May 25, Saturday: Wow! I'm in the Loire Valley, time to see some chateaus! In the morning I visited Angers Chateau, which is more of a castle or a fortress. It was begun nearly a thousand years ago, surrounded by massive stone walls. What must life have been like then to cause them to build something so immense and forboding? Several buildings can be found inside the walls, including the chateau's claim to fame: the Tapestry of the Apocalypse. All of the walls in the building that houses the tapestry are covered. It is broken up into individual scenes depicting the events, but for someone who has not read the New Testament, it was not as exciting as I had hoped. Most of the colors have faded to that muddy greenish-brown one associates with old tapestries. There were a number of interesting details, and excellent descriptions of the scenes, so I was able to learn something at least. Outside, the old moat has been turned into a garden. You can also climb the walls and walk around what remains of the towers. This is definitely not a luxurious chateau, but just seeing it from the outside was memorable for me!
In town I visited the cathedral. I'm a sucker for stained glass. There are two beautiful rose windows in this church. Luckily, when I was there a wedding was going on, so I watched that for a while. As soon as that group had finished, another wedding party was waiting outside for their turn. This must be a popular place! During the ceremony, the priest sang some songs, but he kept coughing in the middle and it pretty much ruined the effect. I'm sure the happy couple had similar sentiments. Imagine having a coughing priest for your wedding memory!
After a trip to the uninspiring Beaux-Arts Museum I visited the David d'Angers Museum. This was great! David was a sculptor born in Angers. Rather than housing the original works of art, it contains plaster casts of his major sculptures and copies of works by other artists, mainly busts. All of David's subjects were famous names from art, literature, history, medicine, etc. Although I am not a great fan of sculpture, the main reason I loved this museum was the setting. The building was an old ruined abbey, which had been partially restored. Much of the ceiling and some parts of the walls had fallen away and had been replaced with glass, so that on this particularly day, bright spring sun streamed throught the ceiling and other windows, brightly illuminating the white plaster sculptures. There was such a feeling of light and airiness that perfectly complemented the artworks.
I bought some things in a shop for my dinner, and sat across the "moat" from the chateau to eat it, contemplating life during the hundreds of years since it had been built.
May 26, Sunday: After a French breakfast of bread and coffee I headed over to the Lurcat museum of Contemporary Tapestry. I suppose that this town is mainly known for its tapestry collections, both old and new. After a weekend here I should be an expert. This was another museum that did not sound particularly exciting until I got there. The tapestries were amazing. They were mainly woven in bright colors with abstract designs, somewhat reminiscent of Picasso's style. The main hall is immense, the walls covered by enormous tapestries, each one more beautiful than the last. I was particularly impressed with a large (10 or 15 feet high) one with a black background and shapes of all the colors of the rainbow. Unfortunately, Lurcat did not weave them himself. He simply designed the "cartoons" or patterns and professional weavers did the work.
There was also a special exhibit was of the work of Ramses Wissa Wasef, an Egyptian tapestry artist. The colors, textures and designs were incredible! If I ever get to Cairo, I'll have to look for his workshop. Also available were some videos of how these works were made. Overall, this is an excellent museum and well worth visiting, if just for the chance to admire the sheer scale of some of the work. It is a refreshing change from the typical old, faded tapestries that are usually seen in museums with women holding flowers, and knights falling off of wounded horses. I felt that the contemporary tapestries were more enjoyable than the Tapestry of the Apocalypse.
Leaving Angers that afternoon, I took a train to Blois, near several other chateaus. The youth hostel was located about 5 km from the station, but on a late Sunday afternoon, there were few buses available. I left my backpack in a locker and took only my daypack and started walking, expecting that sooner or later a bus would come by and I could hop on. It never did. I ended up walking the whole way, along the river. It was almost enjoyable. Except for the bugs. I now know why sometimes you see people talking to themselves: walking alone along a straight road with practically no scenery can get pretty boring.
At the youth hostel I met Sharon from Vancouver and Birgitte from Oslo. We decided to go together to visit chateaus the next day.
Next: Loire Valley: Blois and the Road to Chambord