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| lunch |
Clear blue skies this morning, the mists seem to have gone. After a quick visit to the market in the town square, we head southwards again, this time for the 12C castle at Chinon. This is an imposing chateau built largely by Henry II but somewhat down graded in my opinion, by the addition of rather large, sun-faded dragons curling from the windows & ramparts.
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| can you see the dragon? |
To add to the sense of surreal, someone, with more money than sense, had installed state of the art touch screen technology that proceeded to show the computer literate visitor all about the history whilst for those whose pulse races at the thought of all things high tech, there were artistically place fabric screens onto which the lives of those who once lived here were projected. So much for historical artifacts & one's imagination.
The views down from the battlements onto the old town below were fascinating, narrow medieval streets, higgledy pigeldy roofs cluttered with precariously perched chimneys you could almost smell the street life of the 13thC.
From Chinon we took the road to Poitiers via Richelieu, stopping for lunch a a very pretty, shaded aires du camping car at Champigny sur Veude. Driving through the hamlet, on the left, we had noticed the rather over the top chapel of Sainte-Chapelle de Chamigny-sur-Veude, flanked by a small chateau, moat & crumbling walls, all this suggested that further investigation was required.
Approaching the gate, a rather round lady seated under the shade of a Pernod sun umbrella, collected our euros in exchange for a laminated card in English giving a guide to the 11 brilliantly coloured stained glass windows. This chapel's stained glass would give York Minster's windows a run for their money! The pictures depicted saints doing holy things & members of the Bourbon family all looking suitably angelic!
The gardens & grounds themselves were not much to look at all lawns gravel & box, but l would guess the medieval gardens would have looked pretty similar to those at Villandry. Our ticket included a visit of the chateau's interior, but how to get in proved a little difficult as the Ticket Lady had wagged her finger at the door with the words of entree. During our attempts at breaking & entering, a group of elderly, well to do French visitors began to congregate under the shade of a tree, whilst a small sun-burnt man collected tickets. We began to feel lucky & after handing our ticket over joined the tour group as it entered the guest wing. The house was owned by Americans who visited perhaps about 3 times a year & this was the guest block. The wing was extensively furnished in expensive, bespoke furniture that just shouted $$$$. The ladies clock room had utilized a horse stall from the coach house & now stylishly painted in a Farrow & Ball paint. We all agreed that it was nice to see a chateau that was being used as opposed to being a museum.
The drive through fields of sunflowers & maize waiting to be combined, sleepy hamlets with no signs of life bat the village cat, the exception being the moated & walled town of Richelieu, took us to our overnight stop at Camping du Futor, Avanton, just to the east of Poitiers.
The site was pleasant with the added advantage of wifi which would only work on iPhones!
Today's mileage: 58 miles
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