The Loire Castles 2012

The vacation in the year 2012 should be a "little flatter" - that means vacation in the flat country. We thought, the valley of the Loire in France would be just the right place.
We booked with Interchalet a reasonably priced summer cottage near Chinon. Near- that means a lonesome hamlet in La Roche-Clermault, 6 kilometers away from Chinon. The cottage was not a palace but absolutely sufficient for 4 persons. It's notable: the house was in the midst of the winery of Monsieur Bruno Préveaux.
There are a lot of palaces and castles in the surroundings. Many vineyards there look like small chateaux, and in the great and big castles was written a considerable part of the French history.
Chinon itself is located at the river Vienne, an affluent of the Loire,a picturesque, medieval town with a big castle high above the city and many small streets, lanes and squares.
The surroundings of the cottage is lovely and bicycle-friendly. You can easily bike on asphalted roads and farm tracks between vineyards and grainfields. You pass small hamlets, villages and lonesome farms. But it's only right at nice weather. We had'nt every day. Almost every day we had one rain shower, at least!
Monsieur Préveaux' excellent red and rosé wine took comfort in the bad weather. And the visits in the marvellous castles and abbeys were a good compensation for rain, wind and low temperatures.

The surroundings

The wheat for the typical French baguettes is growing here.

Old willow near La Roche Clermault

The vineyard looks like a small "chateau".

The first day was sunny. We were hoping for nice summer days. First we explored the immediate surroundings.

A nice summery landscape, isn't?

The wine of Chinon is one of the best in the Loire region.

The vineyards are very well maintained.

Chinon

Our small hamlet is called Launay and is part of the village La Roche-Clermault.It is south of the river Vienne. The town Chinon is 6 kilometers away. The historic center is on the north side of the Vienne.

View of the bridge over the
Vienne.

The Vienne

The old castle
overlooking the
 picturesque town

In the history of Chinon Jeanne d'Arc played a major role. Here she asked Charles VII, to chase away the English.

Riverside road
Quai Jeanne d'Arc

Rue Jean-Jacques
Rousseau

View to the castle

Former cave homes

Above the roofs of the city

We liked to visit Chinon. Here we could experience old history, had good opportunities for shopping (Super U, Intermarché, Leclerc ), on Thursdays strolling on the farmers market, eating in nice restaurants and fill up our tanks

On Thursdays is market day

The Cardinal and his city: Richelieu

Who doesn't know him, the "bad" Cardinal Richelieu against him the brave three musketeers were fighting in Duma's novel or in one of the many films? He was the famous prime minister of the king Louis XIII. But he was not only a politician, he had built a city as well: an ideal city (cité ideale) , the city of Richelieu . It is arisen quasi on the drawing board. In a symmetric network of streets with the Grand Rue in the middle he erected magnificent houses, a church, a market hall and a park with a castle.

Aerial photo of  Richelieu

Richelieu is only about 20 km away from us. We park at the Place des Religieuses, one of the two big squares on both ends of  the Grand Rue and walk alongside the  stately main axis of the city. Magnifique buildings with big round-arch portales are right and left of the impressive street.

The Espace Richelieu, a museum, is in one of the houses. but we pass on visiting it. We reach the market place, the Place du Marché. Eye catcher here is the neo-classical  church  Notre Dame.  Around the square we see small shops, the town hall, the post office and restaurants. The wooden market hall is just renovated. We can see it only from the outside and scaffolded.

We walk through one of the 4 considerable gates and come to the Place du Cardinal with a big marble statue of the famous cardinal. Behind it the palace garden begins. A long wide way lined with big, old trees along a small canal leads us to the place where the castle had been in former times. Unfortunately, the French revolutionary had destroyed the castle absolutely in 1789.  Only 3 pavillons are left from the former chateau.  But the park is  well worth seeing with its old trees and the nice rose garden.

The Musketeers
of Intermarché

The musketeers we visited too. They are in the logo of the supermarket Intermarché. We have Saturday afternoon and they offered crevettes to a nice price. This will be a tasty evening meal. They are easily to prepare: in boiling water for some minutes and to eat with mayonnaise and fresh baguette.

La Grand Rue

Notre Dame

The Cardinal

Castle Park

Place du Cardinal

Rose in the rose garden

Our evening meal