Pardon My French, Chapter 3: La Chateau

So, we decided to head out of Angouleme and swing by Rochefoucauld on our way home. Rochefoucauld being the place where we'd seen an absolutely amazing chateau in the morning on our way to Angouleme. Sue had assured us it was worth a visit.

Getting out of Angouleme proved somewhat more complicated than one might think.

"Which way?" Jimbo asked me.

"Huh," said I, with great intelligence. "Well, we were going uphill to get into town, so one assumes we would need to go downhill to get out." I thrust a finger in the general down-hill direction. "Thataway."

So, Jimbo drove thataway. Except that wasn't the way. Well, it was the way in that it led us to the intersection that led back down the hill from whence we came, unfortunately, it was a one way street. So, we went thisaway. And then we the t'otherway. And after a few colourful words and some very narrowly missed sideswipes, we finally made it out of Angouleme alive and intact.

I'm still not entirely sure how we did it. I know there was a sign that said "touts directions". Jimbo declared it meant "all directions". I found out later he was guessing. Great, we risked life and limb on a guess. Then again, it worked, so there you go.

Now, when I think of the word "chateau", I've always rather imagined a cute little Alpine chalet with curlicued eaves and a red door. I wasn't exactly prepared for the realization that a chateau is a actually, well, a castle. Probably I could have found out if I'd bothered to look up the translation of the word, but it just never occured to me, really.

Chateau de la Rochefoucauld is an amazing example of the chateau. The first fortification was raised in 980AD! And the towers were built in the 1400s. The former Duchess of La Rochefoucauld (the current Duke's mother) has returned the chateau to it's former glory. Several of the rooms are open to the public and have be decorated as they would have been a couple of hundred years ago. (If you want to learn more about the chateau, go to http://www.chateau-la-rochefoucauld.com/_eng/histoire/histoire.asp.)

The Blue Salon is one of those rooms (named because of it's blue walls). A chandelier drips crystals in the centre of the room, a one of the chateau's former inhabitants glares sternly from the wall. The furnishings are all in a delicately fussy style with blue and white upholstry. They seem somehow out of place in the dark room, as though one should find dark, looming furniture instead.

The room where the knights used to hang out is a suitably manly sort of room. Austere to the extreme with a scarred wooden table and large fireplace. The few bits of furniture are simple, dark and manly. No fussy business there. No coats of armour, either, but one can't have everything.

What those kights DID have was an amazing view out their front door. Lucky knights.

Of course, one of my favourite places, naturally, was the library. There are four libraries spread about the place containing a sum total of 21,000 books! All of them seriously old. Most in French, though I did find the writings of our illustrious relative... James Fennimore Cooper (that would be the Meliza side).

I found the curling staircase particularly beautiful and impressive. It was made in Paris and imported to the chateau. The wooden treads are worn by hundreds of feet over centuries of time. How many lords and ladies traversed those steps?

After our tour of the chateau, we leave suitably impressed. A gorgeous place, Chateau de la Rochefoucauld.

We head back to Sue and Colin's for a delicious dinner of fresh veg from Sue's garden, as well as pork from the local market. YUMMY!

Next stop... La Rochelle!