Chateau de Val

A few weeks ago, when Pan's sister was visiting, we decided to talk a little road trip.  We wanted to see the Chateau de Val, and on the way we stopped to take some pictures of the landscape.  Isn't it just gorgeous?

In the picture above, you can see the view of the castle from the road.  Can you see it?  

Some history:

The last family to live in the castle were evicted by EDF, the French Electric company, in 1946.  EDF decided to flood the valley to make a dam, and in the process also evicted a few towns that were located in the valley.  EDF had assumed that the dam would drown the castle, but after the flooding, the castle stayed unharmed and was not touched by the water level.  EDF asked the family if they wanted to return to the castle, but they said no because the farm and gardens had disappeared.  So when you look at the pictures, you can imagine that where the water is now, 60 years ago, there were villages and farmland.  EDF didn't want the responsibility of maintaining the castle, so they sold it to the nearby town of Bort-les-Orgues.

A perfect view of what was the valley, before the dam.

The beams in the tower roof.

Chateau de Villandry

yes, i have a passion for castles, so not only did we visit the chateau de st germain, but we also visited the chateau de villandry.  the chateau de villandry is a castle in the loire valley.  there are castles at almost every street corner in that area but we only had time to visit one! 

From wiki:

     The Château de Villandry is a castle-palace located in Villandry.   The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as Colombier until the 17th century. Acquired in the early 16th century by Jean Le Breton, France's Controller-General for War under King Francis I, a new chateau was constructed around the original 14th-century keep.   The château remained in the Le Breton family for more than two centuries until it was acquired by the Marquis de Castellane. During the French Revolution the property was confiscated and in the early 19th century Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother.

     In 1906, Joachim Carvallo purchased the property and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing it and creating what many consider to be the most beautiful gardens anywhere. Its famous Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. The gardens are laid out in formal patterns created with low box hedges.
     Still owned by the Carvallo family, the Château de Villandry is open to the public and is one of the most visited châteaux in France.

As we noticed, the family doesn't actually live in the castle itself, but in some buildings that were once for farming or servants.  We only visited the main castle.

 Le Chateau de Villandry

 

the castle facade

some "outbuildings" to the right of the castle where we think the family now lives.

a view of the right wing of the castle and the 14th century keep (in the back) and the moat surrounding the castle.

 

the kitchen, my favorite room.  the wonderful collection of copper pots and the gorgeous wooden furniture and old fashioned tiled floor.

the fireplace in the kitchen, which was the primary stove and oven.  i would love to have that in my kitchen to let simmer my soups!

 

the view from the top of the keep!

a view of the gardens from the masters bedroom.  what wonderful detail...  in the summer it is filled with color!

some other châteaux i would love to visit:

• Château de Chenonceau (we were supposed to go saturday, but we ran out of time...)
• Château de Val
• Château de Cordes (we actually went once, but it was closed...)
• Château d'Azay-le-Rideau
• Château d'Amboise
• Château de Sully-sur-Loire
• Château Royal de Blois
• Château d'Anet
• Château de Fontainebleau
• Château de Vaux le Vicomte
• many others...

Chateau de St Germain

Last week with my mom, we visited the Chateau de St German which is now an archeology museum.  here are some fun pictures.  but to think that i was once obsessed with archeology?  what was i thinking???

the castle from the gardens

  

the court yard, view of the chapel

a model of the castle from above.  the castle is aaaaaaall the way in the back.  with amazing gardens in the front.  imagine weeding...

a staircase..  i love the brick detail

a gigantic fireplace.  look how tall it is, compared to the chairs!

  

a cool doorknob and lock.  the F is for Francois I.

the jugs they used for wine and soup back in the day...

old school dice...  pretty original...

the needles they used to sew...  and some thimbles in the back.

 

some spoons.

well that was what i thought was the most interesting finds on my journey through the museum.  but the castle itself and the gardens are pretty amazing, not to mention the view!

Sancerre

My dear mother arrived in Paris a few days ago, and so far we have been busy busy bees!  shopping, museums, cafes, dinners, cheese, and...  wine!
yesterday we decided to go visit Sancerre.
from wiki:
Sancerre is a medieval hilltop town (ville), commune and canton in the Cher department of central France overlooking the Loire River.  It is noted for its wine.

I went to sancerre a few years ago with a friend.  she knows one of the winemakers very well, so we visit the vineyards and had a merry old time tasting wine.  of course i brought some bottles back to paris, but unfortunately there was no wine left after my first night home.  =(  so with me mother and aunt, we decided to take another trip to restock my cellar.  and it was awesome.  first we visited:

Chateau de Tracy

It's a beautiful chateau that has been in the family since before 1200.  The same family still lives there and they have been making wine since before 1396.  Here you can read about the history of the family and the vineyards.  The guardian was very pleasant, as they are closed on Sundays.  He was very nice and let us taste some wines, and we came away with two cases.  =)  Next on our trip was the:

Domaine Vincent Delaporte

(me, the father of the vineyard, my mum, my auntie)

We had an appointment so we were received very well.  We spent 3 or 4 hours with the vigneron.  He explained to us all different facets of the wine business and culture.  He took us on a tour of the cellar and it was fascinating.

the "pipette" to extract wine for the barrels.  its a barrel of white wine so you need to look closely to see the wine in the tube.

filling the glasses with the pipette.  red wine this time so u can see it better!

looking in the barrel of red wine. 

bottles and bottles of wine waiting to be packaged and shipped off. 

all in all, after our little trip we had 16 cases of wine.  hopefully theyll stay in our cellar a little longer than last time i brought back wine from sancerre...

our trunk jam packed with cartons of wine. 

in the garage....

my uncle putting his bottles away in his "bomb shelter" wine cellar.  (yes he did break one in the process, but shhhhh!)