france - day 4

Day 4 was a full one - horses, vineyards, gardens, chateaux and royalty....just a regular day for us. :)

In the morning we traveled to the charming town of Saumur (which has its own chateau, too) where we visited the world-famous National School of Equitation. Only the best of the best train here and we saw the horses, the grooms, the riding masters and the students. It was starting to sink in that there were going to be many sights and visits available to us that would not have been, had we been traveling on our own.


The stables were beautifully maintained. The riding areas contained felt mixed with dirt - the felt absorbed moisture but also muffled the sound of the hooves, so that the complicated dressage movements were done in complete silence.

This guy is the oldest and most honored horse at the school:

Here he watches his neighbor being brought into his stall by one of the 90 grooms on staff:

After touring the outside areas of the school, we went inside to watch the riding masters put their horses through their routines. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside, but it was a magnificent sight. There was even an "equine choreographer" who trained the horses to "dance" just the right way.

Then it was off to Le Moulin Bleu (the Blue Windmill) for a tour of a Bourgueil region vineyard, a wine tasting and a delicious lunch.

This is a familiar sight to us, living in New York's wine country, but our steep hillsides were replaced by a flat plane leading out to the Loire River:


Back on the road again, we headed to the Chateau de Villandry, known for its magnificent gardens. Villandry was the last great Renaissance chateau built in the Loire Valley, a perfect example of 16th-century architecture.

The gardens were restored to their original splendour by Dr. Joachim Carvallo, whose grandson continues his work today.

The delicate roots of the 52 miles (!!) of boxwood that outline and highlight each section mean that the whole 10 acres of gardens must be weeded by hand. Ouch!

Can't you just picture Rapunzel letting her hair down from  this tower window?

We left Villandry to return to our hotel to change for dinner and then we were off to yet another chateau, this time the Chateau de Champchevrier. Today's owner is Pierre de Brosse, Baron de Champchevrier. The "castle", as he calls it, has been in his family since 1728. A smart marketing executive, the Baron opens his chateau to select groups for tours, helping to pay the enormous cost of maintaining the house and grounds.

The Baron has a large pack of hounds that are trained to hunt for stag in the forest surrounding the castle. As a demonstration of their excellent training, the masters of the hounds brought the pack to the front lawn for us to see, keeping them completely still before giving them the signal to eat the meat that had been laid out for them. The ground steak had been hidden under the skin of a stag, so that for the visitors it looked like the hounds were finishing him off. In real life, the hounds only trap the stag and it is up to the hunters to make the final coup de grace.

Also present were the horn players. Before the age of cell phones and wireless communication, messages about the hunt were relayed to the hunters by various hunting tunes, each of which meant something different. There is an especially regal sounding tune that tells of the stag having an extremely large rack - he was truly a king among men.

The last chateau of the day was our very own. Our hotel was the Chateau de Rochecotte - so yes, I can now say I've slept in a castle. But boy, the bed was really uncomfortable with that pea under the mattress!