After our visit to the Fontevraud abbey on Tuesday afternoon, we picked up Pogo at the hotel, then walked around a bit, mostly to choose where we'd eat dinner. It turned out the first place we found, not too far from the hotel, was a nice fish restaurant where we had a super meal al fresco, enjoying a bottle of the local white wine.
The next morning and afternoon we explored the old town. There are lots of picturesque, old, half-timbered buildings to be seen. Here, the chateau can be glimpsed through the gap.
We walked, all uphill, to the chateau, which is being spiffied up, but decided not to go in, since the two museums there were not especially interesting to us.
The Loire region being big in wine, you'll find vineyards tucked into every corner, including the land behind the chateau.
Pogo's showing his age now, so we have to stop for rests. He ate his breakfast at the Jardin des Plantes, and was too lazy to stand up to eat.
From the garden we found our way to the church of Notre-Dame de Nantilly, which is famous for its tapestries, including a Tree of Jesse. None of which were present, however, just the Do Not Touch signs. This romanesque church was built in the 12C, with a single aisle, simple and attractive. The capitals on the columns were too high to get a good look, but are supposed to be quite fine and varied. Binox were needed!
Most of the misericords had your ordinary sort of carvings, angels and leafy bits, but some were quite unusual. Two seats had "hunting cats" bearing rifles.
Another had a drunkard on his back and made us both laugh. (Since we had Pogo along, we had to visit the inside of the church in turn.)
Legend has it that this late 12C virgin-and-child statute was found by a laborer in a nearby lentil field.
After this visit we found a place for a nice lunch, then made our way back to the hotel for a cool rest before making our way to the rendez-vous point for our balloon flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment