Wine-ding our way through Anjou

Friday 11th May

Today was our last day in this gite and we decided on a laid back day because tomorrow was an on-the-road day. We headed to the village of Brissac-Quince to have lunch and visit the chateau. Not a lot happening in this town but we did find a lovely creperie where we had lunch.

Question for the farmers - what is this crop?

Our next accommodation is in an apartment and the owner speaks no English - she tried to call me on the phone with instructions on access to the gite but I wasn't able to understand the whole conversation so we asked at the tourist information if they could help us out by phoning her, and they willingly did this for us while we wandered off to have lunch. We have found the French people to be friendly, polite and helpful. It probably helps that we are making a real effort to converse with them in our limited French.

The chateau Brissac - this was another beautiful chateau that is still lived in by the 5th, or thereabouts, Count de Brissac and his family. One of the bedrooms there is where one of the Louis (13th) reconciled with his mother - his father had died while he was too young to take the throne, so his mother took over but things were really run by her chief minister. Louis eventually had him assassinated and took over the throne himself.

Chateau de Brissac

The two round towers are the only original part of the castle
from 11th century and the newer (but still old) part of the castle,
15th century, is built behind the original towers.
In the photo you can see the gap between the old and the new.

The kitchen - wonder what they used to polish the copper?

Just one of the many magnificent tapestries in the chateau.

The room where King Louis 13th and his mother Marie de Medici
met to discuss their differences. Apparently the truce did not last long
and she was eventually banished.

The marble in this table top had amazing colouring.

The dining room - notice the raised area at the rear
where the musicians played during dinner.

Beautiful dinner set - but not for the dishwasher.

This photo and the next should be in reverse order.

In the photo below you can see the windows all along the room. 

Each window shutter was painted like this, inside and out.

A bit of wear now but would have been great in its time.

This room is the grand salon.
How many long-arm quilting machines could I get in this room?

The owner of the chateau at some point in its life was an opera performer
and decided to build her own theatre as part of the chateau.
How the other half live!

The sitting room. Scattered around were family photos
and we found that the queen mother had also stayed here at some time.
In this room there was also a bust of Veuve Cliquot
- did you know that Veuve Cliquot was a woman
and after the death of her husband she made the name what it is today.

Matthew - one for you. All four walls were covered in deer heads.

Wound our way home through the vineyards.

Saturday 12th May

It rained during the night and was still raining as we hit the road. Roughly 200k to travel to the town of Rochefort on the coast north of Bordeaux.  It rained all the way so no sightseeing along the way, just lunch at a little bakery. The roads were very quiet, especially for the first half of the trip along some lesser roads, and even when we hit the motorway it was still quiet. It has been sort of a long weekend in France after a public holiday on Thursday (and one on Tuesday also). There was quite a bit of traffic heading away from Rochefort as we got closer - maybe they were abandoning camp due to the rain. We are amazed at just how many motor homes are on the road everywhere we go - its tempting,  but when i think about navigating one of those through the middle of some of these tiny towns it makes me shudder!