Loches

Well, we HAD to visit the Chateau in our little town (we're actually about 8 kms from here but this is where we come in most days to pick up some baguettes and supplies).  It is a lovely little town.  Very quiet and I have yet to run into a French person that will admit to speaking any English.  They are quite patient with my almost non-existent and Jen and the kids considerably better French.  Rachel, being the little keener she is, has really thrown herself into her French lessons and is somewhere north of Grade 9 (according to what is SUPPOSED to be learned by the students).  Jen admitted today that Rachel's French has surpassed hers... and her accent is bang on as well.  She sounds like a little Parisian... which is where she says she wants to study!  Shawn is doing well too (especially considering that he didn't know the Grade IV curriculum when Jen started with him) but he doesn't throw himself at it like Rachel does... nor does he have the pronunciation.  They just finished up their last formal French lessons today and their instructor said they were both doing very well and were ahead of their ages... which says a lot for Jen as they both started with essentially nothing last September.

Anyway, back to Loches... this particular Chateau is Ancient dating back to the 800's and was designed and occupied by Henry II of England and his son, Richard the Lionhearted during the 12th century.  The castle withstood the assaults by the French king Philip II in their wars for control of France until it was finally captured by Philip in 1204. Construction work immediately upgraded Loches into a huge military fortress.

The castle would become a favorite residence of Charles VII of France who gave it to his mistress, Agnès Sorel, as her residence (many of these chateaus were given to the mistresses as they were hangouts where the King could come without his wife). During the American Revolution when the French fought against the English, it would be converted for use as a State prison housing English prisoners by his son, King Louis XI who had lived there as a child but preferred the royal castle at Amboise.  

This is our daily view of it from downtown.

Our market area... with the old city gate in the distance.

This is the inside of the gate

Like most of these old fortresses, they were built on existing high ground

Typical Loches

This is the church where his mistress Agnes Sorel is buried

Did I mention, I like arches?

And here's .....Agnes

A little bit of Canada on that plaque just outside the church

Our own Jeanie Cretin was here commemorating his ancestors.

There isn't a lot left of the fortress... but the tall building is the original Keep.

It has stood up pretty well for being 1300 years old.

I took some more pictures but haven't loaded them into Picasa yet... not a lot to see in this anyway as the old floors have all been rotted away... so the walls are pretty much all there is to see except for the underground cells.  It was used as a prison right up to the 1930's.  There is lots of grafitti including some artwork done by the prisoners on the walls.  If I remember, I'll add some pictures of that.  That's all for tonight.  Tomorrow, I'll try to cover my favorite one Chenanceaux and the one with da Vinci's double helix stairway called Chambord.

The local church....

The Keep

A scale model of the original... note the wooden roofs which are all gone now

Prisoner carvings

Downtown Loches

In one direction... clear skys

In the other... rain!

More prisoner art... this one was a famous artist... not being into that stuff, I don't remember his name.

Looking up from 40' off the bottom of the keep.  These would have had wooden floors at each level of the skywalks but those have long since rotted away.

We're rapidly running out of time here.  We leave on Saturday.  We're trying to figure out where we are going next and it looks like we'll head south to Provence, touch into Monaco and then back up north to Chamonix and then into my old stomping grounds as a 6-8 year old in Baden-Baden before heading into Czechoslovakia for a stop at Jen's favorite city Chesky Krumlov and then on to Venice around the 17th.