CHATEAU D'ANGERS

Sunday, April 26, 2009 (a partial wall of the tapestries)
By 9 AM I was happy to receive a text message from my husband, Philip, that he has arrived safely in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is there for the next ten days for a Steel Guitar Convention. Martha husband, Jim, shared a good story with us on our skype phone…..evidently when Phil landed in L.A. for a change of planes, he called Jim and asked him where he was….. Jim said “at home, you called me remember” Phil really fooled a fooler when he asked why he wasn’t at LAX to meet him…… Jim had no ideal that he was going to change planes in LA and for a moment thought he had slipped up on meeting someone at the airport when it dawned on him that Phil was just kidding with him. It would have been nice if they could have had dinner but Jim would have been looking at a long trip to the airport for a very short visit…..at least they had a chance to say hello to each other.

Travel was our main goal today as we drove away from the Brittany coastline and into the Loire Valley to visit chateaux. As we went into Angers we immediately saw the 13th century towers that surround the Chateau d’Angers. From the outside, the fortress of Saint Louis is impressive but when you go in, you are met with the surprising sight of the chateau of the Anjoy dynasties with its ruins of elegant buildings and pleasant gardens. The castle houses the Apocalypse Hangings (late 14th century) which, because of its size, age and artistic qualities is undeniably a major work of medieval tapestry.

While viewing this impressive gallery of tapestries I got so carried away that I dropped my sun hat which I was carrying under my arm….. thank goodness some good hearted person picked it up and returned it to the front office… I was sure that it was gone forever as we could not find it anywhere……but by the time we had finished our tour the office had it waiting for me to pickup.

Our next goal was to find the Formula One in Saint Barthelemy… we made a few wrong turns but eventually we found it back in an industrial area…. No grocery store in sight so we were happy that we had brought our food with us. It is just off the major autoroute but we had been using the city streets so we sort of came in the back way. Tomorrow we will be off early for a new adventure.