Wednesday 12th June Dinan to Chinon
Day began by Trudy telling us that The Gendarme was going to give our driver a ticket whilst he was parked loading our cases, When she was explaining that he would move as soon as finished, and that some of the group were elderly - The Gendarme asked where we were from and she told him mostly from New Zealand, his reply was “We love New Zealanders” and so no ticket was given!
Our first Stop was going back in time at Les Roches aux Fees - the rocks of fairies
It is believed that the existence of this Passage Grave from about 3000 BC proves that the builders had intellectual capacity and social organisation to be able to transport the rocks from about 4km away and complete the building.
Next a construction that was begun about 4000 years later in the 9th century. Chateau at Angers. Begun by the Counts of Anjou from the 10th century, a palace was built by the Plantagenets 300 years later. A Fortress was built in the 13th century and enhanced in 14th and 15th century by Dukes of Anjou. In the 16th century the tower walls were lowered to allow for the advances in artillery - canons .
It was pretty impressive even though wall are lower than they used to be by about 10 metres. The dark schist and pale limestone stripes are very decorative, and our first sight with the knot gardens on the outside was exciting.
Inside its claim to fame is the Apocalypse tapestry, the book of Revelations that was commissioned in 1375 By Louis 1, Duke of Anjou, brother of King Charles V. It is huge six metres high by 23 metres long. It uses imagery of the day to depict the various scenes, with Saracens and The English many headed leopard representing the devil.
I was keen to get up and walk the ramparts which paid off with views over the city and the river Maine, There were some lovely gardens and a small vineyard up high overlooking the buildings within the walls.
In one of the buildings, the residence there was an exhibition all to do with fairies and mythology.
Another look at the knot gardens on our way out.
Next we had a picnic lunch on the banks of the Loire, although it is quite wide, by our standards, apparently quite shallow, and often sandbanks are more noticeable than when we saw it, Not really a navigable river like La Seine, but does have a few shallow draft barges, Channels in the river can often change.
We stopped at another chateau just to walk around Chateau de Saumer - rather beautiful, just had some major repair work done, You can see the lighter stonework, and had some lovely wee knights standing guard, a bit like our giraffes, penguins etc, decorated by different artists.
And then on to Chinon where we are to stay two nights. Our hotel is right in the centre, in a little square below the Chateau Chinon. Went for a walk, up lots of steps to the chateau, didn’t go in though, but a good view over the city,
A short walk around the city and then to the supermarket for a small salad for tea and an early night.
Am loving living life in France vicariously through your amazing images & text,
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot I’ve learned & how lucky we Kiwis are to be held in high regard by the majority of this world we inhabit. Keep well & embrace everything. So happy you spent time with a local lady-personal connections are priceless. Kx⚜️