Tag: History

Sèvres

 

Sèvres porcelain, (Encyclopedia Britannica) French hard-paste, or true, porcelain as well as soft-paste porcelain (a porcellaneous material rather than true porcelain) made at the royal factory (now the national porcelain factory) of Sèvres, near Versailles, from 1756 until the present; the industry was located earlier at Vincennes. On the decline of Meissen after 1756 from its supreme position as the arbiter of fashion, Sèvres became the leading porcelain factory in Europe. Perhaps the major factor contributing to its success was the patronage of Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour. It was through her influence that the move was made from Vincennes to Sèvres, where she had a château, and through her that some of the foremost artists of the time, such as the painter François Boucher and the sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet (who directed Sèvres modeling between 1757 and 1766), became involved in the enterprise. It was after her that rose Pompadour was named in 1757; this was one of many new background colours developed at Sèvres, one of which, bleu de roi (c. 1757), has passed into the dictionary as a universal term.

 Plate, soft-paste porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration, gilding by Sèvres porcelain factory, Vincennes and Sèvres, France, 1787; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Plate, soft-paste porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration, gilding by Sèvres porcelain …
Photograph by Christopher Hu. Honolulu Academy of Arts, gift of Mrs. Christian H. Aall in honor of James F. Jensen, 1991 (6196.1)

One of the central preoccupations at Sèvres, in which such notable chemists as Jean Hellot were engaged, was the secret of hard-paste porcelain. Soft paste had been made at Vincennes from 1745, but the Sèvres factory did not obtain the secret of hard paste until 1761, when it was bought from Pierre-Antoine Hannong. The necessary raw materials, however, were still lacking in France; and it was not until these were found (1769) at Saint-Yrieix, in the Périgord district, that hard-paste porcelain could be produced. Thereafter a distinction was made in nomenclature between porcelaine de France or vieuse Sèvres (soft paste, or pâte tendre) and porcelaine royale (hard paste, or pâte dure).

 Of the many styles and techniques for which Sèvres became famous, a few leading examples may be listed: white figures, either biscuit (unglazed) or rarely glazed, representing Boucher-like cupids, shepherdesses, or nymphs that are nude, draped, or in contemporary dress; vessels decorated with flowers, putti, exotic birds, and marine subjects painted in reserves, or white spaces, on brilliantly coloured grounds, such as pink, turquoise, pea green, jonquil yellow, and royal blue; the frequent embellishment of grounds with various minute patterns in gold, such as partridge’s eye (circles with dots in them), pebble (plain ovals massed together), and fish scales; reserves framed and accentuated by fine gilding in curls, scrolls, and trellis patterns; narrative scenes, from classical mythology and contemporary pastoral life; and jeweled decoration, in which gilt and colours are laid on like encrusted gems. Some dinner services were decorated with naturalistic birds from the famous Natural History of Birds (1771) of Georges-Louis-Leclerc Buffon. Sèvres porcelain went through the gamut of 18th-century styles, including those associated with the reign of Louis XVI (1774–92).

The industry suffered greatly during the French Revolution but revived in the early 19th century under the directorship of Alexandre Brongniart. After the Neoclassical and Egyptian styles of Napoleon’s empire, no one distinctive style was initiated. On the baptism of his son, King of Rome, on 10 June 1811, Napoleon offered the infant’s godmother – his own mother, Madame Mère – this spectacular porcelain fuseau vase (Louvre Museum). The tortoiseshell ground provides a sumptuous setting for a portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps, after David’s famous painting. The vase is typical of the designs of Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), director of the Sèvres Manufactory, who saw in porcelain a way of giving great history painting imperishable form.

 

Chronology of Sèvres (below) – an illustrated timeline of works (Cité de la Céramique)

La Manufacture en 1813

_ 1740 _

A soft porcelain workshop was founded in Vincennes in a tower of the royal castle, under the reign of Louis XV and the influence of Madame de Pompadour , favorite of the king.

_ 1751 _

The sculpture is deliberately left in biscuit, without enamel and without decoration, in order to differentiate it from the polychrome production of the Manufacture of Meissen, in Saxony.

_ 1756 _

The Manufacture is transferred to Sèvres in buildings built especially for it, which now house a National Education Service.

_ 1759 _

Louis XV places the Manufacture under the full control of the Crown. It therefore gives it a European influence in the field of porcelain creation.

_ 1768 _

Two researchers from the Manufacture, Pierre-Joseph Macquer and Robert Millot , discover near Limoges the first French kaolin deposit, an essential element of real porcelain, called hard porcelain, marketed as early as 1770.

_ 1800 _

The Manufacture is administered until 1847 by the scientist Alexandre Brongniart , son of the architect of the Paris Stock Exchange, which ensures an exceptional boom.
It was at his initiative that the collection at the origin of the Museum’s creation was born in 1802.

Louis XVIII, lors d'une vente de porcelaines, dans les anciens espaces de la Manufacture à Sèvres, 1816

_ 1824 _

The Ceramic and Glass Museum is inaugurated, the first museum exclusively devoted to ceramics and fire arts, both for educational and technical purposes.
Denis-Désiré Riocreux , painter at the Manufacture, becomes the first curator.

Le musée de la céramique, vue intérieure

_ 1844 … 1845 _

Alexandre Brongniart publishes his Traité des arts ceramiques or potteries considered in their history, their practice and their theory .
The following year, with Riocreux, he wrote a Methodical Description of the Ceramic Museum of the Royal Porcelain Factory of Sèvres , which became the first catalog of the Museum.

_ 1876 _

With the Third Republic, the Manufacture and the Museum are transferred to buildings specially built by the State on a four-hectare site opened in the park of Saint-Cloud, which they still occupy today.

Carte postale du salon d'honneur, vase Neptune Gravure du salon d'honneur, vase Neptune
Dessin ancien, conservé au service des collections documentaires de la Cité de la céramique, représentant un peintre-décorateur dans son atelier Pièces monumentales de Sèvres, lors de l'Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs, Paris, 1925 Visite du Tsar à la Manufacture de Sèvres, 1896

_ 1900 … 1937 _

The Manufacture’s activities revolve around major international and international exhibitions such as 1900, the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1925 that of Decorative Arts and, in 1937, the international exhibition of arts and techniques.
Georges Lechevallier-Chevignard , director from 1920 to 1938, obtained in 1927 financial autonomy for the Manufacture, while the Museum is attached to the conservation of the Louvre Museum, in 1934.

_ 1963 _

Henry-Pierre Fourest , curator of the National Museum of Ceramics, achieved a true renaissance of the Museum; In addition to the opening of many rooms, he publishes the Cahiers de la Ceramique and organizes important exhibitions.

_ 1964 … 1975 _

The activity of the Manufacture radically begins the turn of modernity, which invests the entire production, under the direction of Serge Gauthier .

_ 1979 … 1999 _

The opening of eight new rooms on the ground floor devoted to the ceramics of the East and West of the origins in the sixteenth century, complete the presentation on the first floor of faience and European porcelain from the sixteenth century to ‘today, in the Museum.
The restoration of the Salon d’honneur makes it possible to present a unique collection of Sèvres vases from the 19th and 20th centuries.

_ Today _

Porcelain production has returned to the most contemporary creation of the 21st century. From the beginning, visual artists and designers – from Boucher, Duplessis, Falconet in the 18th century, Carrier-Belleuse, Rodin in the 19th century, to Ruhlmann in the 1930s, Decoeur, Mayodon, Calder, Poliakoff in the 50s and 60s, and more recently Pierre Alechinsky, Zao Wou-ki, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Borek Sipek, Louise Bourgeois, Ettore Sottsass, Bertrand Lavier, Pierre Soulages, Pierre Charpin, Christian Biecher have enriched the repertoire of forms and decorations in Sèvres.
The Museum’s collections have grown considerably, especially for the contemporary period, thanks to a dynamic acquisition policy. Today, more than 50,000 works are preserved.

Or over the centuries:
> 18th century – The rise, the success
> 19th century – Development, research
> 20th century – Between creations and reissues
> 21st century – The way of the contemporary

Gravure ancienne représentant le bâtiment des fours reliant la Manufacture aux espaces du Musée

> Key dates

> 18th century – The rise, the success

> 19th century – Development, research

> 20th century – Between creations and reissues

> 21st century – The way of the contemporary

· Catalog of Sevres Archives – City of Ceramics

· History in motion (video)

 

 

 Manufacture de Sèvres, by Achille-Etna Michallon, 1819

 

 

Sèvres Porcelain in the Nineteenth Century (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The vast and diverse production of the Sèvres factory in the nineteenth century resists easy characterization, and its history during this period reflects many of the changes affecting French society in the years between 1800 and 1900. Among the remarkable accomplishments of the factory was the ability to stay continuously in the forefront of European ceramic production despite the myriad changes in technology, taste, and patronage that occurred during this tumultuous century.

The factory, which had been founded in the town of Vincennes in 1740 and then reestablished in larger quarters at Sèvres in 1756, became the preeminent porcelain manufacturer in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. Louis XV had been an early investor in the fledgling ceramic enterprise and became its sole owner in 1759. However, due to the upheavals of the French Revolution, its financial position at the beginning of the nineteenth century was extremely precarious. No longer a royal enterprise, the factory also had lost much of its clientele, and its funding reflected the ruinous state of the French economy.

Jeffrey Munger
Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

 

 

Sèvres (Exhibition Review – Burlington Magazine)

by ROSALIND SAVILL

The inspirational exhibition La Manufacture des Lumières: la sculpture à Sèvres de Louis XV à la Révolution at Sèvres Cité de la Céramique (closed 18th January), set out to prove that porcelain figures are not mere ­decorative whimsy but significant works of sculpture worthy of serious study. This is fighting spirit, understood by those who work in the field of porcelain, but less recognised by those who do not. Perhaps this is to be expected when so often the products of porcelain factories are associated with day-to-day domestic life, their sculptures relegated to mere decoration rather than seen as works of art in their own right. This may be inevitable when many were originally intended to replace the sugar figures used to  decorate the dessert table but which, because of their hydroscopic nature, tended to melt into a sticky mess. Crisp, fired porcelain, with a glossy glaze and often coloured, was a brilliant and lasting alternative. But, as was seen in this exhibition, this was just the beginning of a story that developed into an extraordinary, innovative and surprising partnership between the fine and decorative arts in eighteenth-­century France.

 

Les Nymphs à la Coquille  Jean-Claude Duplessis,  c1762

 

 

Le Repos de Chasse  Etienne-Maurice Falconet after Francois Boucher, 1766

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Étienne-Maurice Falconet  (Encyclopedia Britannica), (born Dec. 1, 1716, Paris—died Jan. 24, 1791, Paris), was sculptor who adapted the classical style of the French Baroque to an intimate and decorative Rococo ideal. He was patronized by Mme de Pompadour and is best known for his small sculptures on mythological and genre themes and for the designs he made for the Sèvres porcelain factory.

Falconet was a pupil of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. He was received in the French Royal Academy in 1754 and soon after began to enjoy royal and official patronage. In 1757 Mme de Pompadour appointed Falconet director of the sculpture studios at the Sèvres porcelain factory. While director, he executed many models for the factory and produced small sculptures of mythological figures, such as Venus and Cupid, and a series of nude female bathers. He also executed a few monumental and religious works. In 1766 he was summoned to Russia by Catherine II at the suggestion of his friend Denis Diderot to produce a bronze equestrian statue of Peter the Great for St. Petersburg. The resulting work, dedicated in 1782, is one of the most powerful and original equestrian portraits of the age. Falconet left Russia in 1778, and, soon after, he suffered a debilitating stroke that left him unable to sculpt.

He is also remembered for his writings, including Réflexions sur la sculpture (1760; “Reflections on Sculpture”), produced at Diderot’s request for the Encyclopédie.

 

 

 

 

 

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Visit the Sèvres workshops – Cité de la Céramique at 2 place de la Manufacture – 92310 Sèvres

Email : visite@sevresciteceramique.fr – Tel. : +33 (0) 1 46 29 22 05

 

 

Villandry

 

From the Villandry Official Website

Villandry is one of the great chateaux built on the banks of the Loire during the Renaissance. It has the distinctive feature of being the residence of neither a king nor a courtesan, but of Jean Le Breton, Minister of Finance for François I.

At Villandry, Jean Le Breton drew on his exceptional architectural experience acquired on a large number of sites, including the Chateau of Chambord, which he supervised and directed on behalf of the Crown over many years.

When he arrived in Villandry in 1532, he had the old feudal fortress razed to the ground, except for the keep, a dramatic testimony to the conference held on 4 July 1189 at which Henry II of England (Henry Plantagenet) admitted his defeat before King Philip Augustus of France, signing the treaty known as “La Paix de Colombiers ” (The Peace of Colombiers) two days before he died.

In place of the fortress, he had three apparently simple main structures built adjoining the keep, to form a horseshoe opening onto the valley through which the Cher and the Loire flow. Arcades, mullioned windows surrounded by richly decorated pilasters, high lucarnes with sculpted curves and broad, steeply sloping slate roofs frame a main courtyard in proportions of rare elegance, the whole stamped with the architectural principle of the period: symmetry.

Despite being nearby and almost contemporary to Azay-le-Rideau, at Villandry the Italian influences and medieval references – turrets, pinnacles, decorative machicolations – completely disappeared to make way for a simpler, purely French style which, in particular as regards the form of the roofs, prefigured Anet, Fontainebleau and what was to become Henry IV style. Villandry’s originality lies not only in its avant-garde architectural design; it is also to be found in the use made of the site on which it was built, in complete harmony with nature and stone, with gardens of outstanding beauty.

However as a result of architectural changes made in the 18th century, the Renaissance chateau had lost its character and remained that way until 1906. In the early 20th century, Dr Joachim Carvallo and his wife Ann Coleman, heir to an American iron and steel empire, purchased Villandry. Leaving behind the laboratories of the Paris Faculty of Medicine where, a favourite disciple of Charles Richet (winner of the Nobel Prize in 1913), he was conducting advanced research into the physiology of digestion, Carvallo put all his energies and fortune into restoring Villandry to its former glory. With the help of a team of 100 stonemasons, he returned the chateau’s façades to their Renaissance beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

The gardens of Villandry above, before restoration to their Renaissance glory by Carvallo

The acquisition of Villandry by Joachim Carvallo marked a return to their roots for the gardens. Already known for their beauty in the Renaissance, different owners successively transformed them, now into a formal garden, now a romantic garden. With a scientist’s meticulousness, Carvallo recreated gardens that were worthy of the restored chateau. The gardens had changed drastically over time. Ever since the construction of the Chateau of Villandry in 1532, outstanding gardens had embellished the building. The passage of time and changing fashions meant they underwent drastic changes in appearance. Archeological findings tell us how, in the Renaissance, there was a decorative kitchen garden at close proximity to the chateau.

In the 18th century, the grounds were enlarged and enriched with a formal garden, then an ornamental lake in the shape of a Louis XV mirror. When Joachim Carvallo visited Villandry in 1906, he found: « The grounds [are] landscaped in the English style, all undulations and hillocks (…), planted with a good many recently imported exotic species – cedars, pines, thujas, magnolias – set in clumps on the slopes of artificial mounds. The chateau itself [is lost] in a forest of trees and greenery. »

 

 

 

 

The romantic English garden was not to Carvallo’s taste and, between 1908 and 1918, he devoted himself to recreating the Renaissance gardens. He felt that the now restored Renaissance chateau ought to have fitting gardens. As a man of science, he used a scientific approach to assemble a series of archeological and literary clues. By comparing the remains of walls and pipes against old plans, such as those of the Marquis de Castellane and the Napoleonic land register, Carvallo was able to recreate the decorative kitchen garden, while works like Les Plus Excellents bâtiments de France or the Monasticon Gallicanum gave him an idea of Renaissance landscaping. To recreate the ornamental salons on their original terraces, he called on the painter Lozano and Spanish artist and landscape architect Javier de Winthuysen to design the salon of the crosses and the salon of love. The salon of music was designed by Joachim himself. For the ‘classical’ water garden, typical of the 18th century, he used the Marquis of Castellane’s plans, preserved in the Napoleonic land register.
Far from being a mere replica of gardens reproduced in architectural treatises, the gardens of Villandry are a reinvention. From their layout to the choice of vegetables, everything was conceived in terms of a return to the origins of the Renaissance formal garden.

 

 

 

 

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Maine et Loire 49

Maine-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally it was called Mayenne-et-Loire, but its name was changed to Maine-et-Loire in 1791. It was created from most of the former province of Anjou. Its present name is drawn from the Maine and Loire Rivers, which meet within the department.

Maine et Loire

 

Map of Maine et Loire

Loire-Atlantique 44

Loire-Atlantique is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally, it was named Loire-Inférieure, but its name was changed in 1957 to Loire-Atlantique.

The area is part of the historical Duchy of Brittany, and contains what many people still consider to be Brittany’s capital, Nantes. However, when the system of French Regions was reviewed by the Vichy Government, the department was excluded from the Region of Brittany and included in the newly created Pays de la Loire Region.

While these administrative changes were reversed after the war, they were re-implemented in the 1955 boundary changes intended to optimise the management of the regions. There has since been a series of campaigns reflecting a strong local mood to have the department reintegrated with Brittany.

Nantes is nestled on the Loire estuary, the longest river in France and last wild river in Europe. Here, the river is still influenced by the tides, and flows in both directions! The giant cranes still bear witness to the intense port activity which the city experienced up until the mid-20th century. Nowadays, the Loire acts as a backdrop for cultural activities, provides a haven for protected animals and plants and beckons people to enjoy the nearby beaches and coastline for relaxing or water sports.

As a city that was once home to the Dukes of Brittany, Nantes – a city which is Breton at heart – embodies the history of an area of transition between the countryside and the sea, between Brittany and the Loire, and between the roots of identity and the openness to discovery.

Google Maps – Loire Atlantique

Nantes – Château – Château de Bretagne

 

From the official website of Château de Bretagne

The monument

Set in the historic heart of Nantes, the Château des ducs de Bretagne is the city’s most important historic building, along with the Cathedral St. Pierre. When looking at it from the city, it is a fortress with 500 metres of curtain walls punctuated by seven towers, all linked by a sentry walkway. The inner courtyard reveals an elegant 15th century ducal residence made of tufa stone, in flamboyant gothic style and bearing the first traces of Renaissance inspiration, as well as other buildings dating back from the 16th and the 18th centuries. With their elegant white stone walls and sophisticated sculpted façades, they contrast strikingly with the rough textures of the exterior fortifications, made of granite blocks and separated by layers of schist.

History

The first ducal castle was built in the 13th century on top of the (still visible) Gallo-Roman wall of the town, where the Namnetes settled. It was demolished in the 15th century to make way for the present building. The current castle was the work of Francis II, the last Duke of an independent Brittany, who wanted to make the Château des ducs de Bretagne both a military fortress, which could act as a defence against the King, and the principal residence of the ducal court. Work was continued by Duchess Anne of Brittany, twice Queen of France through her marriages to Charles VIII and Louis XII. Her influence can be seen in the sculptural décor (dormer windows overlooking the main residence, as well as the coat of arms and loggias on the “Golden Crown” tower), marked by the first signs of the Italian Renaissance.

Following the integration of Brittany into France in 1532, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Château des ducs de Bretagne became the residence of the kings of France when they visited Brittany, and later a military barracks, an arsenal, and a prison. For three centuries, it endured countless transformations and considerable damage: fortifications, a fire in 1670, construction of the Military Saddlery (Bâtiment du Harnachement) for storing artillery equipment, an explosion in 1800, and so on.

Listed as a historical monument in 1862, it was sold by the government to the City of Nantes in 1915 before also becoming, in 1924, a municipal museum. During World War II, the occupying German forces built a bunker there.

The renovation

The 1990s focussed on restoring the Jacobins’ Tower (Tour des Jacobins), the façades of the Principal Governor’s Palace (Grand Gouvernement – 15c/17c) and the 15th century Golden Crown Tower (Tour de la Couronne d’Or). The Military Saddlery (Harnachement – 18c) refurbished in 1997, was used for temporary exhibitions.

In 2000 work began on restoring the white tufa façades of the main ducal residence (Grand Logis – 15c) to their full glory. These are the oldest and most impressive sections of the building, providing a link between the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany and the Loire Châteaux. The bell tower has been rebuilt and the spires have been replaced on the Golden Crown Tower (Tour de la Couronne d’Or). The interior of the ducal residence has also been completely restored and redeveloped to house the museum.

The restoration has brought out the full power of the Breton feudal fortress and the elegance of the Renaissance ducal palace.

The castle reopened in 2007.

 

 

 

 

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Nantes – Museum – Musée Dobrée

The Musée Dobrée is a museum in Nantes, in the quartier Graslin in the immediate outskirts of the city centre and very close to the city’s Natural History Museum.

 

 

 

 

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Fontevraud-l’Abbaye – History

HISTORY

 

 

 

The following is from Wikipedia

Founder

 

Robert of Arbrissel had served as the Archpriest of the Diocese of Rennes, carrying out the reformist agenda of its bishop. When the bishop died in 1095, Robert was driven out of the diocese due to the hostility of the local clergy. He then became a hermit in the forest of Craon, where he practiced a life of severe penance, together with a number of other men who went on to found major monastic institutions. His eloquence and asceticism attracted many followers, for whom in 1096 he founded a monastery of canons regular at La Roë, of which he was the first abbot. In that same year Pope Urban II summoned him to Angers and appointed him an apostolic missionary, authorizing him to preach anywhere. His preaching drew large crowds of devoted followers, both men and women, even lepers. As a result, many men wished to embrace the religious life, whom he sent to his abbey. When the canons of that house objected to the influx of candidates of lower social states, he resigned his office and left the community.

 

Fontevraud

 

Around 1100 Robert and his followers settled in a valley called Fons Ebraldi where he established a monastic community. Initially the men and women lived together in the same house, in an ancient ascetic practice called Syneisaktism. This practice had been widely condemned by Church authorities, however, and under pressure the community soon segregated according to gender, with the monks living in small priories where they lived in community in service to the nuns and under their rule. They were recognized as a religious community in 1106, both by the Bishop of Angers and by Pope Paschal II. Robert, who soon resumed his life of itinerant preaching, appointed Hersende of Champagné to lead the community. Later her assistant, Petronilla of Chemillé, was elected as the first abbess in 1115.

 

Robert wrote a brief Rule of Life for the community, based upon the Rule of St. Benedict. Unlike the other monastic orders characterized by double monasteries, the monks and nuns of the Order of Fontevrault followed the same Rule. In his Rule, Robert dealt with four principal points: silence, good works, food and clothing, encouraging the utmost in simplicity of life and dress. He directed that the abbess should never be chosen from among those who had been brought up at Fontevrault, but that she should be someone who had had experience of the world (de conversis sororibus). This latter injunction was observed only in the case of the first two abbesses and was canceled by Pope Innocent III in 1201. At the time of Robert’s death in 1117, there were about 3,000 nuns in the community.

 

In the early years the Plantagenets were great benefactors of the abbey and while Isabella d’Anjou was the abbess, King Henry II’s widow, Eleanor of Aquitaine, made the abbey her place of residence. Abbess Louise de Bourbon left her crest on many of the alterations to the abbey building which she made during her term of office.

 

Tomb of Richard I of England (front) and Isabella of Angoulême (back)

 

Decline

 

With the passing of the Plantagenet dynasty, however, Fontevrault and her dependencies began to fall upon hard times. At the end of the 12th century, the Abbess of Fontevrault, Matilda of Flanders (1189-1194), complained about the extreme poverty which the abbey was suffering. As a result, in 1247 the nuns were permitted to receive inheritances to provide income for their needs, contrary to monastic custom. The fragile economic basis of the Order was exacerbated by the devastation of the Hundred Years War, which lasted throughout the 14th century. A canonical visitation of fifty of the priories of the Order in 1460 showed most of them to be barely occupied, if not abandoned.

 

Abbess Louise Françoise de Rochechouart (1664-1742)

 

Abbess Gabrielle de Rochechouart (1645-1704)

 

Suppression

 

The Order was dispersed during the French Revolution. In November 1789, all property of the Catholic Church was declared to be the property of the nation. On 17 August 1792, a Revolutionary decree ordered evacuation of all monasteries, to be completed by 1 October 1792. At that time, there were still some 200 nuns and a small community of monks in residence at Fontevraud. The last abbess, Julie Sophie Charlotte de Pardaillan d’Antin, is said to have died in poverty in Paris in 1797. The abbey later became a prison from 1804 to 1963, when it was given to the French Ministry of Culture.

 

The projected prison in the former abbey was planned to hold 1,000 prisoners, and required major changes, including new barracks in addition to the transformation of monastic buildings into dormitories, workshops, and common areas. Prisoners–-men, women and children-–began arriving in 1814. Eventually, it held some 2,000 prisoners, earning the prison the reputation of being the “toughest in France after Clairvaux”. Political prisoners experienced the harshest conditions: some French Resistance prisoners were shot there under the Vichy Government. Following the closing of the prison came a major restoration, and opening to the public in 1985, with completion of the abbey church’s restoration in 2006 under architect Lucien Magne.

 

 

 

 

 

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Pays de la Loire

The Pays de la Loire region is a recent creation, not one of France’s historic regions. Indeed, the regional capital, Nantes, was once the capital of Brittany – to which it no longer belongs. In historic terms, Pays de la Loire covers parts of the old provinces of Brittany, Anjou, Maine and Poitou. The Pays de la Loire covers the area to the south of Brittany and Normandy, along the lower stretches of the river Loire, the longest river in France.
The region is composed of five departments, two of them coastal – the Loire Atlantique (44) and the Vendée (85) – and three of them inland, the Mayenne (53), the Sarthe (72) and the Maine et Loire (49).

Map of Pays de la Loire

 

Loire Atlantique

Nantes (44), the regional capital is the sixth largest city in France, with 270,000 inhabitants in the urban borough of Nantes, and an estimated 800,000 inhabitants in the urban area as of 2008. It is located on the Loire, 50 km inland, and is the largest economic hub in the north west of France. In the eighteenth century, Nantes (like Bristol) was a flourishing seaport, indeed the most important seaport in France; the city acquired great wealth at that time, wealth which is reflected to this day in its urban heritage. Today, most of the shipping activity has moved to the mouth of the Loire, to the port of Saint Nazaire, which is also one of the major ship-building cities in Europe. It was in the Saint Nazaire dockyards that the new flagship of the Cunard line, the world’s largest passenger ship, the Queen Mary 2, was built. A clear birds-eye view of the shipyards can be had from the Pont de Saint Nazaire, the high road bridge that spans the Loire estuary. (Originally a toll bridge, this bridge is now free to cross).
On the coast of the Loire Atlantique department lie two of France’s historic seaside resorts, La Baule and Le Croisic. The area round Le Croisic is also famous for its salt pans, and “sel de Guérande”  is one of the best-known types of salt in France. The town of Guérande is a delightful small ancient walled city, just inland from the salt marshes.

Vendée

South of the Loire Atlantique department lies an area known as Vendée. The modern department (85)  is much smaller than the historic area that once carried this name. Vendée is famous in the history of France as one of the old bastions of Protestantism; after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the end of religious tolerance, tens of thousands of Vendéen protestants fled from this part of France, and went to live in England, or America. Thus many people in England can trace some of their ancestry back to this part of France.
After the French Revolution, Vendée was a centre for the royalist counter-revolution.
The department is largely flat in the northern coastal area, low-lying and gently undulating inland. The capital, the city of La Roche sur Yon, is a small rural city in the middle of the department. The coast is built up round the seaside resorts, notably the fine beaches at les Sables d’Olonne, Saint Gilles Croix-de-Vie and St. Jean de Monts, but elsewhere there are  stretches of empty coastline. In parts, a band of pine forests, planted on land that was once sand dunes, protects the flat farmland behind from the Atlantic winds and the sand – and protects it against flooding when Atlantic storms batter the coastline.

Maine et Loire

Further inland, the department of Maine et Loire (49) covers a territory to the north and south of the Loire.This is the heart of the region known as Anjou, and its capital Angers is one of the great historic cities in the Loire valley. Anjou was the fief of the Angevins, better known as the Plantagenets, who, starting with Henry II, ruled England for three centuries. The great castle of the counts of Anjou, in Angers, is one of the biggest medieval fortresses in Europe. Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their son Richard the Lionheart are buried at the Abbey of Fontevraud, between Saumur and Chinon.

Sarthe & Mayenne

The two remaining departments of this region,  Sarthe (72) and Mayenne (53) form the rest of the old provinces of Anjou and Maine, and border on Normandy. Rural departments, and strongly agricultural, they both have more in common with Normandy than they do with Vendée. Half the population of the department of the Sarthe lives in the urban area round the capital, Le Mans, famous for its annual motor race. Apart from that, the Sarthe is deeply rural. La Flèche, an attractive small town on the river Loir (without an -e !) boasts one of the best and oldest zoos in France, coverning some 30 acres. Laval, capital of the Mayenne, is a small city with a historic centre. The city is located on the banks of the river Mayenne, which crosses the department from north to south, a navigable waterway with opportunities for boat hire, and 85 km of towpath idel for cyclists and hikers. The department of the Mayenne also boasts the highest point in the northwest quarter of France, the summit of the Mont des Avaloirs, at 417 metres, about 1350 ft.

 

Map of the Pays de la Loire with its five departments

showing the provinces that existed on its territory in the XVIII century.

 

Google Maps – Pays de la Loire

Nantes

Before my arrival in Nantes, France I was surprised by the nod of approval given by French people in Australia. It has a population of 200,000 people making it lively while retaining a beautiful sense of space and though one of my earliest experiences of small French cities, I expect Nantes to remain as my benchmark for assessing the quality of life in all other places.

 

 

History (Britannica)

Nantes, city, Loire-Atlantique département, Pays de la Loire région, western France. Nantes is situated at the head of the estuary of the Loire River, where it is joined by the Erdre and the Sèvre rivers, 35 miles (56 km) from the sea and southwest of Paris. It is one of the French towns that has changed the most in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Nantes derives its name from the Namnètes, a Gallic tribe who made it their capital. It became a commercial centre under the Romans. The Normans, after pillaging the town, occupied it from 834 to 936. After a long struggle in the Middle Ages between the counts of Nantes and Rennes for the sovereignty of Brittany, in 1560, Francis II, king of France (1559–60), granted Nantes a communal constitution. During the Wars of Religion (1562–98), Nantes joined the Catholic League and only opened its gates to Henry IV, king of France (1589–1610), in 1598, the same year he signed the Edict of Nantes, a charter assuring religious and civil liberties to the Protestants. During the French Revolution, Nantes suffered the ruthless repression of an envoy of the revolutionary Committee of Public Safety named Jean-Baptiste Carrier. In 1793 Carrier replaced executions by the guillotine, which he considered too slow, with mass drownings. The city was occupied by the Germans during World War II.

Greatly modified by an urban renewal plan that was adopted in 1920, Nantes was further altered and extended after having been partly destroyed in World War II. In the 1960s Nantes was designated as one of the eight provincial counterweights to reduce the dominance of Paris on French national life. It has become a dynamic regional centre, with a diversified economic structure. Traditional industries such as food processing, engineering, and the manufacture of components for the aeronautical industry remain important, but recent growth has occurred in fields such as biotechnology. A large scientific park, created in 1987, was designed to foster these activities. Nantes is also a major business centre and is the home of many regional headquarters of both industrial and services firms. A number of public and private sector offices have relocated from Paris to the city. Nantes has a large higher education section. The original university (founded 1460) was abolished during the French Revolution, but a new one was established in 1961. Tourism has been stimulated by redevelopment of part of the former docklands and the building of specialized conference facilities.

 

 

 

 

 

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Wikiwand Timeline of Nantes

Google Maps – Nantes

 

 

Clisson

 

Today Clisson exists as a flavour of Italy within France’s North West and the building styles and materials attest to this. Red terracotta roof tiles mix with slate and the rectangular tower of l’Eglise Notre-Dame de Clisson sits atop the building as it cascades down the slope to the narrow roadways leading to the river. Bright geraniums and pizza restaurants make for great outdoor the market in Summer. The influence of François-Frédéric Lemot is outstanding as he brought his taste for Italian art and architecture to Clisson.

 

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