My 5 week creative visit to France.
As I did last year, I will be blogging about my artist’s retreat for 2023. This time I’m just doing this with one friend instead of at an official residency.
Why do a residency? Well, it’s a chance to really put a focus on my creative work. When at home, I am distracted by the rest of my life, such as social activities, and stuff that needs to be done around the house that calls to me, especially when my writing is frustrating me. When I’m away, my life is very simple. I can’t cook too fancy because there aren’t a lot of my usual gadgets and I don’t have more than the absolute basics at my rental apartment.
Paris has been a magnet for creatives for a millenia. Writers, composers and artists of every type are attracted to the energy of the city, which is teaming with history, museums, gardens and people. All of which is fodder for the creative mind.
I spent my first week touring the Loire Valley, since I had never been there, and had planned to take a trip somewhere in addition to my residency. This I did on my own. I haven’t traveled this way before, except for a weekend here and there, but I had been wanting to do this for a while. There are people in my life I could travel with, but I found it was a nice change to be able to go at my own pace and do whatever I felt like. No discussions or negotiations. This is something new for me, since I was in a relationship for thirty years. I realized how much one looks to the other in a couple for ideas, approval, interest and enthusiasm, in order to make decisions. It can be a good thing, because two heads are better than one, but for a while I felt like I didn’t know what I wanted now that I’m single. Taking the step of solo travelling gave me an opportunity to feel independant again.
I flew to Paris, arriving in the morning after only sleeping a few hours on the plane. My flight left at 7:30 pm and arrived at what would have been my home base time of 3:00 am. I took the rest of the day to pick up my car rental, check into an airport hotel and rest until dinner, followed by an early night. This way I was more or less ready to go in the morning, though I was a bit tired.
I drove for a few hours, getting used to my standard transmission car, which was both fun and slightly terrifying. My first stop was Chartres where there is a famous cathedral that I know from my art history text books. According to the Unesco World Heritage site “Chartres Cathedral marks the high point of French Gothic art. The vast nave, in pure ogival style, the porches adorned with fine sculptures from the middle of the 12th century, and the magnificent 12th- and 13th-century stained-glass windows, all in remarkable condition, combine to make it a masterpiece.” It was quite impressive, in stature, beauty, and preservation.
After Chartres, I headed further down the road towards my destination of Blois, and found a cute town along the route called Châteaudun which boasted a small castle. Since I was heading toward the Loire Valley, home of many castles, I decided I would start here first, and did a quick tour. It was almost undecorated and the chill upon entering was surprising, but there were some nice details that added interest to the visit. The castle is considered early Renaissance, and included a large open air stairway with sculptures and gargoyles all around. Other features included the dungeon in the basement of a tower, many many enormous fireplaces, and a display of very fine tapestries.
I arrived at Blois in time to check into my hotel and grab dinner. I had to circle the area many times before I located a parking lot near enough to walk with all my bags to the hotel. Luckily, despite a complicated set of instructions, I put some money into the parking maching and found out I had paid up until 10am the next day. Perfect!
Blois is a fairly large city/town. It sports a large castle right in downtown, as well as a number of nearby castles to see. I started with the Château Royal de Blois perched on top of a hill overlooking the centre of Blois. It’s website boasts “the royal château of Blois presents a magnificent panorama of the art and history of the castles of the Loire. Surrounding the court, its four wings constitute a unique example of the development of French architecture from the 13th through the 17th century. With its multitude of styles, the edifice evokes the destiny of 7 kings and 10 queens of France.” That’s a lot of kings and queens.
In the afternoon, I drove out to the Château de Chambord located on a large property a half hour out of town from Blois. It’s website describes it as “Unique architectural jewel built starting in 1519 at the request of François I, a lover of the arts and passionate hunter, the château of Chambord has become emblematic of the French Renaissance in Europe and throughout the world.”
The next day I set out again into the wilds and located the Château de Cheverney. According to their website it is “A magical place which enchants visitors of all ages. The Château de Cheverny is a grand estate which has been in the same family for over six centuries. Cheverny has always been lived in and every generation has made a great effort to take care and embellish it with a true passion.”
It was the end of April and as I recall, the French have their school break during the Easter time. This castle had really gone into easter décor big time, with outdoor bunny and egg sculpture, trees trimmed into the same shapes, and inside, a plethora of bunnies all decked out for a party. This wasn’t just the one room I have pictured above, it was practically every room in the place. That’s a lot of rooms and a lot of bunnies!
Cheverney was not terribly large, so I decided to sally forth and do another castle in the afternoon. Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire was next on my list, so I headed out further into the countryside in search of this place.
This castle covered a huge area with the actual building deep into the grounds area, and many outbuildings, stables etc. dotting the landscape, as well as extensive gardens. My biggest surprise was the extensive modern sculpture exhibit of stellar quality. A lot of the works looked as if they were purpose made for the space they were exhibited in, which included stables and farm buildings as well as the chateau, but if they weren’t made for these spaces, it was a masterful work of some very talented curator.
There were many gardens as well, something this site is known for. Large areas were filled with sculptural and architectural constructions as well as many flowers, plants and trees.
From their website: “The site’s new “three-fold identity” comprises a major historic and heritage site – the Château –, new trends in global landscape design – the International Garden Festival – and in contemporary design – the Centre of Arts and Nature as well as special commissions created on site.”
At the end of my tour I continued on to my next hotel which was in Amboise, a much smaller town were I settled in for the night. I was begining to feel a bit tired at this point, and my back was aching a little. You need to be fit to be a tourist with so much standing and walking, but I carried on the next day with more castle touring. Next stop: Château d’Amboise which was right in the centre of the old part of the town.
From their website: “Amboise was one of the favorite sites of the kings of France when they transformed their country during the Renaissance period. Anne de Bretagne, François Ier or Léonard de Vinci (buried in the chapel of the castle), are familiar faces here […] A living castle open to nature, a haven of peace for more than 90 species of birds, Amboise also offers a 360 ° view of landscapes […]”
In the afternoon, after a fine meal shared with a British couple, I ventured a few blocks over to the Château de Clos Lucé where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. From their website: “1516-1519: King Francis I and Louise de Savoie invite Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise. King Francis I, passionate by Leonardo da Vinci’s talent, names him “ Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect of the King” and offers him the enjoyment of the Château of Clos Lucé, located only a few meters away from the Château d’Amboise.”
The castle itself is smallish and not too fancy, but they’ve put together a really in depth retrospective of da Vinci’s work and it’s impact on history as well as displaying numerous mechanical devices built following the specs he gave in his notebooks. A prolific man of ideas, he concieved of engines of warfare such as an early version of an armored tank and developed new types of cannons. He had an imense curiousity which overflowed to many ideas such as how to give man flight and how to manage water flow.
After a long day of touring, I headed to a little BBQ place off the main drag. I had spotted it earlier in the day and had made a reservation which was important since this was a holiday weekend. The BBQ was basically a fireplace in the middle of the restaurant with a grate that held many logs. When the fire had burned the logs down to coals, the pieces are then pulled out under the grate where the cooking happens. It was a very warm restaurant! I was able to chat with some friendly Australian ladies sitting next to me. As you can see, my meal was very yummie, grilled shrimp with pistou sauce, and a steak with veggies. I don’t recall having enough room to eat dessert.
The next day I decided to wrap up my Loire tour with the Château de Chenonceau. After driving down a windy road I arrived at this historic location. According to their website “The history of the Château de Chenonceau is defined by an almost uninterrupted succession of women who built, embellished, protected, restored and saved it. The first château was a medieval château dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, of which only the dungeon remains: the Tour des Marques. The château in its current form was built between 1513 and 1517, by Thomas Bohier and above all his wife, Catherine Briçonnet.” Among the women of this castle was Catherine de Medici, wife of Henri II who had the gallery over the water built to display her art.
The castle is built over the water which is an amazing sight to see. This place had some of the most beautiful gardens and flowers I had seen so far and inside there are special floral arrangements done by the castle floral arrangers which use the flowers from the garden.
The next day, on my way back to Paris, I stopped for a bit in Orleans which is one of the larger cities in the region, where I visited the Cathédrale Sainte-Croix. Orleans, by the way, is famous for being the city that Joan of Arc liberated. There are statues of her all over the place and they have a festival every year to celebrate her achievements.
It was a very long voyage back to Paris. I don’t know why a 1.5 hour trip took me more than four hours, but it did. Paris was hell to drive in, and I was only going to the outskirts to the airport where I was dropping off the car and picking up my friend. I’m very glad I didn’t think it was a good idea to rent a car for the rest of my visit.
All in all, my solo trip to the Loire was a success. I enjoyed my alone time, doing whatever I felt like doing, and chatting with people I met along the way. If I had been with other people, I would probably have felt inhibited from chatting because the others would be waiting for me impatiently. I definately want to do more of this kind of travel.
