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| looking down into a garden |
Several weeks ago we took our friend Jane up to the medieval quarter of Loches to have a look at the church of St Ours where Agnes Sorel is buried as well as the Lansyer house. Emmanuel Lansyer (1835-1893), was considered, in his time, one of the best landscape painters. The house he lived in, in the medieval quarter, is now a museum and the garden has a lovely view over the city of Loches.
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| floral safety feature |
A bit tucked away round the back of St Ours is a small and quite intimate public garden. It is screened from the cobbled street which leads from St Ours to the donjon by a high wall and the entrance is an ornamental grilled door. You could easily mistake it for someone's private garden.
Inside are some formal rose beds, a grassy space, a couple of peach trees and some benches to look out over the roofs of the Lochois living in the houses below. From here you can also look up and get a great view of the Romanesque towers of the church.
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| looking up at St Ours |
The most charming thing, in our opnion, is the lovely flower border that has been planted to keep people from leaning out over the low wall which edges the steep drop at the end of the garden.
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| no takers |
To one side is a restaurant--one we have yet to explore further. Its terrace has no clear boundary with the garden--the one seems to flow into the other. That day the weather wasn't very good--a misting rain came and went, so there were no takers for the terrace.
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| mille fleurs |
As always you can click on the photos to enlarge them
10 comments:
Hello Niall and Antoinette:
This all looks to be so very charming, not least on account of the fact that it is, as you describe, completely hidden and quite unexpected. We imagine that the terrace of the restaurant would be an excellent place in which to pass a leisurely lunch. Perhaps you will return to try it one day?
How lovely. We will seek it out and maybe try the restaurant - the little garden looks beautiful.
Hi,
We found it, quite by accident, in the summer. Funnily enough there wasn't anyone at the restaurant then.
A lovely peaceful spot!
What a lovely spot. There are so many beautiful places hidden away in France. Everyday I seem to discover something new. Diane
We had lunch at that restaurant in 2006 or 2007 - I need to look at the photos to tell you the exact year. My friend had the daily special - pork chops in a mushroom sauce and I had an Italian salad - mozzarella, tomatoes, yellow and red peppers and a nice vinaigrette. The food was nice and well served, but it was mainly the view and the general atmosphere, not to mention the wine - that stuck to our memory :) Martine
Oh wat leuk, ik zie bij Beautiful world iemand die Nderlands spreekt. Ik heb gelijk je blog opgezocht en ga je volgen want het is hier leuk
Riet
@Jane & Lance - we will 'road test' the restaurant probably sometime next spring/summer. We have no idea about the quality of the food but the view is great.
@Jean if you do go and try it out on your next visit here let us know the result! :-)
@Gaynor - there were 2 sets of customers finishing lunch but both were in a sort of 1/2 open conservatory and not on the terrace.
Glad you found it too.
@ Martine - was it bon qualité/prix?
@ Riet - welkom :-) Ik probeer zo af en toe in het nederlands te schrijven anders vergeet ik het allemaal. But it is not my mother tongue so I do make mistakes!
Antoinette, It was OK, not overly expensive, but not as cheap as a 'routier'. We weren't shocked or surprised, so that says it all, I guess. Martine
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