For The Love of Travel

Nantes to Paris took us 5 hours of driving and despite the drizzly conditions, we made good time arriving mid afternoon. Found our AirB&B without any trouble and all the entry instructions worked like a charm….until we got to the 5th floor flat and lifted the mat for the key…..no key. Arrrgh!

Safe to say that what then transpired ….was ‘post meridiem horribilis’. I hadn’t contacted hosts with revised arrival time so they hadn’t placed key under mat. Were coming to do so in about 2 hrs. John, Terry and I agreed they’d stay with cases outside flat, while I agreed with AirB&B hosts to short circuit by going to pick up key across town ……BUT King Charles decided to visit that afternoon, and the centre of Paris was in lock down around the Louvre (where I needed to get past)…so traffic was CRAZY. ARGH…..Did 5 kms in one and a half hrs, parked illegally down tiny street …..only to realise I didn’t have any internet, so couldn’t read host messages. I found a restaurant with internet, read message, then went to flat and rang the flat code to pick up key, with no response at the other end. ARGH. Contacted John to explain….said I was coming back keyless (could he try contacting hosts). By the time I arrived back totally frazzled, host had visited, let John and Terry into flat and explained arrangements. Needed drink….got one…or two. Doesn’t gin do wonders for such a comedy of errors! Mental note: always confirm arrival time with hosts!!!!

The next day, our first stop for the day…the Gertrude Stein/Pablo Picasso exhibition, on the story of the pair’s amazing friendship, organised by the Musee to mark the 50th anniversary of Pablo’s death.

Gertrude was a writer and poet, who moved to Paris in 1903 shortly after the arrival of Picasso, then a young artist. Their membership of the city’s bohemian community as well as their artistic freedom, were informed by their status as foreigners and their ‘marginality’. Their friendship crystallised around their respective work, which laid the foundation for Cubism and literary avant-gardes of the 20thC. Gertrude was the first person to collect artwork by Pablo and wrote about her friendship with him in “The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas”. Pablo respected her writing, earning her the nickname, ‘the literary Cubist’.

A stroll in the Luxembourg gardens and called past ‘Bread and Roses’, tempting Terry and John with their pastries and tarts…..succumbed of course!

Followed by a lunch @ Georgette restaurant…yummy fish rillette with coriander as an entree and stone bass for the main.

Later that night, crossing Alexandre III bridge, captured this image from the car…….

First stop Candes-Saint-Martin, one of the French ‘beau villages’, and at the confluence of the Vienne and Loire rivers. Lovely colourful mudflats too!

Checked out the church, whose statues all had their heads removed (maybe during the French Revolution?).

Evidence of Gallo-Roman occupation was found in 19th century excavations, particularly in the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace which crowns the hill. The village takes its name – and its main claim to fame- from the church which took the place of the 4th century monastery where St Martin, Bishop of Tours and ‘Apostle to the Gauls’, died in 397.

Next to Fontevraud abbey – thirteen hectares of ancient buildings sitting within a lush landscape. At the heart of all this is the main priory, which links the Abbey’s most beautiful buildings – the magnificent abbey church, which overlooks the entire site, the Romanesque kitchens, the chapter house, the cloisters and their gardens regularly adorned by contemporary artworks.  Droney took a lovely pic of the huge estate. 

The octagonal form of this building and its roof prickling with pointy chimneys and fish-scale slating, have been a subject of much reflection for historians. The ‘kitchens’ of Fontevraud were in fact a smokehouse, where fish (mostly salmon, then abundant in the Loire) was prepared, constituting the nuns’ staple diet – Fontevraud smoked salmon.

Along the Loire river and its tributaries, galleries have been carved into the hillsides made of limestone. Horizontal troglodytism exists in different regions of France, but there is an extraordinary concentration of sites near Saumur and Chinon. Between Montsoreau and Saumur, the hillside is crammed with caves. We visited 2 ‘caves de vin’…one with nimble goats and John, entertaining us more than the vignieron 🙂

…..the next one though was fab …. La “Grande-Vignolle” in Turquant. We got 3 bottles of delicious red to take with us and it was a great example of a ‘seigneurial’ troglodytic manor. 

Arrived late arvo into Angers, settled into accommodation, got Vietnamese ’emporter’ (takeaway) for dinner and flaked!

We decided our only real stop today would be at the Chateau de Angers. It’s situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Maine river, and was occupied in turn by Neolithic man, Gauls and Romans. Cradle of the Plantagenet dynasty, the palace of the Counts of Anjou was erected here in the 10th c. The fortress, with its impressive 500 m-long ramparts and 17 towers, was constructed in 1230. The Dukes of Anjou built the great chapel, royal lodge and gatehouse during the 14thC and 15thC. In the late 16thC, the tower-tops were levelled in order to adapt the fortifications for the use of artillery, including cannons. A prison until 1856 and a barracks until 1947, this historic landmark, now managed by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, is a showcase for the unique medieval masterpiece, the Apocalypse Tapestry.

The Apocalypse Tapestry was commissioned around 1377 by Louis I, Duke of Anjou, son of one King of France and brother of another. It’s the largest medieval tapestry known in the world.

Its history is turbulent. It was certainly used as a monumental decoration for special occasions.   The 90 different scenes tell the story of the Book of Revelation – the Bible’s last gasp of horror, retribution and redemption.

It was made after the 100 yrs War and pestilence (plague and famine) had killed millions in Europe. The tapestry is grotesque and daunting, yet mesmerising in its beauty and intricacy.  

Revelation was written by St John the Divine, who had been banished by the Romans to the Aegean island off of Patmos (apparently after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering no injuries).  It marks the final battle between good and evil –  Satan as a dragon and Christ as a lamb.  

It’s remarkable that the tapestry exists, given that during the French Revolution, it was looted, cut into pieces, and used as floor mats and blankets for horses. The pieces were gathered back by a ‘canon/edict ‘of the Cathedral and all but 16 were found and restored.

It tells you all you need to know about fear – and hope.

An hour’s journey to get to Nantes, and visit Trentemoult, a former fishing village belonging to the town of Reze, now a hipster centre with artists-a-plenty and brightly painted cottages from the 18th and 19thC. The houses are usually set over 3 floors, with the lowest only being used for storage as the Loire bursts its banks regularly. 

Terry and John recommended we ‘swan’ past Les Machines on the west side of the Ile de Nantes -inhabited by whimsical animatronic creatures inspired by Jules Verne’s writings and Leonardo da Vinci’s fanciful gizmos  and brought to life by Francois Delaroziere. The Grand Elephant, all 12 metres of him, was unfortunately in ‘maintenance’, so only a pic of his face. Awh!

We visited Rosalind, Terry’s cousin, who’s lived in France for over 30 years. She’s renowned as a contralto in the chorus of the Nantes Opera company but importantly, has had solo parts. She’s had a science, linguistics and arts background….amazing person, who is sooo hospitable! And, made us a great dinner: salmon and mackerel as entree; vege salad as main; these gorgeous little parcels of differently flavoured custard cream…yum! And can I mention Ros enticed me to try ….’John Powers whiskey’, (she recently got when travelling in Ireland)…..it was GREAT! So smoothe and mellow, given 3 distillations… I’m hooked!