(Not Much of a) SURPRISE: More Castles!

Annie and Richard arrived bright and early this morning for another road trip adventure. This time, instead of staying in Sarthe, we ventured out towards Tours. Our first stop was the Chateau de Montsoreau. It appears Alexandre Dumas wrote a novel about the Lady of Monsoreau (who marries one bloke and falls in love with another one, blah blah), and has been turned into a made-for-TV movie a couple of times.

I've realized that when one is restoring a chateau, there are two options available to draw visitors: you can carefully refurbish and refurnish the place with correct period pieces, though this is a major money pit in terms of upkeep; or, you can not keep a stick of furniture in the place and turn it into a quasi-scientific exhibit. At Montsoreau, they opted for the latter.

This isn't meant as a criticism; it was pretty interesting stuff. During the Renaissance, the Loire River was Where It Was At, and this castle is literally spitting distance from the river. So there was a lot of information about commerce and how goods were transported down the river by boat, stuff about the wines that are stored in the soft-rock caves all along the river, and the ever-popular mushroom farms.

Along with Annie and Richard's dear friends Claude and Christiane, we turned the castle inside out, then went to lunch at a mushroom farm. Our first course was mushroom soup; the main dish was a plate of three large mushrooms: one stuffed with goat cheese, one with rillettes (think pulled pork), and one with... mushrooms. A mushroom-stuffed mushroom. We had a quick dessert (no mushrooms, thank goodness) and jumped in the car to head off to a little tiny church a few towns over.

The village is noteworthy because of its famous castle, Ussé, which is best known as being Charles Perrault's inspiration for Sleeping Beauty. The church, Notre Dame de Rigny, is truly off the beaten path; it's in the middle of nowhere, the exterior is completely uninspiring, but the interior is breathtaking. The church was constructed in the 11th century, and was believed to be a favorite of King Louis XI. Though they don't know for sure, they think it was Louis who commissioned the murals inside, and his royal painter who executed them. Unfortunately, during the period of the counter-Reformation, they were painted over, and have been a bit difficult to salvage.

Claude and Christiane's daughter is a musician, and she and three others performed an impromptu concert in the church. The acoustics were astonishing and the music was gorgeous. The church is a treasure, really beautiful, and there's an association who bought it and have sunk wild amounts of their personal money into saving it. (Their leader is an 85-year-old guy who shocked the crap out of me by telling me he'd been to Birmingham twice.)

When the concert was over, we drove to a nearby village situated prettily on the river. As soon as we got out of the car, I looked down at the boats on the river and realized, holy crap, I've been here before! This past spring, when I was in France with the kids, my hostess Odile took my joyriding through the area and we'd stopped there to walk along the river and admire the boats.

We had chocolate in a little café then took the long way home; I got to see a nuclear power plant! Did you know they make smoke? I didn't. I also couldn't stop the big stupid grin on my face as I kept imagining Smithers and Mr. Burns making nefarious plans inside. I mean really, how can anyone take themselves seriously working at a nuclear power plant? They are all Homer Simpson, one way or another.

Pictures are here. Good times had by all. Don't want to go back to work tomorrow.