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| the chateau de Michel de Montaigne |
Last
weekend was Heritage Open days at historical sites all over France. Many of
these sites are open most of the year, but some, like the Chateau de Michel
Montaigne, are privately owned and only open to the public on these special
days. I think the idea is to encourage the french to take the whole family and
absorb some of their local history.
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| Michel de Montaigne was the same height as Napoleon and Nicolas Sarkozy - make of that what you will ! |
Michel
de Montaigne was a writer and philosopher in the 16th century and
his work is highly regarded in France. At this time, during the wars of religion, the population of the area was protestant, but Michel de Montaigne was a catholic. As the local ‘big
wig’ he was in a position to make life difficult for the peasants in his
domain, but Michel was a man of intelligence and understanding and always made
an effort to show tolerance to everyone. There is a story that once there was a
group of brigands planning to attack his chateau, the fact that he was catholic
being part of their problem with him. He heard of their plan and had a great
feast prepared and set out in the courtyard inside the walls. Michel never
closed the gates to the chateau as a sign of his openness to the local people.
The brigands thought this was pretty dumb and expected they would have an easy
time of it. When they approached the walls, Michel greeted them warmly and
invited them to enjoy the feast. Some time later they left empty handed but
happy. As an intellectual, he was so highly regarded that he was retained as an adviser by both sides during the war in an effort to find a peaceful resolution.
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| the tower and the entrance gates to the courtyard |
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| in his library where he worked |
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| to inspire him, he had quotes of famous writers in greek and latin written on the ceiling beams in his library |
He
was a great success as mayor of Bordeaux for two terms and travelled widely in europe - some say to get away from his family. His home life wasn’t very happy as he didn’t get along with his wife, his
daughter or his mother who all lived with him. Luckily the chateau was large
enough that he was able to divide it into sufficient living quarters for all of
them. His mother and daughter lived in the grand chateau, he lived in one of
the towers and his wife lived in the other – comparative peace and harmony.
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| the front door |
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| one of the original towers |
Michel
was very well educated for his time and read extensively. He amassed a library
so large it was famous in Europe. He took to writing and hardly ever left his
tower which even had a tiny chapel so that he could hold his own catholic
services ‘in house’ and thereby not offend his neighbours.
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| Yes, it's autumn - the courtyard within the walls |
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| Michel's tower from the park outside the walls |
We
were lucky to have as our guide in the tower a student of Michel de Montaigne’s
work. Julia was South African and spoke fluent english and french, and had also
learned to read old french so that she could study Michel de Montaigne’s work
in the original. A very learned girl. She made his story very entertaining and
well worth the visit.
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| the chateau from the valley side |
For
our tour of the chateau we had a french guide, so not so easy. The house is
privately owned but no longer in the de Montaigne family, and is just one of a
number of houses in France belonging to the current owners and only visited by them in the summer ( as you do). We were only given access to the main ground floor rooms – the dining room, the grand salon, the petit
salon, the library and the hall.
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| vineyards and forests |
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| remains of the garden walls |
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| Michel's tower from the garden |
Unfortunately,
photos were not permitted so you can only imagine the grand proportions of
these public rooms . As the chateau is on the top of a hill and these rooms all
open into the garden, there are fabulous views of the valley below full of
vineyards and forest, and small farmhouses.
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| the driveway |
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| Vistas in le parc |
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| the surrounding countryside |
Inside
, the rooms are full of original old pieces of furniture, some of it grand,
some not so. It was a surprise to see a large old tv set amongst all the clutter.
The walls are covered in fabric, but a little tatty around the edges and
discoloured by centuries of smoke from the open fireplaces. The french tend to
like their antiques to show their age and they certainly did here amongst the
family photos, souvenirs from family holidays, and the artwork by one of the family (strange). The collection
of weapons on the walls of the entrance hall remind you that there have been
troubled times here over the centuries when it was necessary to defend against attack. Another surprise was that the chateau has central heating through enormous cast iron grates in the floors and fed by wood burning boilers, so not as cold and damp as some of these places can be.
While
the chateau was originally built in the 14th century, there was a serious
fire in 1885 and parts were rebuilt and redesigned in the style we see today. During
Michel de Montaigne’s time the chateau was visited by the king of Navarre,
later King Henry IV of France who became a great friend. In more recent times ,
Charles de Gaulle stayed here during a visit to the region.
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| the grapes are ready for picking |
Naturally,
they also produce their own wines. For those who are interested, they are AOC Bergerac and situated on the
border with St Emilion. Graham naturally bought a case – as a souvenir
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| smokers are always catered for... |
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| one of the inhabitants of the courtyard |
In our relentless search for new places to show our guests
we are willing to go anywhere ( well, almost). If there is somewhere in the
south west of France that you are curious about, just let us know and we will
put it on our list of places to visit and share it with you here.
Bon week-end mes amis
