More Fortified Villages! Vitre!

 I had to take a photo of the Charli N Bar and Tabac in Guipry ( ghee pree), because we have enjoyed a few Grand Crème there, and wanted to remember it:) It is across the road from the Vilaine River, and opposite the old Mill at the bridge and Lock over the Vilaine at Massac, which seems to effortlessly run into Guipry. Guipry is a village on a hill, and Massac runs alongside the river at the bottom, with an SCN (France Train)  station that connects to Rennes/Paris etc.

 

We like to go out different ways, but I think we have run out of options, having been most ways now. Our destination today was Vitre, but if we can go through some more Hamlets and small villages etc, then we will do what it takes. Mostly this involved skinny country roads where we often encounter large Farm equipment moving to the next field. It can be a bit hairy because other motorists don't expect to find another car on these lonely little roads, and they often hog the whole road. I have been known to stop entirely to let some hair-brained French person zoom past me on a skinny country road. Well, I am perhaps wrongly assuming they are French. They might well be English! Plenty of them around here, it seems.

Vitre is yet another fortified city, but this one is the best preserved in France, they say. I could well believe that! Being Sunday, I parked where I thought I might get away without a ticket...parking ticket, that is. I'm known to go down streets the wrong way to achieve this goal. Many of the tourist towns have parking meters, but in a central place...usually half a Km walk from the car, then you have to walk back in order to display the ticket inside the drivers side window...aiee!!! so avoid them we do, wherever possible!

We actually parked right there where we could have a fantastic view of the Chateau de Vitre (Ve Tray).

 

 Staff were pulling down the tents after a weekend celebration of some kind. It as a gorgeous day, but the wind was something awful...COLD! Of course these towns are on promontories , so the wind whistles up the valleys and freezes the enemies butts off! Ha! I like to think that, but they had suits of iron and chain mail on, and possibly Fox furs too, so perhaps they weren't that cold after all...One can speculate these things, you know:)

This being the Broceliande (Bro say lee ond), or the Forest and land of King Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table etc...yes, lots of Myths around here....it wouldn't surprise me if the Lady of the Lake didn't walk into the Chateau!

As you walk across the bridge, you look down and expect to see a moat. Actually, this is all there is, and I cant help thinking that this is all there ever was, because this Chateau is on a tall cliff, with the river at the bottom, and there was no way they were going to get water to the top of the cliff and into that there moat. So, perhaps it was always grass???

Inside is spotlessly clean and rather lovely...if cold, today.The white thing that rather stands out from all the rest was probably an addition some hundred or two years after the original Chateau was built, somewhere around the 11th century. We didn't go inside...it was Sunday, and the French don't like to work on Sunday...some exceptions apply, however, this not being one of them. That is the well, bottom left. Waz declared that if it was a well, it was a very shallow one. I guess he stuck his nose in the hole! Sounds about right, lol.

As Fairy tale castles go, this is a pretty good one. Too bad we couldn't get up to the tower, because the view would be fantastic.

The Gate House where we entered across the Draw bridge.

The beautiful figuring on this window, which has a special name, which I cannot for the life of me remember....so I cant even think what to google!

And...as we had coffee some 45 mins earlier, it was no time to look for that French convenience that really isn't, a Toilette...This one just happened to be brand new, but down a very dark passage, which my glasses had to adjust to....and turned out to be very swish! and clean! fantastic! Normally I have to carry my own toilet roll around with me, much to Waz's embarrassment...not really, but I do! seriously!
I loved the sign so much I had to show you! lol.

 

 

We like to spy on ordinary people, which is very informative, as you might imagine. This is how these folks live their daily lives, in the shadow of this world class structure, and amazing piece of History. We all take our own environments for granted, so I urge you to really take a look around you at  home, wherever you are, and appreciate the beauty surrounding you!

 

 

Much of the town and the buildings are from the 15th century. This town was on the way to Rennes, so the Dukes of Brittany thought to reside here in this town, and to build a chateau on the cliff to keep themselves safe from marauders. You cant see this lovely vegetable garden in the photo above...but I had to show it. People here have HUGE vege gardens, and they grow so many Leeks. This is one of the favorite veg! cant say I'm sorry...love them!

 

 Oh my goodness....can we even imagine what life was like in 1571? Finding these dates etched into the stone beside or over the doorways rather blows our minds. Thank goodness for artists, or we would never know what times were like!

These little skinny streets are barely passable in a car, but this is why France is the country of small cars...especially Smart cars and their kind, of which we have seen so many of different brands. One way, of course. The half timbered houses are slowly falling apart and we have seen renovations aplenty in this town.

 This is yet another Notre Dame (means Our Lady). This 15th century church was the first church in Vitre, closely followed by the Anglican church up the road. This one is Catholic, of course!

The Fleur de Lis, is one of the symbols of Brittany also. This is a sign over a door.

Isnt it amazing to think that these half timbered houses have survived so long. These would be 15th and 16th century houses. They are just now being renovated and re-skimmed to preserve them. Amazingly, people are living in them! That is earth mixed straw behind the wooden slats (horizontals), kept in place by the vertical and wide beams. This one has been covered by chicken wire.

The Granite facades of the buildings with  ornamentation is always eye catching. This one has Griffons on either side of the shelf holding a window in place.

Slate shingles don't only go on the roof, but down the sides too. You can see the little clips keeping them on. This house has been re-shingled with modern shingles which are so much thinner than the old ones. Waz estimates the old ones were at least  15mm thick...that is almost 3/4 of an inch.

 Don't you love how the old houses have waists and wobbly a bit:) and why is it in the middle of two roads? perhaps it wasn't originally.

The Notre Dame Eglise, again. She is a very pretty church! especially with the Fall colors on the trees for decoration.

Need a hand? A door knocker:)

 The church doors. Some are so lavishly carved, and their symbolism is written down in the chuch annals, thankfully.We were not privy to any of those, but we could still admire them.

This being a 15th century church, there is an outdoor pulpit. Sermons would have been given to the great unwashed masses, from out here.

Another detail, on the side of the church.

 See the font for Holy Water to the right of the side door.

A decorative chimney, opposite the church.

...and one block down, this lovely little rotunda. We assume this was once on a Farm house, as the courtyard on the other side gives some indication of that.

Now, you wouldn't be surprised to find out that this decoration is on the top of the door to a Chocolate shop, would you?

Of course we had to see a For Sale sign on this building, and we went further around the block to investigate. It looks mighty inviting, lol.

A private courtyard, afternoon sun, shutters, and wrought iron...something missing?? I think not!

Decoration over a door, from 1544.

 And everywhere we looked, there were signs of the Chateau.

 Lovely!

 Uh Oh! Crooked house!..this one VERY old!

We walked almost the entire circumference of the Chateau. This is looking up from the road below. You can see why these Chateau and fortifications were built like this.

Yes, they are built on solid rock!
We drove across the river at the bottom of the town, and looked back towards the castle. At the bottom, was a Water Mill, making the most of the river, of course.

 On the underside of back side of the Chateau, it had been added to. We wondered how they managed to get this structure up there, so high off the ground was it.

 It was a bit of a hike, but we thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon light and scenery, though it was pretty cold in the shade.

 What lovely countryside.

Ere-entering the Chateau and village Ramparts. You can just see men on horses, ox pulling carts up the steep incline and perhaps soldiers and knights in armor? A bit fanciful?

It is amazing to us that people actually live in apartments over these ancient gates.

Taken from the other side of the river and town.

The Water Mill at the bottom of the ravine.

 I had to take this photo, on our way home. It is typical of the Breton countryside where we lived. Skinny little roads where we have to pull over for a car coming the other way.

The Longere (long Zhair) opposite the Manoir where we lived. This long building is very picturesque.

And another day bites the dust.