Médavy and the château there

I just had a shock when I thought about this day in June 2001. It was the time when my late friend Charles-Henry spent 12 hours traveling from Rouen to Vouvray, a trip that would normally take less than four hours. If you were not sight-seeing, that is. This is the le château de Médavy, near the village of Médavy (pop. 155) and the town of Argentan in lower Normandy.

What was the shock? I realize now that Charles-Henry was 77 years old at the time. He passed away more than 20 years later, in February 2024, at the age of 99. Now I find myself facing the prospect of turning 76 on my next birthday, in March 2025. When C-H and I were there, I was in my early 50s, and I thought I was getting pretty old then. I don't think I'll make it to 99... mais on ne sait jamais.

Médavy is an 18th century château that was built on a site of a fortified house dating back to the 11th or 12th century, and then replaced in the 16th by a fortified château with four towers in the 16th until the 18th. That château was torn down in the 17th. In 2001, the château and grounds weren't normally open to the public. When C-H and I walked up to the Médavy château's front gate, a man came out and we said bonjour to him. Charles-Henry, always bold, told the man we had come all the way from California to see his château and begged him to let us come in and take some pictures of it. That was something I would never have dared to do. We didn't go inside the château, but we (and our cameras) spent half an hour or so wandering around the grounds.

I just talked to Walt on the phone. He'll be in the air and on his way to LAX airport in Los Angeles in a couple of hours. More tomorrow...