Per usual, we set off about 9am, knowing that we might be the first or second car in the parking lot of our destination. Not quite, this time, but we were one of the few, and had to purchase a parking ticket this time. 1.5euros, to keep the town looking beautiful, is a small donation, we think.
To get there, we had to go down many winding and skinny roads, per usual. We are rather isolated out here at Le Mur, and the main roads are not nearby, so we have to go through many little Hamlets and villages in order to get to the wider roads. This isn't really a hardship, as we tend to go a different way each time we leave home, and think we have probably just about exhausted our supply of country roads by now:)
This road is about a car and a half wide. There is no shoulder, as you can see, so oncoming traffic, which tends to go fast, squishes us over onto the grass...if there is any! This is typical of the roads around us.
As you can see there is no room to pass, so we just had to sit behind this tanker for a few kms until it turned off onto another skinny road. 30kph through most small towns, and 50 through others. This town had a windy road through the middle, and we couldn't see up the hill, let alone around the corner.
We stopped on the way at St Martin-sur-Ouest, got out and stretched our legs and took a closer look at a hire boat that was docked there for the night. This is looking back UP the river, to the left of the docks. The sun wasn't yet out and it was very cold. We remembered our jackets and scarves this morning.
The sign on a rock wall, as we enter the environs of Rochefort en Terre, Flower Village. The Chateau is 12th and 17th Centuries, The Church is 16th Century, Houses 16th and 17th century, and the Cavalry from the 16th Century,is what the sign says.
Houses of all shapes and sizes...Pretty as a picture.
We were rather amused to see someone's laundry out on a line in their back yard, but still visible to the general public.
This map does a good job of showing the village, for the most part. Of course there are also houses part way up the hill, and again at the bottom of the hill that aren't shown here. The Chateau is shown at the top of the diagram.
With so few visitors in the village so early in the morning, we were privy to the under workings of this tourist village. We couldn't imagine why people would want to live in such a public place.Townsfolk were getting their bread from the Boulangerie, making deliveries and starting their working days. Most of the restaurants wouldn't open until noon, and some of the shop also.
RET is advertised as THE Most Beautiful Town in Brittany. It is certainly very pretty and has more flowers than you can poke a stick at...
We love that the road signs are in French at the top and then either Breton or Celtic underneath. I must take a photo and show you.
This ornament was in one of the shop windows. Lots of Faerie stuff there!
Waz and I couldn't figure out if this date is 1366 or 156. We think the former. This is over the door on one of the old houses. Some of the figuring on the houses and buildings is so degraded, you just know it is ancient. Amazing to think that knights of old used to live in these parts. You know, of course that Merlin, and King Arthur feature in these parts...it is part of local lore.
We climbed the hill to the highest point on the rock, the Chateau Rochefort-en-Terre. It is or has been owned by American artists, and there is modern art all over the place, in sculpture form. Not our style, so I didn't take too many photos of it, and I wont show there here, sorry. It is a small chateau, from what one would normally think of as a Chateau...but then so is the Chateau we are stationed at. Smaller still than this one.
It was very tempting tp try these grapes, but I reasoned, perhaps rightly, that if everyone tried them, there would be none left and they wouldn't be as decorative!
I believe this is a Mock Grapevine, and it is very colorful and was climbing all over the buildings in town.
Decoration on someone's window ledge.
The Gate to the Chateau.
This portal takes you to a promontory where you look down on the minions (not the yellow things on TV and movie right now!). You can see the pink granite rocks in the distance.
We find that there aren't all the idiot signs in public places, that you find in the USA. Perhaps Europeans have more common sense? We find that they have excellent manners and are friendly and courteous.
The Chateau...well, the left side of it.
The Chapel was at the bottom of the property, quite a long way from the Chateau. The roof was in dreadful repair, but the hand hewn slate is fascinating!
As always, it is the details that are attractive to me...an if there happens to be a rose in the way, well, so much the better, in my opinion:)
As I promised, this is the Artist's Studio...now you can see why I have envy! Look at that light, and the vie, and oh my! How I wish I was in there right now! I doubt that I would get much work done, frankly.
And this time I have the whole of the Chateau in the photo...well, almost. All the important parts, anyway.
All this was a prelude to going to La Roche Bernard, but there is nothing quite like getting waylaid in a beautiful place, is there?
The church was wonderful and old...of course. These ancient sarcophagi were actually inscribed. I couldn't read them, but I did photograph them.
The Stained Glass windows were lovely. What gorgeous colors.
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