A weekend in the French countryside, Loire Valley

6 Mars 2023

Trip to Loire Valley:

I was lucky enough to be placed into a highly loving and caring host family that wanted me to make the most of my Paris journey. They are fairly connected and have different relationships that span across of France. For my February snow break holiday, they invited me with them to visit Loire Valley and stay at their Manoir. They also extended the invitation to one of my closest friends up here because Loire Valley is her favorite place in France. Our weekend home was Manoir de Vonnes.

I actually missed my first train on my way to Loire because I got lost in the train station. I sent my friend ahead without me because I did not want her to pay for another ticket. I was lucky enough to snag a ticket for a fast train that left two hours after my first train, I got there in just an hour and the anxiety of missing my first train happily vanished.

This manoir is built up of two buildings, the manoir, and the cottage. This place has a rich history in Loire Valley. The Manor of Vonnes was built in 1610 by Horace des Jardins who was a comptroller general of wars and mayor of Tours. The building rests on older foundations and the spiral staircase was also probably a remnant of the old construction. The spiral staircase was my absolute favorite piece of architecture that has remained from the original foundation and definitely an aspect of the manoir I want to incorporate within my own home in the future.

Since then, the Manoir de Vonnes has undergone multiple transformations over the centuries to not only keep up with the times but to also make sure there was a stable enough foundation for people to inhabit.

The manoir has been in the same family since 1735. In 1929, Vonne hired Jean de Montlivault who then undertook the restoration which would last three generations. Here there was more windows and skylights being put in, the repairing of ceiling and floors, a new creation of a terraced garden on the south side and demolition of agricultural buildings on the north side; creation of a balustrade for the porch, the repair of the roofs, restoration of the spiral staircase.

Since I came with the family who lived here, I stayed in the manoir but for all the visitors who stay here, there is a cottage. The Vonnes cottage was created in a former stable of the Manor in 2021. Classified "A furnished 4-star tourist accommodation, labeled "Tourism and Handicap" and "Accueil vélo", it can accommodate up to 12 people in 6 bedrooms. It overlooks the north facade of the Manoir de Vonnes, a listed historic monument, and the garden from which the occupants benefit. This cottage is available for rent and my family is actually thinking about renting this space when they visit in the summer.

Upon arrival to the manoir, my host father drove me through the countryside and gave me a lesson on the rich history behind the different spaces, fields, homes, chateau, flora, and fauna we passed. We got the manoir and it was lunchtime. An amazing and filling lunch was prepared by my host mother's parents. W stayed at the manoir with my host family, my host mother's parents, my host mother's nieces and nephews, and of course our puppy Tethys. We had lunch while looking over the countryside and sitting in the living room in front of the fire. It was an amazing start to our weekend getaway in Frances's rich countryside. In many ways, this place reminded me of the “countryside” at home, spaces like Kohala or even Kahaluʻu. I loved the quiet, and tranquility the country had to offer and it was a great place to get away from the fast-paced and busy city of Paris. The air was cleaner, the sun shined brighter, and the grass was greener.

After lunch, we immediately began our Loire journey in the heart of the city. Our first visit was to the Chateau dʻAzay le Rideau. The Chateau dʻAzay le Rideau was built under the patronage of King Francis in the middle of the Indre river on a small island. The style is of French Renaissance with Italian inspiration. As part of one of my classes Fantasy, Madness, and Monsters: Paris Glittering and Dark Through Tales, Art, and Places, we follow different themes throughout the semester. Below is a short entry from my journal regarding everything Fantasy seen throughout this Chateau. There are countless unmarked tapestries throughout the chateau with hybrids, winged creatures, reptiles, and various other mythical bodies. After advanced Google image searches on these tapestries, I was only able to find a few with general titles but no classified artists. The first tapestry was found in room 9 and titled “History of Psyche”. There are no historic references beyond the title but some themes seen on the canvas are mythic creatures: a three-headed dog and a griffin, glass, flowers, worship, and a serpent. This next tapestry has other mythical bodies at its base these include two creatures that look like a seal, serpent, eel, and dragon variation as well as a celestial body playing with lobsters. This next tapestry has a mix of real-looking creatures like the cheetah-dog and fantasy like the winged griffin in the bottom left corner and humanlike body in the top right. Other tapestries followed the same themes of fantasy with winged creatures and mythical bodies.

There were reptiles overflowing in this chateau, they were on plaques, above fireplaces, on cornerstones, and built into the ceilings and floors. These reptiles were a memento to Francis. He adopted the crest of the Salamander and to this day they fueled fantasies and fairytales alike. The Salamander is often associated with the motto: ​​Nutrisco et Extinguo, which translates loosely as "I feed on the good fire and extinguish the bad". In some of these images, you can see the carving of this motto above or alongside the house crest Salamander *An interesting find was a sundial behind the church on the chateau grounds. We returned home and had a family dinner. We decided to call it an early night since we had such a full day.

The next morning my host family told us to sleep in and wander around the grounds while they went to church. This morning we had the manoir all to ourselves (including our puppy Tethys). To start we had fresh, warm croissants from the nearest boulangerie that my host family left us before they left. We paired it with a tea fleur and a myriad of candied jams, honey, and spreads. We of course tried all with our croissants and tea. After this, I threw on some trusty rubber boots that my host family left me to use in the fields and took my puppy on a walk. She is as épagneul Breton (Brittany Spaniel), a bird dog who loves her birds and loves the copious amounts in the countryside. Our cute stroll in the gardens quickly turned into her dragging me around chasing birds that flew in every direction.

When my family got home, the boys set out for a group hunt for the wild game while the women and children had lunch and prepared for the museum. Our traditional French lunch consisted up smoked sausage boiled in both filled with herbs, radishes, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. We ate this dish with an assortment of dijon and refined mustards. For dessert, we had a homebaked gateau tatin aux pomme (apple upside-down turnover). Of course, I had seconds with each dish.

Now it was time for us to set out to the infamous Chateau de Villandry. Chateau de Villandry is a Unesco World Heritage site and is the last of the great Loire châteauxʻs erected during the renaissance. Francoise and Jean Breton transformed this medieval fortress to an elegant castle fit for the architectural refinement of the renaissance period. Although it is still winter and the gardens are not filled with colorful, blooming flowers, it is still filled with geometric gardens. The purpose of geometrically shared hedges throughout the gardens is to continuously connect this château to its Renaissance roots and style. Joachim Carvallo is one of the main artists in charge of the upkeep of the garden. His vision was to combine three periods to synthesize the botanic history of Villandry, this means that there are several styles including medieval garden, renaissance garden, and French Garden.

Le salon oriental: Lounge room with a geometric ceiling built up of 3600 pieces of Polychrome wood. This is Mudejar inspired style made by Moorish craftsmen. This ceiling was built in the 15th century and used to be housed in the Palace of the Dukes of Maqueda. It is a hypnotic piece of neutral yellow, gold, blue, and indigo tones.

This trip to Loire Valley was most definitely one for the books!