Best Gothic Bridge Ever, So Far

So next day we are en route to Langeais and the chateau there, when we approach the River and see what has to be the best Gothic bridge ever, so far.

On the bridge; we crossed and parked so I could walk back and study this thing

En route to the bridge, I am passed by the Tour de Jour (Sunday; Dimanche)

Thus

Down, off the levee, the bridge comes into view

I notice the stairs up the levee are actually a measuring stick for flood, or inundation...

Six meters above flood would not be good

Anyhow, the bridge, nice towers, pointed arches

The vaulting may be more recent, however

Saint Genet

Fontveraud's other famous inmate, when the abbey was turned into a prison, was the petty criminal and writer Jean Genet, whom Sartre "canonized" in his 1950s Saint Genet. I read Saint Genet in my senior year in high school, and Our Lady of the Flowers, and probably others works by Genet such as were in translation in 1965. And probably understood very little. My senior thesis in English was going to be on Genet, but I never wrote it. Miss Dunning generously let me pass senior English anyway, and I graduated and later did write some other things. I never thought about Genet in later years and have no clue now--except for the usual adolescent rebelliousness or ostentatiousness--of why I was interested in the first place. Anyway, I think the folks at Fontveraud have taken Sartre way too literally. There are references to Genet all over, his books are all in the gift shoppe, and there is a major shrine to Genet in the prison exhibit in the abbey. French intellectual life is a continuing source of amazement. Perhaps it's because he was so flamboyantly gay, which might not be regarded as so outrageous nowadays...

Abbaye de Fontevraud

Our first major stop after leaving Angers was the Abbeye de Fontevraud, a 12th century abbey, hospital, church, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, a state prison. It is most famous as the final resting place for the Plantagenets, Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Richard the Lion Heart.

Entrance to Fontevraud, quite a large complex, founded in
the 11th

The church, 12th century

Interior; quite large; surprisingly bright for the paucity of
windows; Plantagenet style; not way high

Richard the Lion Heart, Henry and Eleanor's famous son;
next to him the wife of one of his younger brothers whose
name I did not quite catch

Eleanor and Henry 

Interestingly, Eleanor is resting a good half foot higher than
Henry; well, she presided over Fontevraud in her later years,
and designed the tombs herself; she and Henry loathed each
other, yet managed to have four sons; perhaps she's higher
because she was both queen of England and before that
queen of France (it's a long story); she was certainly one
of the leading figures of the age; he is remembered chiefly
for having Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered;
this latter has at least given rise to great literature and a great
movie, of special meaning to us

Apse and altar

Exterior; bow

In one of the halls of the huge cloister

Fontevraud is unique in being the only French abbey with
a roller coaster in the cloister; seriously, this is what I mean
by filling up empty space with contemporary art, and
sometimes it does not work; a few manicured shrubs, flowers,
and a fountain, even a religious sculpture, would have
worked for me; instead you have this ugly wooden thing,
the only point of which is to allow you to better view the
featureless walls, windows, and roofing

Nice Green Man in a hall off the cloister

The abbey dorm area is another case in point, but this time,
I think, it does work; it's a huge empty area; the art work is
a very long row of red neon lights hanging down,
accompanied by tinkly chimey music that wisps through
sort of randomly; on the floor are padded little coffins
(Vicki says they are boats), where you can rest and take it
all in and experience the art and perhaps try to imagine what
it must have been like to have been an inmate here...

So there I am, experiencing the reddish gloom
and the irksome tinkling, trying to imagine
what it must be like to be an actor in a
vampire movie; we were there a good 15
minutes and absolutely no one else tried the
boat/coffin experience

The Refectory; said to be one of the largest of Medieval
secular buildings; no comparison, IMHO, with the Hospital
St. Jean in Angers

The great, octagonal, wondersome kitchen at
Fontevraud, one of its best sights, and
perhaps the best surviving example of such
a mass kitchen

Inside the kitchen, looking up to the central
and (count 'em) sixteen other chimneys

Visiting The Cave

Our drive-by shooting of the chateau at Chinon actually required parking at a cave just outside of town. They didn't have any cave art, but they did have wine and a stained-glass window.

I think it was actually a wine outlet store

Entrance

Interior

More interior

At the end of the first long hall there is a video presentation

Another hall; the aroma is wonderful

Another hall

And another

Interesting stained glass

And, of course, a play-place for the kiddies, while Pere and
Maman get smashed tasting les vins

Drive-By Chateaux-Shootings

So we think that in our previous travels we have covered the basic chateaux of the Loire. Our slides from 79, 86, 89, 93, and so on, would suggest so. We visited or revisited a few more, as subsequent posts will show. But for some, we just took pix as we drove by.

A chateau, on the Loire

Ditto; well, a keep, that is, a partial chateau; notice it's a really BIG river

Saumur

Montsoreau

Part of Chinon

More of Chinon

Still more of Chinon

Vicki at Rigny-Usse, one of the fewer than 10,000 European castles said to have
been the inspiration for Minnie Mouse's castle

Azy Le Rideau; in whose aire we camped like true Europeans, occupying the
last square mm of space

River at Azy Le Rideau

And, one of the better ghost-sign assemblages around