After learning my lesson with the Bretagne posts, I promise that this will be highlights from the trip, more specifically, our trip in pictures.
As part of our Toussaint vacation, we spend three days exploring the chateaux of the Loire Valley, a region just to the south of Rennes and Bretagne. Although the weather was not perfect the whole trip, the chateaux were not any less beautiful. We traveled from the defensive fortresses of the Middle Ages, meant to defend against the British, to the Renaissance residences of kings and queens, spanning a few centuries on our voyage. So, get ready for six weeks of French art history and culture lessons in one blog post. Warning: very long post.
As part of our Toussaint vacation, we spend three days exploring the chateaux of the Loire Valley, a region just to the south of Rennes and Bretagne. Although the weather was not perfect the whole trip, the chateaux were not any less beautiful. We traveled from the defensive fortresses of the Middle Ages, meant to defend against the British, to the Renaissance residences of kings and queens, spanning a few centuries on our voyage. So, get ready for six weeks of French art history and culture lessons in one blog post. Warning: very long post.
Château de Langeais, (XI- XVI century) a residence of important members of the French aristocracy in the centuries before the French Revolution. This chateau is famous because it was here that Anne of Bretagne married her first husband, Charles VIII in 1492. She was the last Duchess of an independent Bretagne and after the fall of Rennes in the last Franco- Breton war, she had no choice but to marry the King of France, thereby giving Bretagne to the French and making it part of the country. However, when she was married, in the contract there was a clause that stipulated that should Charles VIII die without a male heir, she would have to marry his successor, to make sure that Bretagne could never again become independent. So, in 1499 she married Louis XII and for the second time in her life, was crowned Queen of France. It was a good castle to visit because the rooms were furnished with either the real furniture of Anne de Bretagne of furniture from that time period, so you got a feel of what the rooms were like 600 years ago. There was also a room with wax dolls, all dressed in stunning costumes, representing the marriage of Charles VIII and Anne.
The Loire valley and looking out onto the Loire River. It is a beautiful region, cut through by the river, and because of the relatively temperate climate, there are a lot of chateaux in the region as a lot of the aristocracy and royalty built county and weekend homes there. A large city in the region, Nantes and it’s department, used to be part of Bretagne and today that is still a heated political issue. *France is broken up into regions and those are broken up into departments.
Château de Chambord; constructed primarily in the first half of the 16th century. This is really the grand castle of the whole trip for most of the students. Prior to the trip, we study and take a test on this chateau and learn how to approach it when we arrive. The key is, like I am doing in the photo, to walk all the way to the back so that you can admire it from afar and see the whole structure. You gain a bigger appreciation for the architecture like that. Chambord is stunning. There is no other way to put it.
One of the cool things about Chambord is that you wind your way up to the top of the building, climbing through all the rooms and halls and finally you exit onto the roof and get a breathtaking view of the grounds. That central path is where I stood to take the first picture, to give you a point of reference.
The film above is a time lapse I took looking out of our hotel room in Tours, where we stayed for the two nights of our trip. I know, I'm getting fancy now with the video thing.
This is the interior view of the gallery built over the river, the bottom level. This gallery has enormous historical significance because during the second World War, the river it was built over marked the boundary between liberated and occupied France. One side of the gallery led to freedom, the other to German control. The Germans patrolled the river to make sure no one tried to escape over to the other side. But, members of the French resistance, who had keys to both doors at the ends of the galleries, snuck Jewish refuges across at night to safety, right under the German's noses.
Finally, our last stop of the trip, the museum and ancient residence of Robert Tatin. This was a garden he created. The placement, like the openings between Stonehenge, all have symbolic meanings. I liked his paintings better, but we were not allowed to take pictures of those inside the museum. A very different stop than all the others on the trip and a good way to end the trip.