Inside the walls of the Château d'Angers

Today I'm posting just a few more photos I took inside the medieval fortress at Angers in western France in 2001.
I'm glad to say that our internet connection is up and running smoothly this morning.
Yesterday morning we had an unusual two-hour outage.

This building is called the châtelet or le petit château des ducs d'Anjou. It dates back to the 14th century.
The Duke d'Anjou known as le Bon Roi René was born here in 1409. He went on to hold
titles of including King of Naples and Count of Provence before he died in 1480.

The logis du gouverneur, above, is where the official appointed by the king of France to oversee the castle lived.

During the French wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th century, king Henri III ordered the gouverneur to tear the Château d'Angers down so that neither of the warring factions would gain control
of it. For political and financial reasons, the demolition order was never carried out.

The Cadogan Loire guidebook says the château was declared a monument historique in 1875, which protected it
and opened it up to tourism. It had been used as a prison, and then as a military installation,
and finally as an arsenal for decades. The author of the guidebook describes
its "charming gardens and corners", its "lightness," in contrast
to the massive, dark towers and walls that enclose it.

A typical street in old Angers