Week 37: Tours of the Area

One of the many ornate flower arrangements at Chenonceau

This week brought us a returning client, Mina, from Atlanta. She has a business creating and selling gluten-free products. Her production facility is in Paris, so she travels to France a few times a year. We first met her in September. We have some mutual friends, and she had just heard about Maison Conti from them. We enjoyed her very much so were enthusiastic to hear that she would be returning and wanted to begin her trip to France with four days here. She also booked Rick's tour services for two days, which gives me the opportunity to blog about some beautiful locations not far from us, Chartres Cathedral and the castle of Chenonceau. I have Rick to thank for taking the photos this week.

Chartres Cathedral is, in my opinion, the most beautiful and spiritual in France. I am not alone in this evaluation. It does cast a spell over people if they're open to it. There is a wonderful video about the history of the place and the construction of the building called Sacred Geometry. It's a fascinating subject. The spot where the cathedral currently stands was already sacred to the pagans who built an altar there thousands of years ago. The first Christian church was constructed in about 900 and burned to the ground in 1194. The townspeople felt that a miracle had been performed by the virgin when it was discovered that her tunic, which was a priceless relic the church possessed, was completely undamaged in the fire. They felt that the fire was a direct command by the virgin to rebuild and create a much more worthy edifice in her honor. People of all stations, classes, professions and ages hauled stones to the spot and, elbow to elbow, built a new structure in a remarkably short time. That kind of cooperation could be thought of as a miracle in itself!

An American choir exiting the front of the church. Chartres remains a very popular pilgrimage spot.

The pillars of the church are carved with elongated figures. This was a unique style in its time.

The quality of the stone carvings is extraordinary.

Most of the population of the time was illiterate. Stained glass windows were their books.

Here are the signs of the zodiac. Astrology was not separate from religion in the Middle Ages.

The atmosphere is calm and meditative. People light their candles and say their prayers

Chartres is an easy drive from Maison Conti. The castle of Chenonceau is a bit further but well worth the trouble. Of course the Loire Valley was the capital of the kings of France during the Renaissance, so many spectacular castles, both large and small, were built during that time. It was the epoch when castles were no longer stormed and destroyed. The Hundred Years War was over and there was relative calm in the land, so castles could be built with grace and charm, rather than as defensive bunkers. Chenonceau is certainly the best example of this kind of structure. It is the most popular spot in the valley and for very good reason. Many women influenced the decoration of this castle, as it was inhabited by wives and mistresses of the kings of France. It is a relatively small château and still has some of the original furnishing. It's a jewel, but during the high season, difficult to appreciate for all the tourists that flock there by the busload. What a wonderful experience, then, to visit on a sunny February day and have the place practically to one's self!

The entrance to the grounds of the castle.

Pretty as a picture. I've never seen it without crowds.

The beautiful doorway beckons you to enter this magical space.

In winter the fireplaces are aglow with huge logs. The tapestries add warmth.

Ornate tile work has been worn out by feet. You see only traces of the originals around edges of rooms.

Rose bedroom

Black bedroom, created by a queen who mourned the death of her husband.

Mina descending the stone staircase.

Some of the furniture is priceless, including this inlaid chest.

This stove was installed during WWI when Chenonceau became a hospital for wounded soldiers.

The famous gallery that spans the Cher River.

View from the gallery window. The river flows under a bridge which supports the room.

I asked Rick especially to take photos of the flower arrangements which grace the rooms at Chenonceau throughout the year. It's impressive that even in winter the bouquets are so extravagant.

 

The week coming up is a busy one for clients. Two lovely women from Australia arrive today to do some etching with me for 9 days. Other clients fill other rooms as well, so this winter is turning out to be much more lively than last.

Week 23: Fall Fading

We're in the last and most glorious days of fall...the colors are spectacular and the weather continues to teeter between sweet and chilly.

I had lots of time in the atelier at the beginning of the week. I finished my star book by adding covers and ties. I liked the way I was able to attach the ribbons with buttons which I sewed on with waxed thread right through the book board.

 

I also started working on a series of illustrations on gessoed press board. This first one is inspired by a photo I have of my mother when she was a child holding a racket and ball. Of course I took a little creative license with the details and it is certainly not a portrait of her.

 

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Rick's sister Betsy and husband John came to visit us at the end of the week. They will stay well into next week, so I'll have more adventures to relate on the next blog installment.

We hadn't seen Betsy in several years. One of the few things we regret about our move to France is the infrequency with which we're able to visit with the people we love. Betsy has had a farm on the Oregon coast for 35 years. She has two beautiful and intelligent daughters. Abby went to Middlebury in Vermont and Zoe graduated from Stanford, but they have now both returned to Oregon and want nothing more than to work on the farm with their mother. The three women work together growing salad greens and flowers for high-end restaurant clients in the area. Zoe has her own business as well, growing all kinds of vegetables and making weekly basket deliveries for her 100+ subscribers. She plows her fields using Percheron horses. John is an archeologist and works for the Oregon government verifying that potential building plots will not damage Native American or Neolithic sites and artifacts. I really enjoyed how he characterized his move to the west. He grew up in Washington, D.C. but said that he was part of the generation which moved west in wagons...Volkswagens.

We took John and Betsy to Amboise, one of our favorite cities in the Loire Valley. Although we've visited it many times, we have never taken the tour of the castle. It's one the prettiest in the area, inhabited by François I, who brought the renaissance to France.

From inside the grounds one has a commanding view over the town, much of which was built during the 16th century. The streets are still serpentine and the buildings are ancient but well-maintained.

This time of year the colors along the river are deep and muted. The Loire river, the longest in France, flows lazily past some of the most beautiful homes and castles in the country.

François invited Leonardo Da Vinci to come live in Amboise at the end of his life. François supported him and gave him a beautiful house. In exchange Leonardo welcomed the king and engaged him in fascinating conversation in the evening. The Louvre in Paris owns the Mona Lisa because Leonardo died in Amboise. In fact François was at his death bed. Leornardo is buried on the grounds of the château in a chapel built for his remains.

Here lies Leonardo. Has there ever been anyone quite like him, either before or since?

The view from the castle garden shows Leonardo's house, in red brick, at the right of the photo. François would walk over after dinner for his evening visit.

The castle gardens are charming. We especially enjoyed the boxwood shrubs clipped into round balls.

It is pleasant to sit in this formal garden and enjoy a panoramic view over the entire village and beautiful Loire river.

Week 14: Garden Visit

The Queen's Chair, a giant natural sculpture on display at Chaumont-sur-Loire

The rhythm of life has changed dramatically as people are beginning the rentrée (the reentry). There is a hint of Autumn in the air, we find ourselves reaching for sweaters, and the days are shorter, a few leaves are thinking about turning colors. Fewer meals are served on the terrace as the beginnings and ends of days are cooler. Less people arrive on the Place, the castle is only open now on weekends. It's time to order the firewood and get the fuel tank filled. Other signs of the end of the season: Celine, the hairdresser is back. Rick and I no longer look so scruffy. Anne and Christine suddenly reappeared and their shutters are open again after weeks of being firmly shut. They have been soaking up the sun on a Greek Island. And speaking of islands, Quinn and family are somewhere in the Adriatic as I write this, enjoying "the Mediterranean as it once was" (as the Croatian tourist board slogan would have it).

We had several quiet days this week, although we weren't completely free. We did have some Russians staying with us for a couple of nights. Two families, each with two children. The fathers are cousins. Those days were not quiet at all as the four children were all under the age of 8. One family now lives in New York and the other in Israel, so they meet in Europe during the summer and spend time together. Monday was Adi's birthday, she was the oldest girl, turning 7 at Maison Conti. Her father got up early to drive to Vibraye for cake, as Monday is the day our own boulangerie is closed. He arrived back at the house about 9am just as everyone was coming down for breakfast. He was carrying two huge boxes of large and small cakes and numerous pastries of every description. Adi showed her wisdom by asking to delay the cake consumption until the evening. I was impressed by her restraint. They had a long day visiting the Loire Valley and then returned to the house. We had set them up a big festive table in the dinning room and they celebrated into the night. 

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We profited, as they say over here, from a few days without responsibilities, and did some touring ourselves. Most of this post is devoted to a garden visit we made early in the week. We have been hearing about Chaumont-sur-Loire from Georges. From June to October each year numerous landscape architects are invited to create imaginative gardens which all respond to a theme. The result is acres of fabulous exposition garden plots which are open to the public. Since this International Festival of Gardens is towards the end of its season, we were anxious to visit and discover what we've been missing. The festival was created in 1992 and is now world renowned.

We opted for the garden tour only, although one can purchase tickets to visit the château itself and the celebrated stables, which when built in the early 1800s were the most sophisticated and best-equipped in the world. The castle is in the château fort style, that is it was fortified to withstand attack. During the Renaissance, when wars were no longer fought at castle walls, buildings became much sleeker and delicate. Kings and nobles tried to convert these old, rather squat castles and added graceful Renaissance touches as they were able. The castle of Montmirail is an excellent example of that, as is Chaumont-sur-Loire. This particular château was purchased by Catherine de Medici who was queen of France from 1547-1559 and a very ruthless character (she was the author of the St Barholomew's Massacre, where thousands of protestants, guests at her own daughter's wedding, were assassinated). The king, her husband, Henry II was very much in love with his long-time mistress Diane de Poitiers and gave her the castle of Chenonceau, the most beautiful and famous château in the Loire valley. Upon the death of the king, Catherine forced Diane to trade Chenonceau for Chaumont. Apparently this was heartbreaking to Diane, but one can't feel too sorry for her. Chaumont-sur-Loire is really a stunning location.

The park is huge, with beautiful manicured lawns and gorgeous old trees and shrubs arranged to create breathtaking views from every angle.

One can walk for hours, (or better yet ride a bike) down well-tended paths that wander through seemingly endless woodlands. Although we didn't see a gardener the whole day, there must be a small army of them as every blade of grass is meticulously trimmed and every tree perfectly manicured.

The vistas over the Loire River are spectacular. We enjoyed watching an art class put their impressions down on paper.

Along one pathway a row of basket chairs were arranged for enjoying the view. I loved the design.

It was a splendid day to enjoy the exposition gardens. There were hundreds of people there at the same time, but the grounds are so immense that we never felt crowded. Twenty-four exposition gardens were created to respond to this year's theme Body and Soul. 

One of my personal favorites was the tea garden, complete with a wall of tea cups at the entry. Each afternoon tea is actually served in the porcelain cups in the charming little garden behind.

The garden itself was a cottage garden filled with a jumble of flowering plants.

Each garden had a panel at the entry with a short explanation of the idea behind the garden design. My favorite was this:

"Mysterious and light, fanciful and joyful, this garden evokes the soul of those departed and works on the idea of reincarnation. The presence of birds brings peace to its visitors." It then quotes this marvelous story by Philippe Cailltaud:

Every day at the end of the 1970s I went to see my grandparents, who lived in a street close to mine. The rue du Haut-Pas in Dieppe. They lived in a flat on the first or second floor. I can't remember now. I often saw my grandmother feeding the birds on the kitchen window ledge. A group of feathered creatures, that was to say the least mixed, had become habitual visitors and came to beg for their sustenance every day. Side-by-side there were pigeons, sparrows and of course a seagull; an emblematic creature of the town, providing the soundtrack of life in Dieppe. It seemed to be the same ones who always came back and my grandmother talked to them. She had a conversation with them. One day she explained to me that these weren't in fact just any old birds: they were the reincarnation of members of her family (and so of mine) that she had known well and who had died at various times in the past. Obviously their appearance had changed a little, but she could recognize them because their fundamental attitudes had remained the same. So Aunt Léontine was still as stingy and surly, Uncle Marcel, miserly, Uncle Ferdinand generous and musical, Aunt Alice reliable and cheery, Godmother still ate as much, and so on and so on. She recognized the dead people who came to visit her. She gave them her little offerings and all these birds found they were given names. Dieppe Metempsychosis. So it seems that in my family, our souls transmigrate into birds.

There were several water gardens, reflecting white puffy clouds, with golden carp swimming below the surface.

We entered one garden through a spiral path that led to a central space where one could relax on hand-crafted chaise lounges. This was purported to be mother nature's birth canal.

Some of the gardens afforded lovely views through the trees and down to the river.

All along there were places to sit and relax and enjoy the many colors, glorious day and pleasant aromas.

 

Ceramic balls of various sizes make wonderful benches

 

Tibetan themed prayer garden

After exiting the exposition gardens, which are re-created by guest gardeners each year, you find another space called the Experimental Garden, created by the regular Château gardening staff. It is evolving but permanent. I am slightly partial to vegetables, so I particularly enjoyed this one, as it is basically a big kitchen garden with its seasonal crops grown and displayed in highly attractive and creative ways.

Vertical seems to be a big theme in the garden and it's such a great way not only to get more space, but allow the produce to grow unencumbered.

If you've been in Paris and seen the famous vertical garden at the Quai Branly, by the new museum near the Eiffel Tower, you know what a gorgeous and exotic thing it can be. Basically a building is covered with a kind of netting that holds soil and an irrigation system. Plants of various shapes, colors and textures are tucked up and down the fabric and create a living wall of plant growth. The technique was first developed here.

 

After hours of garden exploration, one has a whole series of cafés and restaurants to choose from for either a quick refeshment or a full-on meal. No wonder Georges and his family spend two full days here.

We, on the other hand, had to hurry back home to prepare the house for our next visitors.

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The week in Montmirail ended with a Brocante, basically a village-wide garage sale. During the season one can always find one village or another hosting such a sale. This week was our turn.

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Moon rising over the Loire