-Michel. Walt and I had been to Carrouges in May 2005, and I had been there with CHM in 2001. Practice your French by reading the snippets of text I've inserted, which I "borrowed" from a tourism web site.
Carrouges est d'abord au 14e siècle une place forte de la guerre de Cent Ans (donjon).
Il devient un logis seigneurial au 15e siècle... augmenté au 16e siècle d'un châtelet d'entrée considéré comme le premier témoin de l'architecture de la Renaissance en Normandie.
De nouveau fortifié au temps des guerres de Religion... sa fonction de demeure de prestige s'affirme parla construction à la fin du 16e siècle de deux ailes « classiques » et des escaliers
qui les desservent dus à l'architecte François Gabriel.
Les seigneurs de Carrouges reçoivent le roi Louis XI en 1473 puis Catherine de Médicis et sa suite en 1570.
(The church and village of Carrouges are located on a hill just north of the château.)
That nice pattern of black and red bricks could be found elsewhere. I'm wondering if the black bricks were made from a dark clay (?) or from the regular clay with some added pigment?
ReplyDeleteWhen you find out, please let me know.
DeleteThere was a whole discussion on Wordreference about the most appropriate way to translate logis seigneurial. There were numerous suggestions that seemed off the mark -- I liked, "private residence of the lord" (as in, lord of land, not lord in heaven ;) ). It was helpful for me to see this term again, () because, when I'm talking about castles with my students, I always explain that not just kings had castles, and so many of the ruins of castles you see here and there in the countryside, were castles that lords lived in, rather than kinds. But, now I think that, in French, they would refer to those residences as logis seigneurial rather than , strictly speaking? Or, maybe I'm going too far with that restriction? Maybe logis seigneurial would be used just to specify what area of a large complex, was the living area? What do you think, Ken?
ReplyDelete*sorry for the numerous little typos... I'm rushing to get off to work
ReplyDeleteThat's a really hard question, Judy. Since we don't have seigneurs or "lords" in our culture, we don't have the terminology that would allow for a good translation. I do think that the term logis applies to the whole complex, not just part of it, unless there are two buildings widely separated. In Loches, for example, there is the medieval "dungeon" complex and down the road a ways there's a logis royal, or royal residence, that is of a completely different style and vintage. In medieval times, what is now France was a large territory full of "lords" (or "warlords") who were rivals and fought each other. Later, especially after the Hundred Years' War, the country was unified under a single monarch. Toward the Renaissance, châteaux like Carrouges were not so much logis seigneuriaux as they were palais de plaisance... comfortable residences, not really needing defensive features like fortifications and moats.
DeleteThe way I see it, logis applies only to the private quarters of the seigneur, as opposed to communs and logis des domestiques. Same applies to a fortress where logis seigneurial define the lord's private quarters as said above.
DeleteLogis is a good synonym for gîte. Logis de France.
DeleteThe word logis has a very broad meaning. It could apply to Versailles for Louis XIV as well as to an igloo for an Innuit.
DeleteThere's a long article about the meaning of logis seigneurial on www.wikipedia.fr. Read through it all and you end up right where you started...
DeleteWords that have a very broad meaning turn out not to mean much at all. They mean what anybody who uses them wants them to mean.
DeleteHes, I looked at Wikipedia. You're exactly right !
DeleteBeautiful brick work. The slit in the tower just wide enough for an arrow to go out.
ReplyDeleteI’m becoming even more interested in this chateau and thank you Judy for asking about logis seigneurial. I was familiar with logis royal but not seigneurial.
ReplyDeleteI think we might use the term "mansion" to mean logis, demeure, manoir, or even château, as opposed to "castle" or "fortress"for château fort.
DeleteI have always liked stone gates like the one today. There was a "Stonegate Road" where I grew up that had several gates like this. Some of them had cattle crossings to keep the livestock in.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess everybody was looking up "logis seigneurial"! New to me, but not anymore! This one is definitely one of my fantasy when thinking about kings, queens and their castles!
ReplyDelete