A whole day of chateaus. Ambroise, with Italian gardens...very simple grass and shrubs pruned to balls, hundreds of them, and trees...working their way uphill. A sunny day and birds were very busy singing. We took our time and gazed across the river and over the town. A hazy spring that is good for picture taking. Sometimes I think I will go crazy waiting and waiting for David. He is always searching for another good photo. He is distracted for sure. He has such a good time with his camera. We walked down rows of trees with brown leaves still clinging...and a breeze wafted through making the most beautiful music. All this “to-do” around Kings and Queens and Dukes etc. This King most impressed me because it is the French King Francois I...who loved beauty. He surrounded himself with genius', one of them being Leonardo De Vinci who he installed in a small chateau up the road. Why not! De Vinci came up with some amazing military equipment, flying machines and architecture (all of which we saw inside his home). Francois and Leonardo were the best of friends. The artist/inventor is buried in a small chapel on the grounds, as he wished. Did you know that he coined the phrase, “Love conquers all”?...and many many more. A very smart man. While we walked high up in this town we saw lots of underground homes carved right into the rock. Chimneys coming right out of the ground above them. Some fancy with shutters and french doors...it was quite strange to see. We had seen some earlier that probably had been carved into the rock earlier, in farming land.
Oh yes...we also got haircuts both at the same expensive French salon! Ahh but we did get amazing shampoos and head massages. We were draped in fancy black coats and a snazzy collar was slapped around our necks.
And this afternoon we toured Chambord, the biggest chateau of them all. I started to laugh when we walked toward it. It was a Disney scene! The castle where Cinderella went to the ball, I'm sure! Remarkable! But silly! I think David got some good photos. The grounds are large and very simple with trees and promenades. You can imagine the guards prancing in on horses with the army marching close behind. Or you can visualize the Queens, their children and the servants all in beautiful clothing...going out for a days picnic or the King and his favorites off on a hunt in the massive forests. There were deer antlers displayed everywhere.
So this evening we are in an unknown town by a smallish river. We have had our wine andhors d'oeuvres and it is time for bed. Tomorrow we are heading to the Dordogne area just east of Bordeaux.
March 16th.... David says, “Another town, another chateau.” It is true, but we rode right by them. Enough is enough. We did spend some lazy walking time in villages that looked good to us. We can't get enough of oldness...of the folks that were here before us. We set the GPS for some places we wanted to visit and then discovered that the town that our friends Bert and Michelle live in, Montmorillon, was dead center so why not go there. Bert and Michelle are in Spokane but at least we would get a feel for the town they live in. It was much bigger than we had envisioned but we followed the GPS which takes us to the best stuff...and found ourselves high on a hill amongst all the oldest buildings surrounding a high tower. This part of the city has been named after all the book stores and supporting related shops...press, caligraphy etc. that ring the tower in narrow narrow cobbled streets. We stopped in at a few book stores. One was an English book store. What I noticed was the old books illustrated beautifully like the ones in my mother's childhood. David was looking for a certain book and started talking with James, the owner. Quite quickly it turned out that he is a good friend of our friends. And why not! Bert reads more books than any one I know and he would find his way to an English book store. It is here that one says, “small world!” So next stop is the book store next door...owned by a French man who spends half a year on the Spanish coast. We coaxed him into giving us tips on what we must see in Spain. We are ready! He made it sound sooooo delicious!
Leaving there, we made our way south to Mortemart for the night. We arrived there at sundown and walked the streets of this very small settlement that that remains largely unchanged. It consists of a church, nun's convent which is a Gite (Hostel/hotel), catholic school and a small chateau maybe for priests? Dukes? Other buildings support it and some are still homes, I think probably beautiful inside. We walked around the chateau and were accompanied by a white swan and a black swan in the stream beside us. Then to the church where the door was open and the low sun streamed in and lit up the alter wall which was quite beautiful. A huge painting of Mary ascending into heaven with angels. The sunlight on it almost made it believable.
Heading on again we saw a sign for Megalithes. We bumped up some roads that got worse as we went on and finally parked and followed a trail to find a huge lonely standing stone. The dirt around it was beaten down and shiny showing that many pilgrims had been there. We were quite impacted by it. It was about 16 feet tall and had a rough shelf high up. Both of us put our hands on it, for me to feel the sacred energy of how this place was used. And then on to Oradour-sur-Glane. Two days after D-day the nazis , knowing that the war would soon be finished for them, gathered all the women and children of the village into the church, did what they wanted with the women, tear-gassed them all and machine-gunned down every one of them. The men were grouped and shot. 642 people, almost the whole town. 5 men and 1 woman survived. The soldiers burned the entire town down. Today you can wander through the town, untouched. In ruins. Silently enter the church. Go by the Butcher shops, Bakeries, Haircutters, Garage, Cafes all in rubble. Old cars burned to a shell, red brown rusted... sewing machines, tables, chairs, machines, bicycles...household and shop items rusted to the same color. It is here for us to see and REMEMBER. Now we are off to find a McDonald's...quite far away as we are in the countryside...not for hamburgers!
SOME THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS:
>We have a daily ritual. In the morning David gets up and takes a walk. I then get dressed and put the bed and all our loose gear away in the back and cover it with a blanket. The van is tickity boo, a sailors saying for everything in it's place. Then maybe breakfast if we are hungry which is usually muesli with walnuts and raisins and soya milk. Sometimes we cook something. We usually do some kind of picnic for lunch and then dinner in the van. Which means the table and a chair is put up. Wine for the cooks, as usual me the sous chef and David the cook as I am known to blow up stoves! At bedtime, all the loose gear comes out and has it's place on top of the stove sink cover. David puts the cozy bed up and climbs in. I set up my toilet! Then hop into bed.
>French trees are butchered. The branches are pruned very far down...so they cannot be natural. Each branch has a big knob on it. The funny thing is that I have come to think of them as French Trees and I kind of like them!
>Baguettes....what an addiction. We often see people rushing home with a couple but one of them is bitten off at the end.
> Baby sheep everywhere. And there are lovely donkeys.
>Noriko...you should look up Montmorillon in France. They have a big writers festival like Sechelt.
>We are discussing whether we will go to Morocco. We have been advised not to take our car several times by people who know. We might just take a tour. We shall see. We are having such a wonderful time following our noses with no deadlines that I think that might just be how this trip goes for us. We don't have a need to mark places off the list...we do have a need to have a good time.
Wonderful commentary Lou. You take the reader along with you. Would it be possible to include some of David's photos to illustrate your story?
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