In English we can make a verb out of almost any word by adding "ing", right? Therefore, the definition of chateau'ing would be to tour one or more chateaux while on vacation.And if that's the definition, then last week we went chateau'ing. We were in France on a short holiday that included the Loire Valley - famous for its many chateaux and world renowned white wine. This beautiful valley is where the French elite of yesteryear lived and played. After seeing the fantastic landscape, pristine trout-filled rivers, and endless vineyards, it is easy to see why the wealthy decided to build their chateaux here. And after seeing the decadent extravagance of these chateaux, it is equally easy to see why the French revolted against their monarchs and ended up hauling a bunch of these folks back to Paris where they were paraded in front of the peasants before having their heads lopped off to shouts of glee. But this is supposed to be a pleasant blog post so I won’t dwell on that dark (yet somewhat interesting) historical aspect of the trip. My camera was giving me grief, so I didn’t get that many good shots, but I’ve posted a few that should give you a good impression of this short holiday down in France.
We rolled out of Haarlem early on Saturday in order to beat the crush of traffic moving south toward the sun for summer holiday. One radio report put the wait to get into the tunnels under the Alps at 6 hours! But we avoided the worst of it by cutting across the Delta Works in Zeeland, dropping through a tunnel under the port of Antwerp and cruising out across rural Belgium before stopping for our first night in Rouen, the capital of Normandy. The city was MUCH bigger than we expected and getting the car into the medieval center via tiny pedestrianized streets was truly a challenge. But once parked in an equally tiny parking garage under the hotel (I had to do a three point turn just to round a corner), we settled in for a great evening of exploration. Rouen is famous for two things – the church often painted by Claude Monet and the square where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431...great stuff!
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in this square more than 500 years ago. A new church and monument was just erected in the past 30 years to mark the fateful event. It’s designed to look like flames, and the stark contrast against the other medieval buildings in the square made it really work. A produce market is also built under the flames...go figure.
Does this look familiar? This is not a painted picture, but Claude Monet's favorite cathedral itself at night with a fantastic light show of his paintings projected onto it. The square in front of the cathedral was packed with people-- even in the rain-- to see this very cool light show.
The same cathedral during the day. The black was caused by fire during a WWII air raid.
This shop was one of many on the cities “bargain street”. With such a prosperous city full of name-brand shops, we could only guess that the rents on this street are subsidized to allow small eccentric shopkeepers to be able to stay in business. You couldn’t move in this light store, but I bet if you needed a little gizmo for your antique 1935 art deco lamp, he’d probably be able to dig it out of there for you.
As with most European cities, Rouen had a vibrant, lived-in center. This lucky dog had a great view of the main square from his third floor window.
This administration building has been restored since 1945, but they decided to leave the pock marks of the fighting to serve as a reminder of the devastation of war. Rouen serves as a major transportation hub and was heavily defended by the Germans after the D-Day invasion. The allies ended up bombing the hell out of the city in order to liberate it, but there was also house-to-house fighting. From the looks of it, there must have been a machine gun nest in one of these windows that took heavy fire (including what looked like a bazooka blast just around the corner) to get past.
When in Normandy, any geeky American World War II buff is obligated to take a short side trip up to the channel coast and visit the D-Day beach landings. Now a seaside resort, they have also decided to leave the wreckage of the war in the water as a reminder of the price paid. I have to admit that it was a little creepy seeing kids playing in the water next to this stuff.
It’s a shame what happened here in the past because the Normandy coastline was fantastic! Beth and I hiked up over the top of the ridge and were given the beautiful view across the horizon.
Then it was on to Mont Saint Michel. This place is so famous that I won’t go into any detail here, but it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to get away from the crowds by walking 50 yards (or less) off the main path. We found a perfect solitary spot to sit on the river at sunset, drink a glass or two of wine, and read a good book (in this case the final, edited version of Going Dutch).
Spectacular at night!
We hit the abbey on top of the rock early the next morning and had the place to ourselves before the tour bus crowds arrived (Thanks for the tip Steve and Grace!!!). This ingenious medieval dumb-waiter was powered by a massive wheel that three people would get into (like gerbils) and walk on to bring goods up to the abbey.
The view from the top across the tidal pools was awesome. This lonely sailboat was marooned on the sand by the receding tide.
We then headed for Angers, another beautiful city where we toured our first chateau. I also have to mention the apocalypse tapestry museum in this town. Don’t laugh; I turned my nose up at it at first as well. But these 12th/13th century tapestries were amazing. They were so intricate and told some really bizarre religious stories of what people thought in those days. It is really worth seeing - one of the highlights of the trip, but understandably, no photographs allowed.
The French countryside was exploding with sunflowers, a truly spectacular drive. How do they get the flowers to all face the same direction? Plant the seeds really, really carefully...
We also stopped at a troglodyte village (cave dwellers) that was very well preserved and interesting to walk around. They were still living here as late as 1967. Another J.R. Tolkien inspiration?
And then it was on to Ambois for 3 nights where we visited a few more chateaux, ate at a lot of great restaurants (except for the Welsh pie...ugh!), and drank entirely too much white wine. Gezellig! This photo is from my cell phone, thus the poor quality.
Beth and I hired a local French chef for Gloria’s birthday. Beth and Paul relaxed while Gloria and I took the cooking lessons. We then got to eat everything that we created…delicious!
We also rented bikes one day to see more of the French countryside up-close and personal. Beth and I have been looking to buy a place in France as an investment, but we’ve been a bit surprised that the real estate prices haven’t come down much with the bad economy. We did find this "fixer upper" that we could afford. Nothing wrong with a little sweat equity, right? What do you think Sue and Tom…is this what you had in mind when you said you wanted to go halvsies? Maybe we could at least get it habitable for your horse… .
We stopped in Amiens on the way back up to Holland. It was also a great city with a lot of modern infrastructure mixed into the medieval core, but unfortunately my camera was completely hosed by then so we didn't get any pictures. We were thinking of either a boat tour through the remenants of ancient Roman water gardens or a tour of the largest WWI battlefield . Needless to say, my ass ended up on a boat in the rain looking at flowers...it seems like Beth always wins these "discussions". But after driving across the beautiful Somme, even she was convinced to come back with the bikes and visit this area in more depth, and hit a battlefield or two....but that will have to wait till next year.
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I’m off to America next week to visit family and was thinking of taking a holiday from blogging for a few weeks to wrap up one writing project and begin a few others. So the next post might not be until late August. Cheers! And enjoy the rest of the summer.
