Walk: 7km; total: 101km
The Chateau did not open until 10am, so we had another leisurely breakfast, then did some admin in the room before setting off. On the way to the chateau, because we were a bit early, we visited the Eglise Notre-Dame-de-Nantilly. As with all old ABCs in and around Europe, it was beautiful inside.
At the chateau we joined the queue, purchased our tickets and went inside. Lots of spiral staircases were traversed in both directions. We were hoping that one of the stair cases would lead us to the top of the chateau so we could get a good view of the city, but alas, we were restricted to the inside. If you paid for a guided tour, you were deemed worthy enough to gain access and be King of the Castle! There were some very old and some very new tapestries on display, as well as old crockery that is still in vey good condition. Construction began in 962, was built onto through to 1368, when Louis 1 decided to transform the castle into a palace. It has been a safe place for Protestants and Catholic governors, a prison, and an arms and ammunition depot. It became a listed building in 1862 and in 1912 it became a museum. There endeth the history lesson for today.
After all that excitement, we had a coffee at L’Orangeraie cafe in thimble-sized cups, but they were good coffees. Back to the hotel for a rest. Greg then rode out to the local Mushroom Museum. The place has three parts, a section on all things mushroom (ornaments), the museum which displays specimens of 100s of fungi from all around the world, and there’s a fully functioning mushroom farm producing over 20 types of food, ornamental and pharmaceutical fungi. He was amazed by the weird and wonderful shapes of the various mushrooms. The three parts of the museum are housed in an old stone block mine. The whiteish coloured stone was laid down 90 million years ago when lots of France was under the sea. Today the lovely stone blocks can been seen everywhere, in houses, chateaus, castles, public buildings and walls. Just in the Saumur area alone, mining this stone has resulted in 2,000 km of tunnels being dug. However they have been working at it since the Middle Ages.
Whilst Greg did the mushrooms, Wendy read her book and did some route investigating for tomorrow.
We couldn’t resist going back to the little Chinese restaurant up the road for dinner. It was all delicious, again.
School of Music
Town Hall
Back of the Town Hall
Notre Dame Church Nantilly
Saumur Chateau
The Well - water was drawn from a depth of ~33m
Some really old tapestries
The great chamber
The oratory
Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves
Three new tapestries
Mithrim
Moria Gate
The Queen's sitting room
A solid looking gold clock
The King's room
The passage
The Horsey room
The underground room and end of the tunnel
Views of Saumur from the Chateau
All things mushroom
Comb tooth
The Lion's Mane
Cinnabar polypore
Velvet Shank
Lingzhi or Reishi
Shitaké
WW1&2 Cavalry memorial
French Army Cavalry Academy
Our new favourite Chinese restaurant
Our last photo in Saumur
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