More Views Of Valençay

Why the heck not? It's a pretty place! Today I'll focus on the domed towers of the "new" wing.

Now that's what I call a West Wing!

The new, or west, wing of the château was built in the 17th century and renovated in the 18th century. That said, the old wing was only built in the 16th century, replacing the original 12th century castle that stood on the site. One of the early owners of the place was the Scottish financier John Law.

It was Talleyrand, at Napoleon Bonaparte's direction, who bought the place in 1803 to entertain foreign dignitaries on behalf of the emperor.

The Two Towers.

In between the two domed towers, the roof of the building is in the Mansart style, with alternating mansard dormers and round dormers, called "oeils-de-boeuf" or bulls' eyes. This is the wing that comprises most of the interior visit, with its grand dining room, bedrooms, parlors, and, in the basement, the kitchens and wine cellar.

A dome, seen from the ground below.

The tour is self-guided with audiophones, so you can take your time and linger where you like. Ken and I have been through a few times in the past five years. The last time I don't think we rented the audiophone, and just wandered quickly through.

Talleyrand's bedroom was in this tower.

On the second floor of the domed tower shown above are a couple bedrooms, the larger of which is Talleyrand's own. The rooms in the wing itself were for other residents of the château, including the not-too-shabby bedroom where the king of Spain was imprisoned.

Speaking Of Wine

Since I talked about Valençay wine yesterday, here's a sample. I'm sorry you can't taste it!

This one was consumed for lunch one day in 2003 at a restaurant just outside the château.

In other news, we're busy preparing for our first house guests of the season! That means that spring cleaning is under way. Candy and John from California arrive on Friday and we're really looking forward to their visit.

Valençay

The "front" view of the château.

The Château de Valençay is about twenty minutes by car from our house. It's one of the places we go to often with visitors because a) it's close, b) it's got great gardens and grounds with deer and peacocks, and c) the interior is interesting but not too over the top and boring.

Part of the gardens in the front yard.

These photos are from 2003 when our friend Cheryl came to spend a few weeks with us. It was late summer and the gardens were very pretty. I know that I've posted pictures from Valençay before, so if any of these pictures look familiar, it's not you. It's me.

Cherubs splashing in the fountains.

Ken's already told the story of Napoléon and Tallyrand, the two principles in the story of Valençay. I won't go into it here. Valençay wines are well known in the Touraine region and were just awarded their A.O.C. (appellation d'origine controlée) in November 2003, right after these pictures were taken! Before that, they were V.D.Q.S. (vins délimités de qualité supérieure), the level just below A.O.C.

A bit of architectural detail.

The wines they produce around Valençay are from the standard cépages, or varietals, used in most of the Touraine region. That is to say sauvignon blanc, gamay, cabernet franc, and côt. They're low alcohol, fruity, and meant to be drunk young. I supposed I should say "consumed" or "enjoyed" young.

Walk this way, please.

I think that Valençay is one of the must-sees in the Loire Valley. But there are so many. Here, on the eastern end of the Loire château circuit, we have a number of the "biggies" including Chambord, Chenonceau, Blois, Cheverney, Chaumont, Loches, and Amboise. After a while, they all start to blend together, so you have to be careful if you're a first-time château hopper. A little château-ing goes a long way.

Valençay has the appeal of one of the Big Boys, but is much more welcoming and often less crowded than they are (except in high season, of course). You may have noticed that I managed to take these photos without any people in them. You'd be hard-pressed to do that at Chambord or Chenonceau.

Sculptural balustrades.

And there are myriad smaller châteaux all over the region that can be much more intimate and interesting than those bigger, over-crowded tourist attractions. I've been to a few where it was just us and the tour guide, a very personal touch. If you burn out on the biggies, you won't have an appetite for something smaller.

The solution to this tourist conundrum is obvious: come back again and again over the years until you've seen them all!

Photo Du Jour : Balcony

This balcony on a house in Saint-Aignan has seen better days. But the flowers are blooming and it has a kind of shabby charm.

There is obviously somebody living here since the shutters are open. Most places that are empty are shut up tight. At first I thought the flowers were just growing out of cracks, but they are actually in little pots.

International Space Station

Thank the dog. Just after eight pm on Friday night, she let me know she wanted to go outside. So we went out back. The sky was clear, the sun had set just a short time before, and the stars were shining.

Image from : http://www.fanboy.com
I'm pretty sure this view is of the Straight of Gibraltar, with Morocco on the left and Spain on the right, making it very close to the location of the station when I first spotted it.

I noticed a very bright light moving slowly from the southwest toward the northeast. At first I thought it was a plane, but the light was very bright and steady. No blinking. I followed it around the house to the front. Callie saw it immediately and barked at it the whole time it was visible. She's never barked at airplanes before.

I've seen satellites go by overhead over the years, but this was different. It was big and incredibly bright; brighter than any satellite I've seen. A plane with a light that bright would have been low enough in the sky that I would have heard its engines, but this was silent.

So I thought, could it be the space station? I came upstairs and logged on to my favorite sky-watching web site, Heavens Above*, and sure enough, the space station was visible where I live for about eight minutes at the very moment we were outside, and its path was the one I observed.

To me, this is very cool. Just by chance to see the International Space Station fly by. If I were truly a nerd, I would have known it was going to be visible and been ready with binoculars, even though I know it's just the sun glinting off the huge array of solar panels that I'd see and nothing more. Maybe next time.

*Heavens Above is a very cool site for seeing what's going on in the sky. In addition to tracking satellites and other orbiting objects, they provide star charts and the positions of the planets and comets for any time, any place on Earth.

It's Getting Wetter

Here's another opportunity to put my nerdy side to use. Since I quit working, I've had to channel my need to build spreadsheets to good, rather than evil, purposes. I have spreadsheets that calculate all kinds of things about our country life, from utility usage to weather patterns to who's coming to visit.

We've been keeping rain data for just over three years now with a handy little rain gauge in the back yard. We record the data after every rainfall in a little form that I then transfer to my spreadsheet. Then I make all kinds of charts and graphs. Hey - I used to get paid for this kind of stuff.

Today's chart illustrates that, as we suspected, the years are getting increasingly wetter since we've been here. I only have data for three years and we've lived in this house for nearly five, but still, a pattern is evident.

Click on the image to see it full size.

The monthly rainfall data is grouped into years that run from April to the following March. Kind of like a fiscal year. There was an 11% increase in rainfall from the 05-06 year to the 06-07 year, and a 6% increase in rainfall from 06-07 to 07-08.

We're still under the historical average annual rainfall amount of 650 mm (the average is actually for Blois*, but it's the closest city that I could find data for). For the feet & inches people, 650 mm is about 25 and a half inches.

When we moved here in the summer of 2003, the year of the great heat wave, it was very dry. The French weather channel often reports that the country has been dealing with drought conditions and a lowering water table for a while now. A look at our rain data vs. the historical average certainly supports that. Maybe we're beginning to come out of the drought.

It's hard to imagine it being any wetter than it is right now.

* I found weather data at another website that showed the average annual rainfall for Blois at 753mm, but there is no information about what years that average is based on, and since I already had my chart done, I decided to go with what I have.

Inside The Church At St.-Aignan

Here are a few snapshots of the church, or collégiale, in Saint-Aignan. I ducked in the other day when I was wandering around town waiting for my passport photos to be printed.

The above is a composite photo; these two windows are not next to each other. Most of the church's windows are simple plain glass. I don't know if they were originally that way or if they were once stained glass that has since been broken (during the war?) and replaced.

The church is not spectacular, but is a decent example of the eleventh and twelfth century romanesque building that it is. It was built over the foundations of a much older church, parts of which survive as the crypt in the current building.

The church is quite active, serving for local weddings and funerals in addition to holiday masses throughout the year. There is no longer a local priest, or curé, in residence in St.-Aignan from what I've read.