LANGEAIS & VILLANDRY

Monday, April 27, 2009 Today we toured two very different Chateau’s each one unique in it’s own way.

Chateau de Langeais was built on the ruins of a 10th century fortress and served a strategic role in the 1400s as a French outpost. It was here in this castle that Charles VIII, King of France, married 14 year old Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in 1491…. A union that brought independent Brittany into France’s fold. As you climb up the many winding stairways you discover at every turn rooms that are well furnished with period pieces and beautifully displayed tapestries. Helpful also are the description cards, in several different languages, for each room. At the top floor you walk along the parapet that have great views over the town. I very much enjoyed the displays in these rooms as opposed to so many old buildings with empty rooms.

I forgot to mention that in driving to Langeais we made some wrong turns and ended up taking the long way around but, we did drive through some very neat old French villages as we traveled our path in the Loire Valley. Even saw a few vineyards mixed in with the fields of green and especially the yellow that shows up so beautiful across the hills.

Off again to find the town of Villandry with another Chateau but this time it comes with a special garden that Martha assures me will be worth walking in the rain because, if those clouds do not go away it looks like we are in for a shower. We were fortunate to find parking right along the base of the Chateau so it will be a short walk to the gate…. But first I had to take some pictures of the Goldwing motorcycle parked next to us… it had the cutest little sidecar attached… it was like a little mini sports car for 2 extra (small) people. My son-in-law has a Goldwing so knew that he would enjoy these pictures and I have included one in the slideshow for you to see.

Villandry was completed in about 1536 and was the last of the large Chateaux built on the banks of the Loire during the Renaissance. In 1906 the Chateau was bought by Dr. Joachim Carvallo, from Spain and his wife, Ann Coleman, a wealthy American, who purchased the house to display their art collection and in particular his Spanish Art from the 17th century. Carvallo is the great-grandfather of the present owner. He created 16th century style gardens that were in perfect harmony with the architecture of the chateau. Each room enjoys its own unique view, particularly of the gardens. All the rooms are completed furnished as though a family was still living here you even see photographs sitting around with vases of flowers and sometimes clothing placed on chairs and in open drawers. As Joachim and Ann purchased this house in 1906 much of the furnishing relate to that period of time.

Martha was right the gardens were worth the effort… yes, we did walk them in light rain but our ponchos kept us dry as we wandered up and down the gravel pathways, whipping our cameras out from under our ponchos every so often to capture the beautiful flowers. The views of the garden from the upper rooms in the house were wonderful to see. It has continued to rain the rest of the day so am glad that we did not have plans for a third chateau, but we will be off tomorrow to see more of the Loire Valley.