Le Château De Saint-Aignan

I've been referring to St.-Aignan's château throughout this series. The château is certainly the most prominent and visible landmark in town; it's built high up on the bluff above the river.

The château seen from the bridge over the Cher River.

The current building dates from the sixteenth century, built in the renaissance style. There are parts of the old medieval buildings here and there, including some of the ramparts. Unfortunately for us tourists, the château is privately owned and lived in, so there are no tours of the interior.

St.-Aignan's château rises above the town.

However, the courtyard and terrace are open to the public, so we can climb up and have a look, both at the building's exterior and of the views of the town and river valley. You never know, one day the owners may decide to allow tours in exchange for government restoration funds.

A restored or rebuilt vestige of the medieval castle.

There's not much information about the château that I've been able to find. Of course, I'm not doing any serious research here; this is just a casual blog. I'm certain that there must exist, somewhere, many documents and accounts of the history of the buildings and those who occupied them. I'll leave that to the more serious-minded. I have grass to cut and logs to saw.

The château seen from an island in the river.

Les Toits De Saint-Aignan

Rooftops. St.-Aignan's topography allows us to get up above the center and gaze down on the town's rooftops. This is best done up at the château, naturally built on the highest point above the river.

Mostly slate rooftops in this view.

The roofing materials are a pretty even mix between ardoise (slate) and tuiles (terra cotta tiles). Many roofs in the north of France (especially in the cities) are made of slate. If you've been to Paris, or Bretagne, you will have noticed that most of the roofs are dark and shiny; they're made with slate.

More terra cotta roof tiles in this view.

In the south of France, more of the roofs are made from terra cotta tiles in one shape or another. They're mostly red-orange in color, but can vary from dark to light, and with age can attain a certain patina, especially in damper climates like ours.

View of the rooftops seen from the château's courtyard.

Here, in St.-Aignan and throughout the central region, we're in the place where these different roof styles mix pretty evenly. The northern slate begins to give way to the southern tile, and both styles are on view in the towns around here. Our house has a tile roof, but it's flat tile, not the undulating kind more commonly found in the south.

Market Day In Saint-Aignan

Saturday is market day in St.-Aignan. It's the closest market to us; our own village is too small to have a market of its own. On a nice day it's fun to ride over and park the car in one of the lots around the outside of town and walk in to do some shopping. The market is set up in the town's main and upper squares, both otherwise used as parking lots.

Le marché de St.-Aignan.

We can also go to the bank, the pharmacy, the post office, and any other place in town we need to go while we're there. Sometimes we run into friends and neighbors while in the market square. There are several vendors that we frequent. Among them are the charcutière (deli lady), the fromagères (cheese ladies), and the mushroom lady.

The fish vendors. The green and blue bins contain oysters.

The market has a great poissonnier (fish monger), too. There are several produce stands, a couple of volaillers (poultry vendors), a couple more charcutiers, and a butcher or two. Also, there are a few local folks who sell their seasonal farm produce, including goat cheeses, honey, asparagus, apples, snails, breads and baked goods, and other things.

The upper market: clothes, shoes, baskets, curtains, and sewing machines.

All in all, it's a decent market, even though it's one of the smaller ones in our region. Noyers (across the river from St.-Aignan) has an even smaller market on Sundays, and Montrichard (a bit further down river) has a bigger one on Mondays and Fridays. Thursday is market day in Selles-sur-Cher, about 10 miles up river. That one is a pretty big market and we try to go there a few times a year just for fun. The are also nice markets in Valençay, Loches, Contres, and Blois, but they're farther afield and we go to them less frequently.

Shopping under the shade trees in St.-Aignan.

By far the largest market in our area (outside of Tours) is in the city of Amboise up on the Loire River. That Sunday market stretches along the river bank for about half a mile and includes, along with the standard food and produce vendors, a large flower market, wine producers, several vendors of take-away food (paëlla, moules, Asian dishes, and other goodies), a lot of clothing stands, sellers of household items (knives, pots and pans, tables, chairs, mattresses), and souvenir vendors.

Amboise is a big tourist attraction (famous for it's château and daVinci home/museum) and the market draws in the crowds. If you're in the area, the Amboise Sunday market is a great morning activity followed by lunch. Now I'm suddenly hungry.

Chez Constant

This is one of St.-Aignan's restaurants. It's on the town's market square and is always very inviting. During the summer months they have a terrace out on the square with tables where you can have a drink early in the evening or dinner later. It's also open for lunch, at least on market day.

Chez Constant on Place de la Paix.

We've had drinks here a time or two, but we've only eaten here once. We were a group of at least six people and we had a raucous time in the dining room. There were only one or two other customers that evening, so I don't think we felt bad about being a bit loud.

Set up for drinks on market day.

The food wasn't spectacular, if my memory serves, but it wasn't bad, either. I remember somebody having andouillette, then not liking it when he found out what it was. I have no memory of what I ate that night (it was back in Spring 2006).

La Poste

Every town has its post office, and St.-Aignan is no exception. And St.-Aignan's post office is in a particularly nice building on the main street, rue Constant Ragot. It's a full-service poste and maintains regular hours.

The St.-Aignan post office.

The little post office in our village, however, is a one-room affair with one staff person. Its hours have been cut drastically to just a few a day. I'm certain that it won't be long before the government closes it down completely.

It's convenient for people in town, but for us it doesn't matter so much. Our local poste is just about the same distance from our house as the one in St.-Aignan, so we go to either one depending on our needs. For example, our local post office doesn't take bank cards for payment, so when we need to pay with the card we go to St.-Aignan.

The Sarkozy administration is trying to save money by cutting the operating hours of smaller post offices, consolidating postal services, and they are now proposing some form of privatization. I suppose it's the way of the world these days, but there is something so very French about la Poste that may well be lost.

Say what you will about France's postal system, but my experience with it has always been positive. Letters go from one end of the country to the other overnight in most cases. Our factrice (letter carrier) is very nice and very friendly. Every day she takes the mail into the home of one of our neighbors who suffers from MS, even though he's perfectly able to walk out to his mailbox most days.

Part of this is the benefit of living in a small town, I suppose.

The Upper Squares

At the top of the rue Constant Ragot, outside what was once the town's southern gate, is the largest of St.-Aignan's public squares. It's made up of two formally named places, la Place du Quatorze Julliet (France's national day), and la Place du Président Wilson. There are many streets and squares in France named for Wilson, commemorating his involvement in the end of the first World War.

La Place du Président Wilson, all parked up.

The squares are lined with trees, but they serve as parking lots most of the time. On market days, the Place du Quatorze Julliet is used by vendors of shoes, clothing, curtains, mattresses, and other non-food items. There's even a Singer sewing machine vendor. On festival days, manèges (carnival rides) fill the Place Wilson.

Coccinelle market on the Place Wilson.

A few businesses are clustered around the Place Wilson. Two cafés, a pharmacy, a bank, and the town's tiny movie theater occupy one side. There's a little grocery called Coccinelle (ladybug), a funeral home, and town hall on another side.

The St.-Aignan tourist office sits below the old château.

The smaller Place du Quatorze Julliet is bounded by the St.-Aignan's treasury (which was formerly the town hall) and the town tourist office. I took the above photo on market day and there were several painters with easels set up outside. This must have been something sponsored by the tourist office, but I didn't stop to check it out.

Degrés Des Trois Glorieuses

These steps lead up from the river to the château. They come down right where the bridge crosses the river, so they would be the most direct route from St.-Aignan's northern gate to the château, for pedestrians, anyway; horses and carts would have to go up through town.

The steps lead up from the Hotel du Moulin (the Mill Hotel) to the château.

Where I stood to take this picture is now a parking lot along the river where the bridge crosses. There used to be a big mill on this site. The bridge was an integral part of the mill building, which was built out over the river to take advantage of the watercourse. The bridge serves as a small dam on this section of the Cher, creating a reservoir of water that once powered the mill.

Unfortunately, the mill and the adjacent downriver buildings are long gone. All that remain of them are some footings in the river. And a lovely parking lot.

Saint-Aignan's former mill on the river Cher.

But I found the above image on the web. It's an old postcard that shows the bridge and the mill before it was destroyed. It's from a site called saint-aignan.org. There is a nice collection of other old images there if you're interested.

By the way, les Trois Glorieuses (the Three Glorious Days) are named for three days of revolt against King Charles X and his power grab in July 1830. You can read about it here and here.

***UPDATE: I found this cool video on the history of the St.-Aignan mill. It's in French. The video is still visually interesting if you don't understand French.