Angers

So good bye to Eleanor this morning. The hotel was booked and crazy as the high end car owners all queued up for breakfast and then to cause a traffic jam in the hotel parking lot. As the reception clerk drove me to the parking lot, saving the quarter mile walk, and giving extra time for one last goodbye to Eleanor, we both marveled that so many people were taking pictures of the cars while the beautiful Abbey was being ignored.

Once again the Abbey was empty, the great part of staying there and avoiding the crowds but I said goodbye to the four Plantagenet's, and headed out to drive to Angers. I could of had more time at Fontevraud because even though I needed to return the car by noon, the drive to Angers was only 50 minutes, not the two hours that it was on Google. I suspect that is because we found ourselves on one of the toll roads which can often be difficult for tourists to navigate as the tolls often need to be paid with a chip and pin card. I had issues a few years back as most French transport requires the chip and pin so I carry one - although I use the pin so infrequently, I need to keep it in my wallet which I am pretty sure defeats the purpose. Still I held my breath and said a silent prayer when the credit card worked perfectly at the toll booth. It actually is easier than the US as there are no EZ passes here, just put in your credit card! It was not that hard to find the car rental spot, although of course Enterprise cannot be with all the other car rentals so I did get a tour of the train station section of Angers. Then, decided to walk to the hotel which resulted in some wandering as our initial interpretation of the town map was totally off. There were lots of pretty shops to peek in and we stumbled on a couple of the churches we would need to return to later. There also were signs....
It turns out this is the Journees du Europeanne Patrimoine which means that all the cultural and historic sites are free all weekend. Whooho!



First stop was the Collegiate Church of St. Martin. This is one of the best preserved Carolingian churches in France. The Carolingian reign was between the 700s and the 900s and was preceded by the Merovingian dynasty represented by the church we visited in Poitiers and followed by the Capetian dynasty - which was the time of Eleanor. It's not a church anymore, although the you can still see the Plantagent and Angevin architecture from the 12th century, now it holds lots of terra cotta sculptures of saints taken from around the region. You can go down in the basement and see the 5th century ruins and parts of the church have some of the decorative paintings.

Next stop the cathedral- St. Maurice, built between the 11th century and the 16th with a window of St Julian considered to be a masterpiece of 13th century stained glass. The organ has parts which date back to the 13th century and were recycled when the organ was rebuilt in the 1600s. The carvings are considered to have been influenced by those at Chartres. There are three monarchs of note buried at the Cathedral, one with Plantagenet ties; Margaret of Anjou, also known as Queen Margaret of England, wife of Henry VI. Henry VI was the son of Henry V and Catherine de Valois and inherited the insanity (thought perhaps to be a type of schizophrenia) from his grandfather, the French King Charles VI. As a result of the war of the Roses, Henry lost his throne to Edward of York who went on to become Edward IV of England. His wife fled to France and died a poor relation of the French King. As her father was Rene of Anjou, she is buried in the cathedral. Her father is as well - more about him below. Also buried there is Yolande of Aragon who helped finance Joan of Arc's army.

For here it was down the hill (yes, another medieval town built on a hill) to the Maine River.

From there it was an easy walk to the Angers Chateau entrance and the walk lets you appreciate what a fortress the castle was in medieval times. The site has been occupied since the Neolithic period but was founded as a castle in the 9th century and was expanded to the current size by the 13th. It was developed as a castle to keep the Norman dukes to the north in check. In the 13th century, French regent Blanche of Castile had a fortress built to mass royal troops. Although a granddaughter of Eleanor and Henry, she embraced the French cause and fought to keep the English under Henry III out of France. The castle offered sanctuary to the Dauphin during the Hundred Years War, was used by Catherine De'Medici and became a military academy that counted among it's graduations the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon. The castle's exhibits focus on Duke Rene of Anjou who brought lots of flowers to the region from his time in Italy so there are extensive gardens. You can walk along the ramparts and impressive views of the city. The castle also holds the Apocolyse Tapestries which are 100 meter- yep- got that right- showing the last chapters of the bible. Created between 1377 and 1382, they tell the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation by St John the Divine. They are the oldest French medieval tapestry to survive and you walk the six sections - each 78 feet by 20 feet with 90 different scenes you wonder how this could have been almost destroyed during the French Revolution and you are very glad it was reconstructed in the 19th century. Reportedly Henry II is featured in them, as the devil. This is probably due to the fact that they were created not long after the 100 Years War.
Unfortunately, like the Bayeux Tapestry, it is kept in low light and photos are forbidden.

Next stop the Beaux Arts museum which was only on the list because it was free. They had a Rodin but not much else of note except a tapestry by a 20th century tapestry artist. It was huge and the exhibit had his paintings before he committed the pattern to cloth. Pretty Impressive. There was time to visit the town garden situated between roads named for the final days of WWI and WWII and time to buy some Plantgent bread-brown with lots of seeds, for the dinner sandwitches before a medieval concert back at the cathedral. A music group from Brittany performed medieval dances and played 15th century Engligh music, including a piece composed by Henry VIII.

Tomorrow we will see how much of this city states open in Sunday. I suspect not much but there is an amusement park dedicated to gardens that sounds worth exploring.