Friday 17 January 2014

Views of Montrésor

In our last post we wrote about the wooden roundels and misericords of the collégiale de Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Montrésor.

Montrésor viewed from the south
The village is very pretty and is officially one of 'Les Plus Beaux Villages de France'. The river Indrois runs through the heart of it with the castle perched on a spur just above.
The chateau -- 11th cent ruins & 15th cent building
The original chateau was built by Fulke Nerra, Count of Anjou in the early 11th century and you can see the remains of that building on the right in the photo above. We wrote about Fulke Nerra and where he is buried here.

The newer building on the left is a late 15th century Renaissance re-build by Imbert de Bastarnay who also had the collégiale built. Imbert was a successful Renaissance courtier and served four French kings: Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII and François I.
 
The collégial de Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Our weather has alternated between rain --our mini ponds are back-- and sunny spells such as we are enjoying today. The day we were in Montrésor recently was also one of the rarer sunny ones.

8 comments:

the fly in the web said...

What a beautiful light!
Fingers crossed for more sunny days...

rusty duck said...

The chateau is so pretty, the sort of fairy tale castle I would expect of the Loire.
Isn't it nice to see occasional glimpses of the sun. There is hope yet.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@ Fly - it was ever so slightly hazy but January can produce some good light --on a good day!

Fingers crossed indeed -- after the umpteenth clearing of the gutters. Wind + pine needles + rain = clogging!

Niall & Antoinette said...

@ Rusty - and such a nice size, you could almost imagine living in it. It is in private hands -- currently owned by the desendents of a Polish noble family who bought it in the 19th century.

It just lifts the spirit doesn't it :-)

GaynorB said...

I love the chateau and the surroundings. Like you, I can imagine it as a home.

Soggy here too!

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Gaynor- yes and it doesn't look like the 'soggy' state will be over soon either! We just keep getting more rain....

Kathy said...

What gorgeous buildings in a beautiful location. Oh, for some of your sunshine. We haven't seen any for at least 10 days. Sigh.....

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Perpetua - Same here! We had some sun yesterday but that was it :-( Back to grey, wind and rain. The only difference is it is just a bit colder right now.