Palluau in 2008, and Saint-Aignan now

The photos I published yesterday were ones I took in August 2011, using a Panasonic Lumix ZS1 digital camera. The ones below are some that I took on an earlier visit to Palluau, in April 2008, with a TZ3 Lumix. That day and on two other occasions, I took a lot of photos inside two churches in Palluau as well. I haven't even started going through those again.

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We're having hot sunny weather this week, as it happens. Yesterday both of us were able to do some work in the yard and garden in the morning, before it got too hot. The afternoon high temperature was about 85ºF, which qualifies as nice summer weather, I'd say. Our Blois neighbors left yesterday, after spending about a week here, including several days of hard, chilly rain last week. Our Paris-area neighbor is here for a six-week stay.

And our new neighbors across the street seem to be settling in. We haven't actually met them yet. When I think about the little bit of gardening work we did yesterday, and how sweaty and buggy it was outside, I think of them and the tasks facing them. Their new place has a yard that is completely out of control. The hedges around it have grown to a height of 10 or 12 feet and are pretty ragged looking. I imagine they are full of thorny blackberry brambles and wild rose bushes, as parts of our hedge are (or were until yesterday — my hands and arms are all scratched up and banged up). The new neighbors are going to have to hire somebody to come in and get their vegetation under control, I think.

Palluau-sur-Indre et son château

Palluau (pop. 800) is about 25 miles south of Saint-Aignan, on the right bank of the Indre river. The first mention of a château there dates back to the year 1073. The French king Philippe-Auguste and the English king Richard the Lionhearted fought over it in the 12th century. The English occupied Palluau during the 100 Years' War. In the early 17th century, the château became the property of the count of Frontenac, whose grandson was appointed governor of the province of Québec (Nouvelle-France) by king Louis XIV in 1672...

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These are some photos I took in Palluau in 2011 using a Panasonic Lumix camera that I still have.

Châteauvieux art

One day we went to Châteauvieux with our friend Cheryl and we came upon an unusual and sort of funny display of artwork in the main courtyard of the château, which is occupied by a nursing home nowadays.

Châteauvieux

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.

Another picturesque village near Saint-Aignan

This is a village that's just 2½ miles (4 kilometers) from Saint-Aignan. It was founded nearly 2,000 years ago as a villa gallo-romaine — an agricultural domaine with a lord and his serfs. Nowdays it has a population of just over 500 and the commune has an area of about 33 km² (12 mi²), including more than 500 acres of AOC vineyards and 2,500 acres of forest. The area was invaded three times during it's first 1000 years of existence, first by the Franks, later by the Visigoths, and finally by the Vikings. The villa was fortified in the fourth century. Those fortifications were torn down in the 1360s and replaced by a gentilhommière (a comfortable manor house) 25 years later...

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Le Château de Selles-sur-Cher

The château stands on the south (left) bank of the Cher river just west of the old bridge in Selles-sur-Cher. The older parts of the complex date back to the 13th century, and the newer parts to the late 16th and early 17th. The château had been pillaged by Protestant forces during the wars of religion. It is now privately owned and used for special events. The owners also operate a winery, the Domaine des Souterrains, in nearby Châtillon-sur-Cher.

I took the two photos below from across the river at the north end of the bridge.

    

Selles scenes

Selles-sur-Cher has a population of approximately 4,600. That makes it bigger than Saint-Aignan but smaller by far than Romorantin. It was founded in the 6th century (more than 1,500 years ago) when a devout Christian hermit named Eusice came up here from the Périgord province and settled in the area. He built a small chapel on the banks of the Cher river. After Eusice told the king of the Franks, Childeric, that he would defeat the invading Wisigoths in a future battle, and the prediction came true, Childeric (the father of Clovis) had an abbey (a monastery) built in his honor and the village grew up around it. That's what Wikipédia says. (Never mind that one Wiki article says Eusice arrived in the Cher valley in 531 and another says that Childeric died 50 or 60 years before that...)

Did I mention that in Selles there is a huge open-air market every Thursday morning? A huge market, a Renaissance château, a grand church, AOC cheeses and wines — Selles has a lot going for it.

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Le château de Quinçay à Meusnes

To drive from our house to Selles-sur-Cher, we often take the D17 road that runs through Saint-Aignan along the Cher river, and then through the little towns of Seigy, Couffy, and Meusnes (pronounced meuhn). At Meusnes there are a lot of wineries, including one called the Château de Quinçay. Red, white, and rosé wines are made there, some of them of the Touraine Chenonceaux appellation. Meusnes is also included in three of the Loire Valley's goat-cheese production areas — Selles-sur-Cher, Valençay, and Sainte-Maure. The pictures in this post show one of my favorite spots in Meusnes.

Meusnes is on the eastern edge of the Touraine wine area and the northern edge of the Valençay appellation. It's just 10 kilometers north of the town of Valençay and just four kilometers west of Selles-sur-Cher. Meusnes (pop. 1,100) has three other attractions: a beautiful little church, a great boucherie/charcuterie (which sells products at the Saturday morning market in Saint-Aignan), and a museum dedicated to the town's former main industry, the quarrying of flint and production of flintstones (pierre à fusil). During his childhood, the French tennis player and musician Yannick Noah spent his summer vacations in Meusnes.

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