October 6, 202
Situated on the Loire River, Beaugency offers many walks. The one we took the night before was a nature walk along the riverbank that at sunset was stunning. In the morning, we wanted to explore the town. Tom found a six mile walk that circumnavigated the town which is neatly perched just above the river. I could have sworn the entire six miles was uphill, but even Escher would have a hard time agreeing with me.
Just on our corner is the Chateau of Beaugency with the medieval “Devil’s Tower” which was part of the abbey. Next to it is the so-called Caesar’s Tower. While the abby and chateau were built in the 1300s, Caesar’s tower was built around 1100.
The walk started (uphill) following a stream in town that had been tamed between cobbled walkways. Houses butted up to the walkways, but the efficiency of having a tamed stream of clear running water outside your door was brilliant. In medieval times, the stream would have been a lifeline, but now the stream added a charm which the city enhanced with hanging baskets of flowers along the iron fence that kept folks from falling in.
This stream, in medieval times may have been a little less clear, as it may have not only been a water source, but a sewage canal. Now it is crystal clear and healthy judging from the carp found swimming below the surface.
We followed the stream along the cobbled walk until it disappeared and we started our labyrinth walk (uphill) through the upper reaches of the town until we made it to a corn field. Here Nick checked if the corn was ready for harvest and explained to us how the corn would be harvested and turned into livestock feed.
Stone walls help define the course of the stream. Nick starts to inspect the corn crop. We (Tim, Nick, Tom and I) take a short break from the morning hike.
The apex of our walk was a second monument to Jeanne d’Arc. Most towns in the region, probably every town in France, has monuments to this remarkable young woman.
As a teenager, Jeanne d’Arc was called by God to fight in the Hundred Years War against English, and she was able to rally the French soldiers into winning. However, she was caught by the English, accused of heresy, dressing as a man, being a witch, and was burned at the stake at age nineteen.
Aside from being a medieval town that was once walled, Beaugency backs up onto the Loire Valley that is often referred to as the “garden of France.” After traversing a good deal of this department or region the description seems apt: vineyards, very soft rolling hills, picturesque towns…I would be proud to call it “my garden.”
That said, the Loire Valley is not what I pictured. Yes, it is beautiful, but a lot of it is relatively flat, and is farmland, which at this time of year, is harvesting corn for stock feed. Although I am sucker for farms, old barns, farm equipment, and 200 to 400 year-old stone houses, I expected the terrain to be more…intimate. Although the Loire Valley is indeed a valley, there are no mountains in the distance to define the valley. Even the wide California central valley has defining coastal mountains and the Sierras on the other side which can be seen on a clear day.
The hundreds of chateaux and castles of the Loire Valley are spread throughout the countryside. Yes, some are on higher spots and thus command a view, but most sit comfortably in the countryside. Yes, there are also plenty along the scenic river.
The Loire Valley, in its heyday, was not the seat of the government, but rather where the royalty and rich went to “play.” Experiencing the opulence can be disconcerting, but by letting go of my fixed income Medicare/Social Security viewpoint, it let me just wonder at the art, the sculptures, the massive rooms, the amazing tapestries, and the life style of the elite French (at least before the revolution!).
All the above photos are different wings of the Bloise Château.
The Chateau at Bloise was a lovely, one-stop architectural tour with Gothic, Flamboyant, Renaissance, and Classicism on display. The chateau had been home to seven kings and ten queens since the late 1300s. Each king or queen left their favored architectural style. Perhaps the most magnificent was the outside spiral staircase with gargoyles, statues, portraits, porcupines, ermines, angels all incorporated into the décor of the four-story winding staircase. With hundreds of rooms, thirty were open, furnished, and decorated. Talk about eye-candy!
Tim inspects the harpsichord to make sure it is tuned correctly. Gargoyles used as rainwater drain spouts on the buildings have a more comfortable spot inside during renovations. The left photo shows the magnificent outside spiral staircase of Bloise Château. Over the centuries, different kings and queens had different emblems: the porcupine (my favorite), the salamander, and the ermine.
From Bloise we travelled to see the famous gardens at the Chateau Villandry. Although I am sure the inside of the chateau had plenty to offer, it was the fifteen acres of gardens that were the attraction. Here is where Nick went nuts thinking about reconfiguring our one-third acre garden into a Villandry spectacle. Frankly, I think Nick, who is always pruning, planting or rearranging had achieved a similar effect in our modest mini garden to those of Villandry.
The panorama of the Villandry gardens does not do it justice. The colors of the vegetable gardens were stunning from above. Grapes were ripe and on the vine. We stole a few and they were very sweet! Being there in October, it was also fun to see the pumpkins neatly sitting in their plot waiting for upcoming Halloween.
The gardens are divided into large square plots all plants arranged in colored designs of fruits, vegetables, hedges, trees, and vines. Of course, the water features, such as fountains, lakes, running streams, waterfalls, all add to the magic. Nick came out excited and depressed as he considered new ideas.
The Loire Valley spans 170 miles, so we found ourselves driving more than we expected and not being efficient about where we wanted to go and when. Getting to and from the autoroutes includes plenty of driving through small towns with ubiquitous roundabouts keeping the traffic moving. French autoroutes are very efficient in getting you there faster, but can be expensive. So far we have amassed over $100 in autoroute tolls…just a surprise, not a complaint!
At the grocery, Tom found bottles out for tasting. We tried several, bought a few, and then went out looking for some vineyards. This young lady explained the bottling process.
Hoping to catch some winetasting, we found a brochure at our Airbnb for a small winery that also had an attached dairy with cheeses. The partnership between the winery and dairy had ended, but the young woman pouring wines was happy to take us into the back and demonstrate the bottling and labeling equipment.
In search of a Sunday farmers market, we headed to Angers where there was also a chateau that was a “must see.” What we took for a farmers market on the google search turned out to be basically, a food court. But what a food court! It was a large converted warehouse with probably 50 different food and beverage stalls, representing at least dozen countries. Although we were hungry walking in, the smells and attractive foods sucked us in. Tom couldn’t go past the fresh seafood without ordering another platter of fresh oysters and shrimp plus a bottle of crémant (champagne without the Champagne terroir, meaning it wasn’t grown in the Champagne area).
We could have spent the day there noshing from booth to booth. The oysters tasted like the ocean, in the best possible way!
The food court was filled with young folks out for a Sunday repast. We felt very hip sitting on stools at a wine barrel as our table, drinking champagne in the warm October sun.
The drawbridge let us in, and the ramparts kept us walking. At the level of the ramparts there are gardens both for enjoyment and for the kitchen…not to mention grapes! Obviously, the château folks could survive any siege.
The Angers Chåteau had all the ramparts and battlements one expects with a medieval structure. The tour brought you up to the top of the ramparts with a half kilometer of the perimeter walking. Also stored in a long vault protected from the light and elements were the Tapestries of the Apocalypse. The tapestries were woven in 1377-1382 by Jean Bondol and Nicholas Bataille. The tapestries tell a story in a graphic novel format (think comic books) without any text. They are almost 340 feet long by 15 feet tall. Yes, the sheer size catches your eye, but realizing that the medium is wool, not painting, makes the detail take your breath away.
Understand that this is WOVEN. The incredible planning to make this work out is unbelievable.
The plan for the day had been for us to purchase foods at the farmers marker and then have me cook dinner in the gourmet kitchen of our Airbnb. So Plan B went into effect and we headed back towards Beaugency with a detour to take in the 2,000 year old Roman aquaduct that had once spanned almost 50 kilometers. Some two hundred years ago, a house was built abutting the aquaduct…an odd sight, but interesting.
The Roman aquaduct. Nick explains that the holes through the pillars are to put up scaffolding as the columns are built. Note the house built at least 1,600 years after the aquaduct.
As we headed home, we realized that we needed to stop to buy dinner. Fortunately, we had the foresight to check whether our local store was open…alas, not on Sunday. Given that we were driving the the large city of Tours, we found the equivalent of a mini-market. No fresh fish as had been my promise, but we found some sirloin steaks and I did my best with some wine, onion, and Boursin pepper cheese to create a decent meal. Perhaps it wasn’t worthy of the grand chefs of France, but it was fun cooking in the gourmet kitchen.
I’m playing at being a French chef. Tim helped by making a salad. The result did not make it on presentation, but the flavors were pretty good!
Next up, hot air ballooning. We booked the flight a few days earlier, just long enough for me to either conquer my fear of heights or come up with a mysterious affliction that would keep me out of the basket. We’ll see.
©2025 Wendy Platt Hill
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