Category: France

I think the worsening weather (heavy rain returned last night) has caused my appetite towards visiting yet another village in this immediate area to dissipate somewhat because I didn’t really enjoy the small town of Varennes sur Loire yesterday. In fact, it is about as interesting as Swindon on a bad day. I googled the town to see if I had missed anything but no; ‘France This Way’ says very little about the place and, instead, describes other places to visit in the area – Montsoreau, Candes Saint Martin, Fontevraud, etc. So, we have decided to head further south tomorrow (once we have witnessed the Olympic Flame being run through Montsoreau on it’s way to Paris for the 2024 Olympics). Brighton has been wet for the best part of six months and we don’t need more of the same in France. We want to see and feel the sun.

Varennes sur Loire is a rural town located on the north bank of the Loire. To get there I had to cross the same narrow bridge that I drove over nearly a week ago to reach Montsoreau. I thought it narrow that first time (having to bring both wing mirrors in) but it seemed narrower still walking across it. The bridge is strewn with broken mirrors and pieces of plastic.

I found little in Varennes to interest me and because of the impending rain stayed little more than half an hour. There’s an interesting little nature park for the children but otherwise…

We had intended staying in Montsoreau for 3 or 4 days but changed our minds and stayed a full week after learning that the Olympic Flame would be passing through the village on it’s way to Paris for the 2024 Olympics. The arrival of the Flame is a huge event for such a small village and, anyway, Montsoreau is a fine little village with plenty going on and it’s campsite, Camping Isle Verte, has all the facilities we need and more (especially having regard to Nala’s condition). We didn’t need much persuading to stay on but, what to do until the Olympic Flame arrives?

I mentioned in an earlier post that Montsoreau is well placed for us to visit a host of other villages and towns in the area. Indeed, we have already enjoyed nearby Candes Saint Martin and Turquant and I particularly enjoyed visiting the Abbey at Fontevraud. And so it happened that after Montsoreau’s Sunday Market (more about that later in a fresh post on Montsoreau), I set off, a pied, to explore a couple of other villages to the west of Montsoreau being Parnay and Souzay-Champigny. These two were never going to compare with Montsoreau, Candes Saint Martin, Turquant or Fontevraud L’Abbaye, but they each offer something of interest. Over dinner last night I enjoyed a very pleasant red wine from Parnay (a Chateau de Targe, produced by an independent winemaker, Paul Pisani-Ferry) and the waiter recommended their wines above any other in the area in terms of taste and value for money. Parnay has to be worth a visit. Just beyond Parnay is the larger village of Souzay-Champigny (over 700 inhabitants compared with less than 300 in Parnay) with it’s 12th century troglodyte shopping street – surely the first ever shopping mall?

It didn’t take me long to walk to Parnay (it is less than 3 miles from Montsoreau) but sadly the Chateau de Targe was not open for wine tasting when I arrived. Probably just as well given how much I enjoyed the wine last night. I’ll just have to revisit last night’s bar.

The only other thing I would say about Parnay is that the locals seem very proud of the fact it sits on the Greenwich Meridian…

On to Souzay-Champigny, which adjoins Parnay. I managed a few photographs of the troglodyte street but, I think a better time to visit the place would be in April (when an egg fair is held there) or early June (when a medieval festival takes place) or, better still in December when it holds a Christmas Market. It wasn’t being used at all during my visit and, empty, proved very disappointing. I walked all around the village but, again, it proved a disappointment There was a wedding on at the church (which I was loath to join) and so I lost those photo opportunities but, worse, I read that the most picturesque views of the village are to be taken from the small island in the Loire opposite the Town Hall and because the island was almost completely underwater (the Loire having burst it’s banks) I missed those photo opportunities too. Some other time perhaps – April, June or December, Lol.

We spent the morning of this our 6th day of Tour 9 in Candes Saint Martin. We had promised to return to Candes to visit the Street Art Parc which is located in the grounds of Chateau Candes. We’re so glad we returned for that visit; it was one and a half hours of pure joy. I have described the visit in a post script to the earlier Candes Saint Martin blog. For now, I will concentrate on the afternoon’s excursion to the little village of Fontevraud L’Abbaye.

Fontevraud is almost exactly 3 miles south of Montsoreau and the walk took about an hour and a quarter. Vanya chose to stay in Montsoreau with the dogs, both of which were totally exhausted after the morning’s visit to Candes. Vanya might have been a little tired too but she is recovering from her hip operation.

Although it has a population of a little over 1,500, there’s not a great deal to the village. Almost everything in Fontevraud is about the Historic Monument and UNESCO World Heritage Site of the ‘Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud’ and so, after a very quick scout of the village which saw me find a suitable cafe-bar for a wine stop before my return to Montsoreau, I headed for the Abbey.

Most conveniently, the principal entrance to the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud is on the Place des Plantagenets. I paid my entrance fee (14 Euros for access into both the abbey and the museum) and began my tour. For a small fee you can join a guided tour but it really isn’t necessary if you speak French or English. You get a free guidebook (pamphlet) with your admission ticket which when read in conjunction with small plaques dotted about the Abbey explains all you need to know.

The Abbey was founded in 1101 by Robert d’Arbrissel to accommodate monks and nuns and it flourished, particularly after Eleanor of Aquitaine retired to the Abbey in 1200 and made it a necropolis for the Kings and Queens of England. Upon her death in 1204 she was entombed in the abbey church of Fontevraud together with her husband King Henry II, her third son King Richard I (aka Richard the Lionheart) and Isabella Angouleme wife of her youngest son King John of England.

Robert d’Arbrissel is also entombed in the abbey church despite his wish to be buried in a more simple plot in the grounds of the abbey. Over the course of his life Robert proved to be a bit of a religious radical and this continued right to the end when on his deathbed he decreed that a woman, Hersende of Champagne, should succeed him as head of Fontevraud over all nuns and monks. Since then 36 abbesses have succeeded one another, the last being Julie Sophie Charlotte de Pardaillan d’Antin who was evicted during the French Revolution in 1792 and subsequently died in poverty in Paris.

The abbey was looted and ransacked during the French Revolution and suffered further depradation in 1804 when Napoleon Bonaparte instructed that it be used as a prison. Housing up to 2,000 inmates at a time until it’s closure in 1963, Fontevraud was considered one of the toughest prisons in France. After the prison closed work began to restore the Abbey and the following photos reflect some considerable progress:-

The Grand-Moutier Cloister…

The Chapter Room…

Saint Benoit Courtyard…

The Romanesque Kitchens…

View of Fontevraud Abbey from Robert d’Arbrissel Hill (& the abbey bells)…

There’s no doubt, the abbey is a beautiful and interesting place (and I’m glad I visited) but in one respect it proved a disappointment. It struck me as a barren collection of pretty buildings with no ‘feeling’, if that is the right word. This may in part be due to all original furnishings, fixtures and fittings having been removed; those little items which would give the place a more human connection. I think this needs to be addressed given (a) the abbey’s history as a place monastic life and worship and; (b) it’s royal patronage (not just by the Plantagenents either) and; (c) the hardship and suffering that occured within during the period it was a notorious prison and; (d) more recently when, during World War II, it was used by the Nazi occupiers as a place of internment and execution of the French Resistance Movement. Give the place some soul.

And moving on… there was just enough time for a quick artisanal beer in the abbey’s old vegetable garden before I made my way to the museum (that was a total disappointment) and then on to my planned winestop at La Croix Blanche. I still had the three mile walk back to Montsoreau to navigate.

The Chinon wine was very nice. Full bodied and very smooth. I’ll be taking some of that back to England.

This small village of fewer than 600 inhabitants, just a mile or two west of Montsoreau, is packed with caves and troglodyte houses, most of which are currently used by various artisans and/or craftworkers as workshops and galleries.

We didn’t stay long (we were going to the Leclerc Hypermarket in Saumur) but, not having seen a bakery, a chemist and a tabac-bar (establishments which are common to almost every village in France) I’m wondering if we missed a part of the village? What we did see was fascinating and it would be a great shame if we did miss out on something but the place is a bit of a warren.

POSTSCRIPT: Back at the Van I scoured a local map and, in hindsight, I don’t think we missed much at all. One interesting point arising out of my search, however, is that the ancient town of Loudun is less than 20 miles from Turquant. In 1634 Loudon was the site of a notorious witchcraft trial after a convent of Ursuline nuns claimed to have been possessed by demons. The full story is told in Aldous Huxley’s book ‘The Devils of Loudun’ which in 1972 was made into a Ken Russell film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed (in the principal roles of, respectively, Sister Jeanne des Anges and Father Urbain Grandier). I recall seeing the film in London when it first came out (and before it was banned).

Back to Turquant. Almost everything in Turquant is made of tuffeau stone (tufa stone in English) which is soft and grey when mined but hardens and turns white when exposed to sunlight. It was dug out of local cliffs during the late Middle Ages to build churches, castles, mansions and houses all along the Loire Valley. The resulting caves, some little more than holes in the cliffs, were subsequently sought out by the destitute and used as homes. Some of these cave homes continued to be occupied until the 1930’s. Now they are mostly used by local artisans as workshops and galleries although; I did see one that has been turned into a restaurant and there are signs that an increasing number are being converted into Airbnbs.

Enough about tuffeau stone except to say that there are a couple of short well marked walking routes starting start down by the church car parks which will lead the visitor past many of the caves and around Turquant. Follow these and you will see most everything the village has to offer (except a bakery, chemist or tabac-bar).

One final word on local food before I get back to exploring this area. Pommes Tapees are produced and sold in the village. When wine production was ruined by the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century, some of the local wineries looked to apples as an alternative business option. To make Pommes Tapees, the apples are dried for no less than 5 days in ovens built into the local caves. During this time they are turned daily and tapped with a small hammer so as to flatten them. They are then bottled and should keep at least 10 years.