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France Trip, April, 2008
Tuesday, April 8
Today we set out to explore Anjou. What a trip! We drove to Saumur to see the big chateau situated on a hill over the Loire river. Beautiful city and bridge.
Chateau de Saumur
On the way to Fontevraud Abbey, we drove along the limestone cliffs that line the Loire. The limestone here is very white and is called tufa. It makes for beautiful stonework in buildings. Along the drive, the river was on our left, and the cliffs on our right. The vineyards were above the cliffs, and mushrooms grew in the caves below. Buildings were incorporated right into the cliff faces.
Caves in the cliffs and a windmill above
We ate lunch near the abbey, then went on to tour Fontevraud. This abbey was always closely tied with the Plantagenet family and the Counts of Anjou. In the abbey church is where Henry Plantagenet (Henry II of England), Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Richard the Lionheart are buried. This was very interesting for us, since we had read Sharon Kay Penman's books, and especially Time and Chance, about Henry and Eleanor. Richard was purportedly a homosexual, so his marriage to Isabel de'Angouleme was not a happy one. Nevertheless, she is buried in the abbey church also.
On the way into Fontevraud Abbey
The Abbey church
The final resting place for Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England,
who carried on a
famous love/hate relationship during the Middle Ages in France and England.
Eleanor was a
very intelligent and powerful woman, a singular personality for her times,
and a perfect match for Harry.
Also the resting place for Richard the Lionheart and his wife Isabel
So you'll know we weren't kidding...
The abbey had a huge, Romanesque kitchen and we also toured a spooky set of subterranean tunnels under the infirmary.
The romanesque Abbey kitchen
We drove on to Chaintre to visit two vineyards: Domaine Filliatreau and Chateau de Chaintres. (Found a great 2003 red wine at Domaine Filliatreau -- very nice.) Drove to Bourgueil to taste wine at Clos de Abbaye. We bought some wine on behalf of Count de Vanssay for his cellar at the chateau. (He had given us a list ahead of time.) We did this because it's not polite to just taste wine at these vineyards, you're expected to buy something. Since we can't take it all back on the plane, we bought some for Count Guy.
The Domaine Filliatreau winery where we did some wine-tasting. The 90-something-year-old
grandma
helps run the place. She's still lifting boxes of wine, and she tried
valiantly to decipher our bad French.
Chateau de Chaintres
For dinner we stopped at La Chartre sur le Loir to eat at the Hotel de France, which was on the town square. Many French restrooms are for both genders, often with the urinals just behind a small wall. The wash basins are for everybody. Very strange to Americans. Public restrooms are also for both genders, and can be very dirty, but fortunately there are stall doors. So far, toilet paper has been available everywhere, which is very different from Italy.
When we returned to the chateau, we enjoyed herbal tea and conversation with the Count and the Countess (who always carries Monsieur Cacoo around) and her mother and another chateau visitor. It has been very cold most of the time we've been in France. And rainy.