Langeais and Villandry: Châteaux Hopping in
France’s Loire Valley with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
My
husband Laurent and I went to the Loire Valley to do some shopping on one
winter weekend as we left Paris for a car trip.
The
Loire Valley Château at Langeais beckoned us.
The tall, central dungeon, whose ruins are part of the Château, was
built in the 10th century, making it one of the most ancient
dungeons in France.
The
tall dungeon was the most secure place in a castle. Prisoners, the food stores for 5 years or
more, and the women and children were kept in the dungeon in wartime at
different levels of the dungeon tower.
Louis
XI built the Château between 1465 and 1469 to keep the wily Bretons from coming
up the Loire River from Nantes to the Touraine where Langeais is located. It almost sounds like Langeais was a
Hadrian’s Wall to keep the wily Scots from descending down into England.
The
Loire River by Langeais Château was not always full of sand bars like it is
today.
A
royal marriage between Anne de Bretagne and Charles VIII stamped out any future
Breton invasions. Brittany became part
of France after this marriage.
Unlike
other châteaux, Langeais has many tapestries and many pieces of furniture to
give you an idea of how life was lived in the 15th century in a royal
household.
My
favorite artworks were the tapestries from Flanders and the Mille Fleurs or
“Thousand Flowers” tapestries. The
tapestries served as insulation in damp châteaux.
Our
next stop was the Château at Villandry, famous for its reconstruction of a 16th
century French garden. There are many
terraces and canals with hedges shaped into forms symbolizing love.
There
was also a vegetable garden whose plants are arranged in a cross-pattern
developed in a pre-Columbian monastery gardens similar to those in blueprints
for the St. Gall Monastery in Switzerland.
I
liked the canal system at Villandry whose different gardens occupy different
levels around the Château grounds.
We
left the Château and ate cheese and mushroom pizza in Vielle Tours downtown with
its half-timbered buildings.
I
loved both Langeais and Villandry for being close enough to Paris that you
could drive there or take the train or TGV (Speed Train) for a short weekend
visit.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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