Chateau D'Angers and Chateau D'Usse
Wednesday, June 8

 
The view of the fort and the town. Nice place.

I'm really proud of this picture. 

 
Cathedral Saint Maurice d'Ingers.

 
The view from the cathedral. Look at the old door.

 
The church was quite pretty and of Gothic style. It's being restored right now.

 
I really liked the set up of this church in that they had the stories of the windows where we could actually read about what they were. This window tells the story of Mary's death. She descends to heaven with four angels. At her funeral John the Beloved holds an olive leaf. It's a pretty window. I love stained glass.

 
A lovely day at the fortress Angers. There was a chateau inside, but was destroyed after being used as a military barracks for so many years. This area is known for their fruit and flowers that they grow. They're special to this area. They also have a wine which can be produced only here. The chateau was built in the ninth century, but it wasn't until the 13th century until it reached it's current size. The outer wall is three meters thick. In times of war, the people would bring their animals inside the fortress for protection. Louis IX commissioned the tapestry to be built. Henry the third, made it into the military barracks. This is also where Joan of Arch helped Charles the seventh escape from the English. :)

 
It's a moat!! Yay!!!! And a draw bridge!!! yay!!!!

These are the  crests of different french royalty. Thought it was cool.

These are the oldest real tapestries in the world. They are called the apocalypse, meaning the end of the world because they tell the story of Revelations in the bible. The Apocalypse Tapestry is a large medieval French set of tapestries commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou, and produced between 1377 and 1382.There are only about two thirds of them still surviving. Originally hung in the duke's house and then showed in the church six times a year for the people to see and learn from since they couldn't read. After tapestries lost importance because of innovations in architecture and people not moving around as much, these were used as anything from horse blankets, door mats, rags etc. Eventually a man, found one and decided to find the whole collection which is why we have them today. They're in surprisingly good condition. Shows their quality. I have a great admiration for weavers. It must have taken forever to make these.

 
Left: Death riding his horse to the people. One of the four horsemen in Revelations. The picture isn't very good, but it's a skeleton riding the horse. Right:The angle is telling John about this bad, immoral, and vain women. You can tell by her blond hair, which she is blatantly brushing in public, and her looking into the mirror which shows her true, ugly reflection, though outwardly she is quite beautiful. Gotta love the middle ages and the culture of the time. This hate of blonds goes back further than I ever would have thought.

 
View of the church inside the fort. It's right by the garden full of roses, which was quite pretty. The tapestries are after the garden.

 
View from the fort. Lovely, isn't it? Right: the remains of the original building in the fort that belonged to the duke. Mostly destroyed now. La Maine river.

Gothic church inside the fort. Yay for gargoyles. We didn't get to go inside the church, unfortunately

 
It's le Chateau D'Usse! This is the castle that when the author, Charles Perrault was staying here as a guest, he was walking around the grounds one foggy day and the idea struck him that the woods seemed like they were asleep as well as the castle. What if there was a sleeping princess in the tower? etc. Pretty cool, eh? The castle used for the animated classic is actually one in Germany, Neuschwanstein Castle built by a Bavarian monarch King Ludwig II. There are some similarities though. I'm sure they borrowed from them both. This is definitely one of my favorite castles. Quite gorgeous and the grounds are magnificent.

Isn't the view form this castle the best?!!! So pretty. The river is still a bit high. The road is flooded a bit.

 
The castle is a museum for different period costumes. The exhibits rotate. This was my favorite dress. Creepy stairs leading to a ...? Don't actually know what it is, but its dark down there.

Heading back up the dark hole.

 

 
The cursing of Aurora, tall people probs.

 
Aurora, don't do it!

 
Life is hard when you're as tall as Carson. Right: Looking into the dungeon cell.

View from the tower. Lovely. 

 
This wood is about five hundred years old. Nuts.

It's maleficent working her evil spells high up in the tower. This castle is very pretty.

 
Carson had fun throwing rocks at McKenna in her new found hide out. Well, he threw rocks to see how close he could get them to her without actually hitting her. No worries folks. No McKennas were harmed.

This tree was planted in 1808 in honor of the Duchess de Durbus by Chateaubriand.

 

 
Found their wine cellar. These barrels are as big as me! The manikins freaked me out at first.  These ones look like they're having a jolly old time. There was also a giant, creepy spider in one of the caverns.  That's when we left. :)

There was a lot of deforestation, so in an effort to help the forests grow, they planted what I call tree farms because each tree is planted in a nice row. A whole forest full of trees planted in rows. Its kind of weird, but they're everywhere. This one isn't as uniform as lots of them I saw. I also found it hard to get a good picture on the bus.

Tonight's meal, was about the same as the one before. Lasted for hours of course and not really that good to the taste. The main dish (lamb) wasn't too bad and the dessert was great, especially the ice cream. The entree was foi gras which is liver and who knows what else. The texture was interesting and the taste not much better, but I ate it. The pretty sauce on the side was good.  Le Bras complimented me on my ability to eat the food that is given to me. No worries mom, I gave you due credit.