A painting in Blois

Yesterday afternoon after lunch, we drove up to Blois to see the château there. CHM, who is visiting from Paris (but who lives in the U.S. most of the time) learned from a cousin earlier this year that a painting depicting Joan of Arc at Blois in 1429 — and painted by CHM's grandfather in 1901 — hangs in the chapel at the château.

An archtectural detail at the Blois castle

Blois is an old royal town that played a central role in French history for many centuries. The most powerful counts of Blois, in the Middle Ages, were grandchildren and great-grandchildren of William the Bastard — a.k.a William the Conqueror — after he defeated the English in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. At least one, Etienne (King Stephen in English), became king of England in 1135.

The Louis XII wing at the château de Blois

King Louis XII of France was born in Blois in 1462. He had a "new" wing built onto the château there — the earliest existing sections and buildings at the château date back to the 1100s. Then François 1er, the mastermind behind the nearby Château de Chambord, took up residence in Blois in the early 1500s and had another major wing constructed, in Italianate style. Finally, in the 1600s, a third big wing was built, in French Classical style.

François 1er's wing includes this famous staircase
dating back to the 1500s

So it's a long history. CHM's grandfather, who was a painter in Paris in the 1800s, finished the painting of Joan of Arc at Blois just a few years before he passed away. The family donated the painting to the city of Blois, and now it hangs in the chapel on the grounds of the château. That's what we went to see yesterday. It had been 53 years since CHM last laid eyes on his grandfather's painting.

Above: CHM's grandfather's painting on a wall in the chapel at Blois

Below: my photo of the painting modified to correct the perspective

Blois is only 25 miles north of Saint-Aignan. It takes 40 minutes or so to drive up there. While we were in the château, a big group of Americans came in. They were probably on a bus tour. It was interesting to listen to their English, which was definitely Southern.

The St-Nicolas church (ca. 1200) and the Loire River at Blois

As we were leaving the château, a 60-year-old American — obviously American because dressed in bermuda shorts — arrived at the door just as we did. CHM stepped back and let the man go through first. "Age before beauty," CHM said as he passed. The man looked surprised and then laughed at the joke. I don't think he expected to be spoken to in English.

Le Château de Meillant

The château at Meillant is not a Loire Valley castle. It's located in the old Berry province, not the Loire Valley. Meillant in the Cher River Valley about 150 km/90 miles upstream from Saint-Aignan.

The château was built in the early 1300s and in 1453 was acquired by Pierre of Amboise, a nobleman who was the lord of Chaumont-sur-Loire, near Blois. The original building was fortified, as medieval castles tended to be. Pierre's son Charles 1er d'Amboise, who was at one time the governor of the Paris region, Champagne, and Burgundy, set out to renovate and "modernize" the Meillant château, but he died at the age of 51, before the work could be done. It was his son, Charles II d'Amboise, who finished the job in the late 1400s and early 1500s.

The southwest façade at Meillant is medieval

Meillant shows two faces to the visitor. The southwest front is medieval, with massive towers facing a moat. The northeast façade is highly ornate, showing its architectural kinship with the Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley.

Figures on a balcony

The style is late gothic, called "flowery" gothic. Charles II spent time in Italy, where he was the governor of Milan. So it has been said that "Milan made Meillant," in the sense that Charles II brought back from Italy the ideas for the renovations he ordered at the old castle.

The château de Meillant was also completely restored much later, in 1842.

The Tower of the Lion at Meillant

The main tower, highly ornamented, is called the Tower of the Lion, because there is a big lion made of gilded lead at its very top. The lion is the work of the Italian Giocondo, who worked with Michelangelo.

Giocondo's lion at the top of the tower at Meillant
(thanks to CHM for the photo)

CHM and I spent about an hour walking around the château and taking pictures Thursday morning. I just counted my pictures, and it turns out that I took 87 of them. I can't post them all, at least not today! But here's a selection, mostly of details of the decorations on the walls of the château.

Architectural ornament at Meillant

It's either feast or famine with photos and blog topics. Some days I think I need to get out more and do more photography. Or at least take pictures of more varied subjects. And then, at times like the present, I'm overwhelmed with subjects and pictures.

A day trip through the Berry

Yesterday CHM and I took a long road trip, traveling a big circle to the southeast of Saint-Aignan in the Berry region. The weather was gorgeous. We took the autoroute all the way down to the town of Saint-Amand-Montrond, which is just south of the city of Bourges and 150 km — 90 miles — from Saint-Aignan.

The château at Meillant, near Saint-Amand-Montrond

It took us nearly two hours to get there, even by autoroute, and toll was 9.10 euros. First we had to get to the autoroute entrance north and east of Saint-Aignan, and that took 30 minutes or so. Then there were several long stretches of autoroute where road work had one of the two lanes blocked off. There were plenty of big trucks on the road, so the going was slow. It always takes longer than you think it will to get to your destination in France.

We left the house at 9:00 a.m. and returned at 8:00 p.m. Below is a list of the villages and towns we spent at least a few minutes in along the way.

Saint-Amand-Montrond -> Meillant -> Noirlac -> Bruère-Allichamps -> Ainay-le-Vieil -> Culan -> Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre ->
Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre -> Châteauroux -> Levroux -> Valençay ->
Couffy -> Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher

Meillant was our first real destination. There's a beautiful château there. We then had lunch in Saint-Amand, where the autoroute spit us out initially and which we had to drive through to get to Meillant.

A shop on the main street in a little town in the Berry

Noirlac, near Meillant, has a very old Cistercian abbey complex that has been particularly well restored. Bruères-Allichamps, just a couple of miles north in the Cher River valley, is a picturesque village that is known as the geographical center of France. Ainay-le-Vieil and Culan both are the sites of fortified medieval castles. At Neuvy, there's an 11th century church modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. And so on.

Typical small-town scene

I'll be posting pictures of all these towns, villages, and monuments over the next few days and weeks. I took more than 300 pictures.

One of the things that struck me about our visits to all these monuments was how nice and helpful the people working in the shops and selling tickets at the various sights were. At Culan, for example, a young woman took the time to explain how we could drive down a steep, narrow lane and make several left turns to get to a Roman bridge over a little river down below the château.

We had lunch here in Saint-Amand-Montrond.

She came outside with us and pointed out all the twists and turns. "At the Roman bridge, there is a good spot where you can stop and take some pictures of the château," she said. "Then you cross the bridge and take another left turn to get back to the highway. There's a big sign that says the road is one way in the wrong direction for you, but you can ignore that. I do. I drive it every day, and I've never had any trouble."

The Roman bridge at Culan

I thanked her and told that, if a policeman stopped me, I would mumble and mutter in English and pretend I didn't speak French. As it turned out, I didn't have to bother, and we got to see views we wouldn't otherwise have discovered.

The castle at Culan seen from
the Roman bridge over the Arnon river

Of course, CHM charms everybody with his happy smile, quick sense of humor, and melodious French.

Champignons à la grecque

I've been making these champignons à la grecque for 30 years now. They are very easy to do. I got the recipe from Monique Maine's Cuisine pour toute l'année (1969), a cookbook I always come back to for standard French methods and foods.

I remember eating champignons à la grecque in little inexpensive Paris restaurants back in the 1970s adn '8os. Those are good memories.

You can serve the Greek mushrooms as a first course salad, or you can serve them as finger food to be stabbed and grabbed with cocktail picks. That's what we did day before yesterday when Martine and Christian were here. We opened a bottle of sparkling Vouvray wine, set out some olives, and enjoyed all that with the mushrooms.

Here's my translation of Mme Maine's recipe. I've adapted it to work with a pound of mushrooms. This is a salad, so the amounts of different ingredients are flexible. The important thing is to put in a good amount of lemon and enough tomato paste to give the mushrooms and sauce a good color but not too much of a tomato sauce taste and consistency.

Greek mushroom salad

1 lb. button mushrooms
15 pearl onions (or 1 large onion, diced)
1½ cups white wine
1½ Tbsp. tomato paste
1 large lemon
3 bay leaves
2 sprigs of thyme (or 1 tsp. dried thyme)
salt to taste
1 dozen black peppercorns
8 or 9 coriander seeds
3 Tbsp. olive oil

Trim the mushrooms and wash them under running water. Rinse them in water with a little lemon juice added to it.

Peel the pearl onions, leaving them whole. Put the mushrooms and onions in a saucepan with the wine, the tomato paste, the lemon slices, and all the herbs and spices.

Add enough water so that everything is covered. Put the pot on medium heat and let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

When the mushrooms are done, take the pot off the heat and let it cool. Stir in the olive oil. Pour the mushrooms into a serving dish and keep in the refrigerator until serving time.

Here is the Monique Maine recipe in French:

Champignons à la grecque

300 g de petits champignons de Paris
10 petits oignons
¼ l de vin blanc sec
1 c. à soupe de concentré de tomate
1 citron
2 feuilles de laurier
thym
sel
poivre en grains
5 ou 6 grains de coriandre
2 c. à soupe d'huile d'olive

Ôtez le bout terreux des champignons, lavez-les à l'eau courante, puis passez-les à l'eau citronnée. Épluchez les oignons, laissez-les entiers. Mettez les légumes dans une cocotte, ajoutez le vin blanc, le concentré, le citron coupé en tranches et tous les aromates. Complétez avec un peu d'eau si les légumes ne sont pas assez mouillés. Faites cuire 20 mn à feu moyen. Ôtez la cocotte du feu et laissez refroidir, ajoutez alors l'huile d'olive. Versez dans le plat de service et mettez au frais.