The château around which the village of Châteauvieux grew up is used these days as un EHPAD, also called une maison de retraite médicalisée. EHPAD means établissement d'hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes. Châteauvieux is just a couple of miles southeast of Saint-Aignan, and it's the southernmost commune in the Loir-et-Cher département. If you continue southeast, you come to Valençay, just 10 miles further on.
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The church in Châteauvieux was built in the 13th century, but the Renaissance-style château was built in the middle of the 16th, over the ruins of a fortified medieval castle. In Châteauvieux there are a lot of maisons troglodytiques — "cave dwellings" built into the face of the cliff that the church and château stand on. That bright yellow field you see in a couple of the pictures is rape (colza, a variety of cabbage), which is the plant whose seeds are pressed to make canola oil.
That bright yellow field is very bright! High renaissance style chateaux are my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing the rape in bloom!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful chateau in beautiful countryside, thanks for these photos. I know that pollarding is common in Europe but that poor mangled tree in picture #5 makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a six-fingered hand!
DeleteA mangled, six fingered hand. :(
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