The grand tour

Wednesday of last week was the day of the grand tour of the Loire Valley châteaux that are within 25 miles of Saint-Aignan. That includes Chenonceau, Amboise, Chaumont-sur-Loire, and Chambord. I'm leaving out Blois and Cheverny, because we didn't have time to stop at either of those, and Valençay, which we saw a couple of days earlier.

There are many more châteaux nearby that are worth a visit, but it would take several days to see all of them. Le Gué-Péan, Chémery, Montrésor, Le Moulin, La Bourdaisière, Villesavin, Beauregard, Troussay, Selles-sur-Cher, and Fougères-sur-Bièvre are just a few of the others. Not to mention Saint-Aignan.

Chenonceau, 19 September 2007

But when it is your visitors' first tour of the Loire Valley, you have to hit the high spots. It's not too hard to get "chateaued out," if you know what I mean. It's like churches. After the fifth or sixth one, you find yourself yawning and muttering "okay, another church."

To really get to know the Loire Valley area, or any other, you have to spend a few weeks, and vary your pleasures by seeing a château or a church now and then but also taking days off to enjoy long walks along the rivers or through the vineyards. Stopping in a winery for a tasting and having a few nice meals made from ingredients you buy in the street markets is also a good idea. And restaurants.

A main shopping street in Amboise —
it wasn't too crowded at lunchtime.

Anyway, time is usually short and a certain amount of rushing around is necessary. Otherwise, visitors go away with the idea that they didn't really get to see all that they had wanted to see. Driving from château to château over the course of a long day is also a good opportunity to chat, relive old memories, and laugh it up with guests you don't get to see as often as you would like.

Speaking of my driving, I only managed to make Janice scream once while we were in the car. Joanna didn't scream at all, or at least not that I can recall. Remember, I had never met Janice before this visit, even though she has been a friend of my sister's for 20 years. She probably thought I was a madman as we raced around on our area's narrow curvy roads, and sped through villages that were often a tangle of traffic.

Joanna took this picture of the château in Amboise.

Janice's scream didn't come until the very last day of the trip, in Paris. We were driving around the bouldevard périphérique from our hotel near the Porte d'Italie toward the Porte de Bagnolet and the A3 autoroute that takes you out to Charles de Gaulle airport. A big truck was in the right lane and its driver was weaving back and forth over the line dividing his lane from the empty one between him and us. I needed to move over to make my exit.

I watched the truck weave for a few seconds until I thought I detected a pattern in his movement. No, he wasn't actually planning to change lanes. So that empty lane was mine for the taking. I stepped on the gas to try to get ahead of the truck and I started moving to the right. Problem was that he picked that moment to weave left. That's when Janice screamed. "Kenny, watch out for that truck!" she yelled, her life passing in front of her eyes.

But we made it. I've gotten better screams than that out of Walt. Once in Spain... oh well, we survived and so did the car, so there's no point going into the details. I also remember a woman I didn't know, a friend of a friend who came to visit, letting out a tiny scream one day when I decided suddenly to pull off the highway for a good view of the château at Chaumont-sur-Loire from across the river. I hadn't realized that the gravel shoulder of the road was so pitted and rutted. The car went sliding but the anti-lock breaks kicked in and saved us. Since we were wearing seat belts, our heads didn't even hit the roof of the car. And we got a great view of the château, way up on a bluff above the Loire.

The weather was nice, but it was a little too chilly to eat outside in Amboise that day.

Last Wednesday, there wasn't too much excitement of that kind. We walked the river path at Chenonceau in the morning. Then we went over to Amboise and had lunch. The restaurant I wanted to try, one that I've been wondering about for years, was of course closed on Wednesdays. So we went to a pizzeria down the street, directly under the high walls of the château d'Amboise. It's called La Florentine. The food was good. I had a pizza, Joanna had spaghetti with meat sauce, and Janice had onion soup and a big salad with lots of cheese in it.

Chaumont-sur-Loire

After lunch and a walk through some of the busier streets of Amboise, we drove on over to Chaumont. I parked around back, in the "secret" parking area I discovered a couple of years ago. When you park there rather than down in the village, you don't have to suffer through a long, steep hike up the hill to get to the château. You're already on top of the bluff, so you just stroll over to the château on flat ground through a wooded park.

Joanna also took this picture of me at the wheel
of the Peugeot. That's the cathedral and the bridge
at Blois that you see through the windshield.

From Chaumont, Blois is a short ride. We stopped on the south bank of the Loire and admired the panoramic view of the city, with its château, an old convent, three big churches, and the old stone arches of the bridge across the river. We didn't cross the bridge so we didn't go into the main part of town. No time.

Chambord

We pressed on toward Chambord, with me pointing out the château de Ménars on its bluff across the river. Mme de Pompadour lived there in the 18th century and had the place refurbished by the finest architects of the day. It isn't open to the public.

At Chambord, there were plenty of people but it wasn't what you'd call mobbed. It never is, in my experience, not the way Chenonceau can be. I guess the grounds are just a lot more spacious and the château de Chambord just about dwarfs all the other châteaux around here. We took pictures and looked around in the château's gift shop as well as some of the other souvenir stores on the grounds before we headed back to Saint-Aignan.

The many ornate chimneys at Chambord

When we got home at about 6:30, Joanna, Janice, Walt, and Callie went for a walk out in the vineyard while I copied my pictures onto my hard disk and started organizing and processing them. They seemed to have a nice walk, and Joanna took some pictures of — what else? — grapes. It was a good but long, busy day for us all.

Blois and Vierzon excursions

In topics over the past few days I was describing Saint-Aignan and its Grand Hôtel. Yesterday I looked for some pictures and found this blog entry from a few months ago: Saint-Aignan in Pictures.

Between the adventures Gabby and Margaret had at the laundromat in Saint-Aignan Tuesday morning and our rustic dinner in the village of Thésée that night, we took a nice afternoon drive up to Chambord and Blois. On the way we drove by the château de Chémery, of which I have posted pictures several times before. Here's one:

Château de Chémery, near Saint-Aignan, a 15th-century building

Tuesday afternoon was nice and sunny. Chambord, one of the major Loire châteaux, was impressive and luminous in the afternoon sunlight. Here's a picture of the enormous Renaissance castle that I took last spring:

Chambord, 26 April 2006

After Chambord, we drove down along the Loire toward Blois, through the village of Saint-Dyé and on to a viewpoint where you can see Madame de Pompadour's château called Menars:

Le château de Menars, near Blois on the Loire

At Blois, we parked the car and took in the panorama of the city from the riverfront on the south side of the Loire:

Blois in a picture taken last spring. Click the image to see it full-size.

We went up to the cathedral and into the park at the Hôtel de Ville just behind it, to enjoy the views. Here are a couple of previous blog entries with pictures of that part of Blois: A Sunday in Blois and Lunch in Blois.

So it was a nice afternoon and we all enjoyed it, I think. Gabby and Margaret had seen Chambord many years ago, but it's always worth another quick visit. Neither G. nor M. said she could remember ever having been in Blois before, so I'm glad we went.

I already wrote about our dinner in Thésée Tuesday evening.

Wednesday morning, I went to the Grand Hôtel to pick up G. and M. and ferry them over to Vierzon, where they had a rental car waiting for them. They were headed to Burgundy for a few days.

On the way to Vierzon, 35 miles or so east of Saint-Aignan along the Cher, we stopped to see the château and church in the town of Selles-sur-Cher, and then we took a spin through the old walled town of Mennetou. I've posted pictures taken in Selles and Mennetou before.

At Vierzon, the Europcar rental office was located in an Opel car dealership. The woman at the desk processed the rental papers quickly and efficiently. She told me she had had a lot of trouble finding a car with an automatic transmission, but she had been successful: a silver Audi A4 station wagon parked out front was the one. It had arrived just a few minutes before we did.

No, it wasn't this car!

Here's a picture of our friends in their car, heading out toward Auxerre.

Off into the wilds of Burgundy

Villesavin, un petit château

About three weeks ago, we drove up to Villesavin, near Chambord, to see the "little" château that the superintendent of the Chambord contruction project built for himself there in the 1500s. It turned out to be one of the most interesting châteaux we have seen.

Villesavin, un petit château near Blois and Chambord

We took a guided tour so that we could see the interior of the château as well as the grounds. The guide, a woman in her 50s who had obviously spent a lot of time on and around the property, was informative and funny. You got the impression that she has known the owners of the château for a long time. The tour was in French — I don't know if English-language tours are given.

The guide said that when the current owners inherited Villesavin 25 years ago, it was in a sorry state of repair. It had been abandoned for decades, and the woods had grown up right to the walls of the building on all sides. The place was inaccessible and was falling down. The owners, recently married, moved into two rooms dating from the 16th century, heated them with wood fires in a big fireplace, and cooked in the fireplace too. They cleared the land and opened the place up for tours to bring in a little money for further restoration work. He sold tickets at the gate, and she guided visitors around the property and showed them the two rooms that they lived in.

Inscription over the main entrance at Villesavin

Our guide last month regaled us with stories about how different building materials and decorative elements at Villesavin had probably been siphoned off from the Chambord construction project, which ran from 1525 until 1540 or so.

The fountain in the main courtyard at Villesavin, for example, is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture that was probably intended to stand at Chambord but somehow ended up at the superintendent's home. The fountain is classified by the French government as a historical monument, and under that status the owners are not allowed to modify it in any way, the guide said. They can't even clean off the lichens and fungi that grow on the marble. Government inspectors turn up unannounced from time to time to make sure the fountain hasn't been cleaned.

The main courtyard at Villesavin and the historic marble fountain

The guide said that the owners of the château have done and are still doing major parts of the restoration of the building themselves, one room at a time.

A bust of king François Ier graces a wall in the Villesavin courtyard.
François built Chambord and, whether he knew it or not, Villesavin too.

On the west end of the château building there is a fine interior courtyard which is more barnyard than formal garden. A huge shade tree stands in the middle.

A glimpse of the side courtyard at Villesavin

Inside the side courtyard. You can see the porch that provides access
to the 16th century rooms the owners used to live in

The 16th century rooms were the most interesting part of the building, I thought. There was a gigantic fireplace for heat and cooking. Skins of wild boars — very old, according to the guide — served as throw rugs. The rest of the rooms we saw were done in 18th century style. They reminded me of rooms I've seen in the White House in Washington DC. Only a small part of the château — the owners' private apartments — is heated even to this day, so we shivered through much of the tour.

Another major feature at Villesavin is a very old dovecote (pigeonnier or colombier in French) where doves were housed. There are 1500 pigeonholes in the walls of the building, which is a big round tower. A revolving ladder mounted on a central axis let workers climb up and reach into the pigeonholes to gather eggs and chicks, which were used as food.

The roof structure of the colombier

If you come to the Loire Valley and go to see Chambord, I recommend a side trip to Villesavin, which is nearby.

The hunting dogs at Cheverny

The Château de Cheverny is known for its pack of hunting dogs, among other things. The dogs are fed daily, and their dîner is a big attraction. We were there too late on March 20 for the feeding of the dogs, but we were still able to admire the château's canines.

Two pictures from Chambord

Chambord is the 900-pound gorilla of Loire Valley châteaux. Here are two pictures I took there in March.

Steps leading up from the château to the church at Chambord.

The French flag flying high over the château de Chambord.

We are today finishing up a one-week getaway in Paris. It's been an exciting week, seeing old friends and a couple of new ones. I'll be writing more about Paris next week, after we get back home and I have use of my own computer again..

Pictures from Cheverny, Chaumont, and Pocé-sur-Cisse

Ornementation over a doorway at the château de Cheverny.

Lettering on a piece of gardening equipment at the château de Chaumont-
sur-Loire. No, I don't know why "ORENGE" is spelled that way.

A decorative lion guarding a doorway at the château de
Pocé-sur-Cisse, just north of Amboise.

A post you will never see (or maybe later...)

Here's a recent picture of Walt emerging from a bou-
langerie with a baguette. I took the picture in the town of Fougères-sur-Bièvre, located 15 miles or so north of Saint-Aignan.

This morning I spent three hours writing a very complete description of our recent tour of a beautiful little château here called Villesavin, near Chambord. I published it and then noticed some font problems in the text. I went back to fix them, and suddenly the Blogger software burped and my topic just disappeared, pictures and all. Very frustrating. Blogger is free software, and I guess you get what you pay for. And then again, maybe it was my fault entirely. Ah, computers...

A Sunday in Blois

March 12, 2006. Chris and Tony were taking the train back to Paris. We drove them up to Blois and took a walk around the town. It was Sunday lunchtime, so there weren't many people or cars on the streets.

Click on the pictures to see the full-size image.

This is the kind of thing that Chris called a "ghost sign."
This must have been a department store at one time.
Does it look modern to you?

In the streets of old Blois, there are courtyards you can look into along the way. This one had a nice old staircase in it.

At the famous château in Blois, there's this statue of an equestrian Louis XII (1452-1516). His reign ushered in the Renaissance. He was a popular figure and was known as "the father of his people."

In old town Blois, the Pigier secretarial school occupies a fine old building and has a nice old sign.

At the Hôtel de Ville — city hall — there's a display of posters explaining the rights of children in France. This one lists the responsibilities of parents and the State.

Looking down on the rooftops of Blois and the Loire river from the rose garden at the Hôtel de Ville.

You still see quite a few of these old Citroën 2CV (Deux Chevaux) cars here in the Loire Valley. I think they stopped manufacturing them more than 20 years ago.

This is a picture of the rooftops of Blois, the rose garden, and the Hôtel de Ville. You can see the steeple of the cathedral on the right, the steeples of the Eglise St-Nicolas in the distance, and the Loire river on the left.

At the Hôtel de Ville there's this statue of Joan of Arc on horseback. It was donated by an American philanthropist and francophile.

Aiguevives abbey near Montrichard

Prelude: Here's the full-size version of the Blois panorama I tried to post yesterday. Click the thumbnail to display the full-size view and then use the horizontal scrollbar to pan across the whole picture.

Panorama of Blois taken from the south bank of the Loire river

Yesterday afternoon I went to see the ruins of an old abbey church called Aiguevives, near Montrichard. (I was on my way to visit the friend who had that attack last month when we were driving to Blois. She was in the hospital for more than two weeks, and now she is going through a month of rehabilitation in a clinic in Montrichard. She seemed to be doing well yesterday. Her daughter was there when I was. They had just come in from taking a walk around the grounds of the clinic.)

Aiguesvives abbey wasn't a spectacular sight but I took some pictures of it and other things. First, here's the church, built in the 12th century and pillaged during the Revolution at the end of the 18th.

Aiguevives abbey near Montrichard

The old church is in a nice setting, down a dead-end road a couple of miles from the highway and in a forest. There's a big house (it might even qualify as a château or at least a manoir or manor house).

The big house across the road from the Aiguevives church

The people who live there keep horses and other animals. When I stopped the car to take a picture of the church from a distance, two of them came running over to see what I was up to.

The steeple of Aiguevives church is visible in the background

And these two were in an enclosure on the opposite side of the little road.

Horses at Aiguevives

Here's a picture just to give you an idea of what the countryside south and west of Saint-Aignan looks like. It's rolling hills with forested areas and a lot of open fields where crops including canola, sunflowers, and wheat are grown.

A route départementale south of Saint-Aignan in Touraine

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of the old town in Montrichard. The old castle keep dominates the town's main shopping street and the banks of the Cher river.

Montrichard, 10 miles south of Amboise

The Hôtel Bellevue is a much more recent building that sits right on the banks of the Cher and on the edge of the old town. Those are pigeons roosting on the roof, I believe.

The Hôtel Bellevue in Montrichard