Showing posts with label Chateaux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chateaux. Show all posts

18 July 2025

SUNDAY ENTERTAINMENT

 

In our part of France (and probably all other parts of France) there is always something to do on Sundays.  Getting about is a joy here as the traffic is rarely anything other than very light and I can't remember ever paying a car parking or entrance fee at a village event.  


The village of Crissay sur Manse is a pretty place and every summer it hosts an event for local artists.
After weeks of hot, sunny weather, it was a bit iffy on the day!


There are artworks all over the place, in garages, courtyards and every possible corner.







We had never been inside the château grounds before.


It's part ruin, part habitable.




There were artists with their work everywhere.


In the grounds there were lots of old caves.


Some of the caves still had remnants of when they were inhabited, former troglodyte dwellings.


It's a very pretty village with a higgledy-piggledy arrangement of houses.



I liked this adaptation of the French letter box.


There was continuous musical entertainment (in between the rain showers).
When we turned up there was an excellent pavement swing band performing.

The thunderstorms on the day did not dampen people's enthusiasm and the crowds turned up for what was an excellent annual event.  It was our first visit but will not be the last.

22 April 2025

HIDDEN CHÂTEAUX


We're glad to have had a bit of warm sunshine and to see the leaves appearing on the trees at last.  However, during the winter the bare branches have a distinct advantage when out and about seeing what there is to see.



We live in a part of France where there are literally hundreds of small or medium sized châteaux and most of them are hidden by trees for half of the year.  In winter they are easier to spot.  When on route to familiar places we will see a pointy tower peeping out from behind the trees and we go and have a closer look.  Most of them are someone's home, a grand private house.  Some are dilapidated, ancient ruins, others clearly in the process of being renovated (you can tell by the number of builder's vans outside).




We stumbled across this one very recently.  It's actually not all that well hidden, is drop dead gorgeous and clearly someone's home.  We spotted the tower in the trees just a very short distance from a road we use often and we never knew it was there.  For eighteen years we have driven past the end of its road and had no idea such a place existed.