Château de Chenonceau’s history is significant for the actions of a string of women who have lived here. Its architectural and garden features stand as monuments to the lives of these great women. Beginning as is often the case as a fortress, this site evolved from the 11th century to become a residential building with a sense of luxury and particularly, femininity that we don’t always see in the Châteaux of the Loire Valley. It is the second most visited château in France after Versailles.
This is a basic but clear map indicating the extent to which the canal system interconnects different waterways and regions. I’ve recently started thinking about it, particularly the Midi Canal as Louis XIV was alive when this was being constructed and it has a remarkable story and linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantique Ocean. To link two rivers, how was this topography achieved. How would this work for example, connecting the Loire and the Saone so near their source, or at any point? Could Paris once be reached by boat from the Loire? What is this waterway like today? Watch this space ..
Britannica have a long article on the history of waterways in Europe/France provided on the link at the end of this abridged article.
Canals (Britannica)
The 16th to 18th century
The development of the mitre lock, a double-leaf gate the closure of which formed an angle pointing upstream, heralded a period of extensive canal construction during the 16th and 17th centuries. The canals and canalized rivers of that period foreshadowed the European network to be developed over many years.
In France the Briare and Languedoc canals were built, the former linking the Loire and Seine and the latter, also known as the Canal du Midi, linking Toulouse with the Mediterranean. Both were remarkable feats of engineering. The Briare Canal (completed 1642) rose 128 feet to a plateau with a summit level 3.75 miles long and then dropped 266 feet to the Loing at Montargis. It included 40 locks, of which a unique feature was a staircase of six locks to cope with the fall of 65 feet on the descent from the Loing to Rogny. Construction of the 150-mile Canal du Midi joining the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean via the Garonne and the Aude ran through very rugged terrain. Begun in 1666 and finished in 1692, it rose 206 feet in 32 miles from the Garonne at Toulouse to the summit through 26 locks, and, after a three-mile stretch along the summit, then descended 620 feet through 74 locks for 115 miles. Near Béziers a staircase of eight locks was built, and six miles farther upstream a tunnel 180 yards long was constructed; three major aqueducts carried it over rivers, and numerous streams were diverted beneath it in culverts. The most notable technical achievement was a complex summit water supply that included unique diversion of flows and storage provision.
Midi Canal
By Michael Clarke
Midi Canal, also called Languedoc Canal, French Canal du Midi or Canal du Languedoc, historic canal in the Languedoc region of France, a major link in the inland waterway system from the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. It was built in the 17th century at a time when France was the centre of civil engineering excellence. The Midi Canal connects Toulouse, using water from an artificial reservoir built in the Montagne Noire (Black Mountain), with the Mediterranean at Sète via the Étang de Thau (Thau Lagoon). canal in France. The Midi Canal was Europe’s first long-distance canal and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.
After Leonardo da Vinci designed the first mitre gates in Milan (1497), he was brought to France in 1516 by Francis I, king of France and Milan. Leonardo looked at proposals for canals from the Garonne River to the Aude River and from the Loire River to the Saône River. The second was considered too difficult, but as the Hers and Fresquel, tributaries of the Garonne and Aude rivers, have sources just a few miles apart, a canal between them was considered possible, though the lack of a local water supply for the summit frustrated engineers for the next century and a half.
A tour boat on the Midi Canal, Languedoc region, France.C. Sappa—DeA Picture Library
The idea of a canal to link the Atlantic and Mediterranean was not abandoned, however. Pierre-Paul, Baron Riquet de Bonrepos, together with his engineer, François Andreossy, finally overcame the main design problem of providing a sufficient water supply system for the summit with plans for building a dam. Louis XIV granted permission for the construction of the canal in 1666, Riquet’s case having been supported by the finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Work was soon under way on the water supply system, the most difficult part being construction of the Saint-Ferréol Dam. At the time, it was the greatest civil engineering work in Europe, holding back waters from the Montagne Noire, including the Laudot River, which could feed either the canal or the reservoir via two channels with a total length of 66 km (41 miles).
Seventeenth-century map showing the route and tributary waters of the “New Languedoc Canal,” or Midi Canal, France.© AbleStock.com /Jupiterimages
Despite political and financial pressure, Riquet pushed ahead with construction of the canal, though it affected his health. He died eight months before his canal opened in May 1681. In addition to some 100 locks, the project required building numerous bridges, an aqueduct, and the world’s first canal tunnel.
Midi Canal, Toulouse, France; constructed by Pierre-Paul, Baron Riquet de Bonrepos.Martin Pröfrock
The Château de Saumur holds a significant collection of ceramic art.
I will revisit the rooms later to take better images but the slides give an idea of the size of this permanent collection.
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Never give your cat a marker.
This rear garden sees a few visitors. Beatrix Potter would like it here.
Many residential gardens in France are hidden behind austere facades and this is particularly true in Paris apparently.
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Just taking note of this while I think of it. It stands out in its omission of Villandry but the other gardens are less well known so a really good list
I am counting my visits to France. I have visited France three times. The first time in the 1980s as an archetypal tourist, only for three days and I don’t remember much except Monet’s Water Lilies and a room in Paris.
My second visit was for three weeks in 2015 which in hindsight feels more like three months because I saw many places. I had become interested in history and in particular in Amboise, 16 kilometers from Tours in Central France and I stayed in a studio nestled into the ramparts of the Château d’Amboise. The weather was nice, late Spring and I needed only a cardigan to walk. Bliss. I began building virtual models of chateaux of the Loire region with a friend using photography from this visit. Le Château de Chenonceau, like every chateau, tells some of the story of the history of France and was a highlight. At the end of an afternoon at Chenonceaux we sat on the remote train station bench and took more photos with the phone, as the camera battery had been depleted. I wanted to live in France at this moment. In fact, it is Centre-Val de Loire where I would like to live, in central France. My third and present visit has been for nine months and has convinced me of this fact.
I’ll keep you posted ..
From la gare de Chenonceaux
France in Summer..
I have lived in Nantes for several months, and hope to return to Tours. Tours in central France is located where access to the chateaux along the Loire is generally closer, not simpler but closer. It is true that France is never simple. During these first months my education which had been provided by postcards, film, and painting studies from afar, tends to have shifted to a more nuanced version of life in France, at a very intimate distance and though less glamorous perhaps, my experiences have been vivid, giving meaning to these shallow preconceptions.
I will say now though that before I arrived from Australia I had a vague notion that I could operate reasonably well, albeit on a superficial level, after a couple of years here. I have to admit that I am not so brave now and after eight months, though I follow my dream, it is in a somewhat isolated state .. though is not altogether a bad thing. I say this as I have never traveled independently. I have accepted though that I’ll never be able to go to a bar and be fully engaged in conversation with locals or never be French when I go to the supermarket or the post office or the doctor. I will always be an ‘other’, but I will follow this path nonetheless. That’s my personal commitment, and hopefully I’ll pick up any self esteem lost on the way by acquiring an education about a different country and its society, and by seeing and doing things I have only ever heard stories about.
I love the French language but feel pompous when I try to speak it such is its grace, but I am hoping it will come to me suddenly, even overnight in my sleep would be great. I’ll make this a post if it does happen. In the meantime I will use both languages here where it seems natural .. and hopefully there will be more occurrences of French as time goes by.
This space is where thoughts are gathered about life in France and I hope you enjoy my pages as much as I have enjoyed making them.
Yours
Kerrie B.
Generally all images in sliders are © Sembleue.
This week we experienced the “Moscow” winter, a cold front coming from Russia bringing the temperature down to -10 overnight for a week. It’s not cold enough on the north ice cap. In Paris, public transport was brought to a halt but the days weren’t all grey here near the Atlantique coast. Gloves, hat and coat and camera and one of the best walks ever. A full display of new winter flowering plants was a surprise. A small but lovely consolation.
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