Day: August 18, 2016

Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th August

My friend Linda, who had driven down from Normandie, and I just had Wednesday evening and Thursday together in Saumur before I planned to leave for England on Friday so we planned to make the most of the time. Wednesday remained mainly dull and a bit chilly for me after the warm weather we living there had been enjoying in the Dordogne and I was glad that I’d decided at the last minute to pack a warm top. Luckily it brightened up after a dull start on Thursday so we were able to make the most of the sights around the city, especially including the chateau.

Almost all of the city including the chateau is built from a lovely creamy white local stone called ‘tuffeau’ which gives it a very bright and airy appearance. What is very noticeable, though, is that because the stone is quite soft, the older buildings have become very eroded by the weather on their north-facing sides with the others remaining relatively pristine. And because the stone is soft, it has also attracted the unwelcome attention of idiots at street level who couldn’t resist carving their initials, even on some of the quite historical buildings.

Here are some of the shots that I took in and around the city on the Wednesday evening before we found a nice little restaurant for dinner. First, a shot of our hotel on the north bank of the river Loire.

Some views of the city and chateau from our hotel.

Crossing the bridge over the Loire from the north to the south bank.

Now some random shots of the city that I took while we were just walking around sight-seeing.

And here’s the last shot that I took looking back at the chateau as we were strolling back to our hotel.

The weather on Thursday didn’t look too promising to start with and it looked as though we were in for another dull day, as the next few shots show. However, the sun broke through later in the morning after which time it became quite hot and we were grateful to be able to sit in the open air under a sunshade for our lunch. I took the next few shots at the start of the day.

A short way down this street is the house where Coco Chanel was born.

The sun was just beginning to break through as we approached Place St. Pierre.

Here are a couple of shots of the church of Saint-Pierre and it’s mighty old organ.

Now Place St Pierre itself, which seems to be the tourist hub of the city and the most desirable place to have lunch. But you have to be early because places are soon snapped up as even during this ‘quiet’ August the city is full of visitors, the majority of whom seeming to be British.

After a very pleasant lunch, we began our hike up to the entrance of the chateau. Unfortunately Saumur, like most of the historic cities of France in my experience, is ill-prepared to cope with visitors, like my sister, with any kind of disability, and even if they could get up to the chateau by road, they’d never be able to climb the enormous flight of steps to get in.

Now the last climb up to the chateau’s main entrance.

The chateau of Saumur has had a rather chequered history having been destroyed and rebuilt several times, once by Henry II of England in the late 12th century. It was last used by Napoleon as a prison and before being acquired by the community of Saumur at the beginning of the 20th century ‘for the then price of a horse’, it had not been occupied as a residence for many years and had fallen into ruin.

And without being uncharitable, I’m afraid it shows. Most great houses, even former great ones, are full of furniture and artifacts left behind from previous residents, but there is none of that at the chateau of Saumur. In fact it is largely empty and it appears that the executors have scoured France (and beyond) in an effort to find items to put on show within its walls.

From our experience, these mainly consist of a succession of large, bare rooms, a couple with tapestries hung on their walls but the majority having glass cases around their perimeters containing chinaware and ceramics. So if visiting, don’t expect the children to be entertained for very long!

Here are some views looking back over the river from the chateau’s ramparts.

Now something that the kids present did seem to like though, the chateau’s well and looking down it into its black depths!

And now some shots of the interior taken as we walked around.

Finally we came to ‘la salle souterraine’, or underground room. This had had to be excavated during an earlier stage of the chateau’s restoration and my guess is that at one time, it was some kind of dungeon. Whatever it was, now there’s no evidence and it must have left the executors scratching their heads to decide what to do with it. They ended up creating some kind of weird historical science-fiction-like exhibit that has absolutely nothing to do with either the chateau and/or its history.

As the shot above shows, the lighting is subdued and there are models of strange early twentieth century scientist-type figures with scientific ‘instruments’ standing around a heap of something or other with purple lights hanging from the ceiling over it, the whole scene accompanied by weird electronic music.

Sorry, but a very big ‘NO’ in my book and a complete failure. Why not put in some kind of cellar or workshop accompanied by the sounds of metal bashing, chains clanking, dogs growling and stuff like that. It seems that those responsible for the chateau of Saumur are somewhat lacking in the imagination exhibited by the people responsible for showing off old buildings here in the Dordogne who make the experience far more interesting and entertaining!

And then back outside into the sunlight, thank goodness.

So that was it for Thursday afternoon. In the evening we found a marvellous restaurant, La Bourse, where we sat outside and treated ourselves to a delicious (and amazingly large) helping of ‘Moules-Frites’ washed down with a very passable white wine. Superb! Then it was time to stroll back to our hotel for gin and tonics on the terrace with the chateau lit up in blue, white and red over on the other side of the river.

A great way to end the evening. Afterwards I checked the latest weather and entered the wind figures into my spreadsheet before filing my GAR form ready for my entry into the UK. Then it was off to bed and a good night’s sleep before the next day’s flight north to Abbeville and over the Channel to the UK.