We left Loches this morning and headed off to Malcolm &Kay’s house in the South. Malcolm recommended a stop near Limoges at Oramours, so we decided to do so. On June 10, 1944, just 4 days after the Normandy landings, the SS massacred the population of this large village as a reprisal for partisan activity locally. After the murders, the village was torched. To commemorate the event, the village has been left as it was and a center was built to explain what happened. The village is open for all to see. The ruin photos on Picassa are of this village. After this we carried on and arrived at Nadillac in the early afternoon, after 5 km down a very narrow country lane. Pictures are of their home (a barn conversion) and of Nadillac and another liitle village, Cras, across the valley.
Click here to see pictures.Day 16 – Loches
We left Parcay-les-Pins in the late morning and arrived at Loches in the early afternoon, too early to check in at the Logis du Bief. A wander into the old town for lunch at a pizzeria in the shadow of one of the town gates took care of the time and we returned to check into our hotel – probably the flashiest place we will stay in on our trip. The building is centuries old and our suite is up the top of a castle-like stone spiral staircase. We have the entire top floor. Elizabeth has a room overlooking the canal, while our room looks up to the chateau. We also have a landing with a sitting area and a bathroom.
Loches is a wonderful medieval town. Heading up to the chateau, the buildings are almost all medieval, with a few renaissance structures thrown in. At the heart of the old town is the Romanesque church, the chateau and the donjon.
Day 15 – Parcay-les-Pins – Saumur – Parcay-les-Pins – Vernantes
Off to Saumur today where Kathryn and Elizabeth went shopping while I headed to the Musee des Blindes, one of the world’s greatest tank museums. We all met against at the Chateau before returning to Parcay, where Elizabeth “chilled” and K & I visited the Jules Debois sculptural museum in the village. Debois was a contemporary and friend of Rodin and the village rates his gallery because the sculptor was born and raised in the house across the square from the museum. We ended the day with our delayed 25th anniversary dinner at the Logis Pelican hotel in Vernantes – one of the best meals either of us have had in our lives.
Day 14 – Parcay-les-Pins – Chenenceau – Amboise
Once again, the day began in Parcay-les-Pins, then came the drive to Chenenceau – that’s the chateau and not Chenenceaux, which is the town. This tourist magnet is probably the most famous of the Loire chateaus. It is also among the most picturesque.
Following this, we went to Amboise, had lunch, and moved on to the royal chateau, which included the little church where Leonardo da Vinci is buried, and finished up with Clos du Luce – where Leonardo spent the last years of his life as a guest of King Francis I of France.
Day 13 – Parcay-les-Pins – Usse – Chinon
Breakfast at the cottage, a wander through the village (including a look around the village church) and then off to the chateau that inspired Perault’s Sleeping Beauty tale – and Disney’s image of the castle. There we looked at the chapel, the caves, the chateau, and the tower – decked out in fairy tale tableaux.
Next it was off to Chinon, the castle that dominated the Loire in the Middle Ages. This was probably the best bargain in terms of visiting a historic building since Verdun. The setting of the castle, high above the town and river is dramatic.
The day ended in Parcay, after a visit to a French superstore for provisions.
Day 12 – Chartres – Parcay-les-Pins – Azay-le-Rideau
Breakfast, a look around the ancient building of the Hostellerie, check-out and a look around the town – with the car safely parked. Chartres’ cathedral is, of course, stunning. Acres of stained glass and thousands of carvings on its edifice. Too bad that the labyrinth in the nave was covered by seats though. We also wandered about the town and had a phone call from Nicholas.
Getting out of Chartres was as bad as getting in. We were, or course, in the traffic restricted zone and it took a number of circles around the town trying to avoid barriers to realize that the trick was to drive up to one and press a button to get it to retract into the street. Of course the barriers are for keeping out, not letting out.
Once out, the trip to our rented house in Parcay-les-Pins was relatively easy. We let ourselves in, and rested before heading out to buy food (once the shops opened again after the long mid-day break)., and then went off in search of Chateaus. Driving past Langais, we set our sights on Azay-le-Rideau – the one that impressed me the most when I toured Europe in my 20’s. We arrived too late to tour the insides, but at least saw the gardens and snapped the outside a few times. Dinner in the town and ice creams made the trip back more pleasant.
Day 11 – Chantilly – Senlis – CDG Airport – Chartres
Kathryn and Elizabeth arrived today, but not until 6:20 p.m. So I needed to fill in some time and decided to take some side trips on the way to Charles DeGaulle Airport.
The first stop was Chantilly – the Chateau, not the town. This is a lovely Baroque chateau and grounds. The gardens include formal French, English, and something called Anglo-Chinese. It was at Chantilly that the great lord and lady had peasant style accommodation built in the gardens, so that the ladies could play milkmaid when they wanted – though without giving up any of life’s aristocratic luxuries. It is said that Marie Antoinette’s little peasant retreat at Versailles came out of experiencing Chantilly’s odd little creation. The museum here is excellent and contains a number of masterpieces by artists like Raphael and Holbein.
After Chantilly I went to the old medieval cathedral town of Senlis. Not much has happened here since the middle ages, so many of the historic buildings still stand at the heart of the city. The cathedral is one of the great Gothic structures of northern France. Other pictures are of the old town surrounding it and another rather old church just a few meters away from the cathedral.
Next stop, CDG, where I picked up K and E before heading on down to Chartres. This should have been relatively easy as we had hours to make the trip before the Hotellerie St. Ives desk closed at 11:00 p.m. The distance isn’t all that far. Unfortunately road construction and the GPS conspired to first get us off track and lost in the northern Parisian suburbs – that was eventually solved by the GPS, but time was lost. The next problem was finding the hotel (well, it is actually a Catholic hostel in the shadow of the cathedral), but this was not easy. First of all the road system in medieval Chartres is a rabbit warren of one way routes; then there is the problem of road barriers.
We eventually parked the car near to where we thought we would have to be, and proceeded on foot. With less than an hour to go, we finally found our goal and were given a map and instructions of how to call from the road barrier below the Hostellerie, so that they could activate its retraction into the road. By the time we arrived there was no question of going out again that night.
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