Alright, today we shall actually storm a castle. It was a smaller group of just the two Kates, Mia, Tom, Charles, Gemma and me so we took Gem’s rental car and I drove a few people in Betty. Mia, the sweetheart, was the most excited passenger that Betty’s had. The super mature eleven year old loved my campervan even though I had run through the endless problems and misadventures I’ve had with her.
We returned to the first castle that we visited yesterday, Langeais, as Elaine had mentioned that it was the best one to actually go inside. So this time we forked out our 8.50 Euros and in we went. The castle rooms were fairly large with many tapestries, the occasional bed or wooden armoire, tiled floors and the odd large fireplaces. There were some laminated sheets in each room in various languages but they didn’t always do a great job of actually explaining the purpose of the room. There was a very animated French actor in a dining hall and from what I could understand he was just going on about how everything had to be perfect for his master and that God was helping him achieve his goal.
Cool wine fountain en route to the castle:
The flamboyant actor:
King Charles:
One floor up, there were about twelve wax figures depicting those present during the secret wedding of King Charles VIII with Anne of Bretagne (Brittany) that made the permanent union of France and Brittany. Some of the figures were a bit spooky looking and then we were entertained to this short audiovisual presentation about the wedding and it was cheesy at best but did give us a few giggles.
Spooky wax figures signing the contract for the wedding:
On the top level there was a large room with a long, domed ceiling (Mia accurately described it as Noah’s ark upside down). One of the large tapestries was of yours truly, David. Turns out I’m the King of Spades in French playing cards while Charles (Charlemagne) is the King of Hearts. We almost left the room, out the way we entered, when Charles opened what really looked to be an emergency exit, but it turns out it was the way to get to an outdoor, covered walkway that run the length of the front of the castle and probably was the highlight. Its purpose was to allow soldiers to quickly reposition themselves should the castle be under attack.
The view from the castle top:
Strange wax figures in a dungeon like room...there was no signage to explain it and it was quite odd:
Afterwards we toured the grounds which sported a small garden, stonewall with a precarious wooden scaffolding set of stairs, a cool modern treehouse and a bit of a lookout over the neighbouring countryside.
Gemma and Kate in the gardens:
Rickety scaffolding:
A nice view of the gardens:
The big treehouse:
Charging Charles:
Deadly Dave:
Killer Kate:
Gallant Gemma:
Mighty Mia:
Incredibly dark clouds:
Happy to have thoroughly explored this castle, we ventured off to a new one, Chateay de Rigny-Usse We planned on just checking this one out from the outside and it was very much your stereotypical fairy tale princess castle...beautiful. Upon leaving, Betty wouldn’t start so everyone got to see the “magic spray” in action. I unfortunately seem to be using it more and more...not a good thing.
Chateau de Rigny-Usse:
We returned to Jim and Elaine’s for our final evening and one last barbeque (I was loving this as I’ve only had one other barbeque all summer). A final boules game, in fact the “championships” between Jim and Charles versus Uncle Steve and me. It was a heated contest but in the end Jim and Charles prevailed with a final beauty of a shot by Charles...good times.
The Boules Championships:
Charles in action:
Uncle Steve chucking one:
The trophy presentation:
Charles enjoying his spoils:
After dinner we were in the suite occupied by Uncle Steve, Kate, Mia, Tom and Charles’ sister Kate. Everyone was there including Jim and Elaine. During the whole time that we were staying here, Elaine must have spent a total of five minutes with us which was fine as she was ill when we first arrived and she didn’t need to socialize after that if she didn’t want to...however something felt off. Since Elaine and Jim run this place as a vacation getaway spot, it made sense that Charles and Gemma would be paying for their accommodation. Jim is a long time friend of Steve’s so I gather they were staying there for free and I learned later that Elaine (and maybe Jim) had actually stayed at Kate’s place for quite some time once before in England. Kate had agreed with Gemma before they even arrived that they would split Gemma’s bill so that it was a nice, relatively cheap vacation for everyone. I was quite shocked when I heard that Gem had a 65 pound “cleaning fee” added to their bill as they had been cleaning the place on a daily basis. That aside, everything got very weird when Gem gave Elaine the cheque for half of the amount and Kate would be giving the other half. Elaine started to beak off about how she’d never experienced this in the 8 years they’d been running the place and question whether Gemma’s cheque would bounce plus she added an insult to Charles. Well, you could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. I’m kicking myself now for not breaking out the “Awkward Turtle” (a hand gesture my niece Rachel showed me, you put one hand on the other and rotate your thumbs...it’s used to break up awkward moments). Well, we left the building and returned to Charles and Gem’s separate house. It definitely put a sour note on the end of the mini-holiday and I felt sorry for Jim, who had been a great host, and was caught in the middle of it. It definitely made for an interesting finish to the evening! Oh well, it was still a fantastic time.
Charles and Mia gettin' down:
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