Here's a composite photo of the Château d'Ussé. It's on the left bank of the Loire river about 20 miles west of Tours and Luynes. I took the two photos that I've stitched together to make a kind of panorama on the same day when CHM and I went to Parçay-Meslay and Luynes. We were just driving by and we stopped for a Kodak (or Panasonic) moment. The Michelin guidebook refers to Ussé as « cette impressionnante masse blanche » and says that when you see it « ...il faut vous pincer bien fort, pour vérifier que vous ne rêvez pas... ». Both Michelin and the Cadogan Loire guidebook says that this is the castle that is said to have inspired the tale of Sleeping Beauty — that's La Belle au bois dormant in French. Cadogan calls Ussé a picture-book château.
The left part of the chateau on the photo reminds me of the château de Gué-Péan.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how you managed to leave the mob out of the photo!
I don't remember the mob. I guess I was too busy taking pictures to notice. I was there before, in October 2000.
ReplyDeleteI also remember being told that it was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty tale. Perhaps at some time in the past it was neglected and had overgrowth of brambles and such up over the walls?
ReplyDeleteThis one, I've heard of only from a textbook unit about Loire Valley châteaux, so it's good to see your photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your lengthy answer in the comments on the last post, about middle s in words.Some of those, like Lisle, I must have heard before, and would have pronounced correctly. Most of those with the sn, probably not. Makes sense, though... it felt odd to have to try to say an s in front of an n.
I just thought of the name of a town on the NW edge of Paris where I lived from 1974 until 1976. Asnières-sur Seine. A'nières. It has to do with ânes. Donkeys. Not to say (jack)asses.
DeleteLe Château d'Ussé....looks like high renaissance, classical style. Thanks for sharing this, I'd never heard of it before. Maybe it was part of the inspiration for Neuschwanstein's towers.
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