Is Richelieu in Indre-et-Loire, Touraine, Anjou, Saumur, Poitou...?

In 2008 the Cité Idéale of Richelieu is in the French administrative region called Region Centre. Population about 2.4 million.  It is located in the département of Indre-et-Loire, numbered 37, as seen on the last two digits of local car registration numbers (not for long!).

However it is talked of generally as being in Touraine, that is to say in the area to the north surrounding the city of Tours, and this is the location of the departmental Préfecture and the seat of the Conseil Général d' Indre-et-Loire.  The flag of Touraine still flies on the Richelieu town hall with the tricolor and often the flag of the EC.  Touraine is not now an officially defined area as are départements, and regions.

In the ancien régime, before the 1789 revolution, the Kingdom of France was organised into provinces up to March 4, 1790, when the centrally-imposed establishment of the département system superseded that of provinces.  Touraine (around Tours) was an ancient province, as was Anjou (around Angers) and Poitou (around Poitiers).

However Richelieu was then usually included in the province of Poitou to the south and is referred to as such in all the engravings of the period.  Touraine's houses generally have steep-pitched slate roofs, while those of Poitou have flat-pitched Roman tiles.  Richelieu's roofs are slate (ardoises) when on a grand house and roman tiles (tuiles rondes) on a humbler one.

seneschal |ˌsɛnɪʃ(ə)l| noun
1 historical the steward or major-domo of a medieval great house.
2 chiefly historical a governor or other administrative or judicial officer.
ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French, from medieval Latin seniscalus, from a Germanic compound of words meaning ‘old’ and ‘servant.’

Richelieu was formerly in the sénéchaussé of Saumur to the east, in Anjou.  This area was a rump of the larger area separated from Saumur by the area around the powerful mediaeval town of Loudun, which had its own administration.  Some alliegences were to Saumur, some to Tours, some even to Poitiers!

In the reign of Louis XIV Richelieu was included in the Généralité of Tours and thus within Touraine, but this seems to have been changed at one point to the Généralité of Saumur a least in some respects.

We are all confused.  HELP.....

The dates of the buildings within the Cité Idéale of Richelieu

It is hard to find detailed maps of the inner plan of the town of Richelieu.  This one, taken from 'Richelieu, le Château et la Cité Idéale' by eminent historian Christine Toulier, published in 2005  (see 'Interesting Links: Book 1' to the left. Order a copy!) is a marked-up version of the 19th century town cadastral plan showing the results of her enquiries about the dates of the properties. The research was made in 1987.

Dark red: completed by 1642

Orange: 17th century

Pink: 18th century

Black: now demolished.

It seems that it took quite a long time for the plots to be filled up, although the inner vistas were obviously completed by the 1640s and remain extraordinarily complete today.  Can't we find a 'swash-buckler' that needs a complete town as a film set?  Come back Errol Flynn....

An aerial view of the old place du Marché layout

This aerial view shows the old layout of the place du Marché as it was up to September 2006, before the recently completed re-ordering.  The layout seems bizarre now that we have become familiar with the newly changed space that removed the central crossing of tarmac streets to create the open spacious pedestrian square of today.  One can see here how the old lime trees had 'a few teeth missing'. 

In contrast to the other twin square, the place des Religieuses, the old layout of the place du Marché at least did not have a set of traffic lights at the intersection!  The tyranny of the motor-car!

One of the more curious effects of the new layout however concerns the sense of size of these two identically-dimensioned squares.  It is almost unbelievable that the as-yet-unchanged place des Religieuses and the place du marché are in fact the same size.  It seems to the viewer as if the place du Marché dimensions are at least 50% bigger.  

As the both the Cardinal and Archit. Lemercier meant the two squares to be conceptual and layout twins, 'one for the King and one for the Cardinal', we hope the Maire and Conseil Général of Indre-et-Loire will get a move on and change the other square to match the now ravishing place du Marché.

At present in the early days of spring 2008, we look forward to the first sight of green-leaved hornbeam trees ringing the new square layout. for the first time.

thanks to Marie-Pierre Terrien for the suggestion, and Jean-Louis Laurence for the aerial photo.

Engraving of the town by Matthäus Merian from 1657

An engraving of the half-completed town from a huge and varied collection of views by Swiss-German engraver Matthäus Merian the elder (1593 - 1650), and the younger (1621-1687) his son, called "Topographiae Galliae oder Beschreib. und Contrafaitung deß Mächtigen Königreichs Frankreich. Fünfter Theil" of 1657, printed in Frankfurt am Main by Caspar Merian (son of Matthäus Merian the younger).
It seems unlikely that the engravers had actually visited the town, but rather based their depictions on other illustrations & engravings, maybe those Isräel Sylvestre, Perelle or Marot.

The portrait above is of Matthäus Merian the elder.

Markets in and around Richelieu

Shopping or just browsing in markets is part of the magic of being in France. 

Richelieu has a beautiful 1630 timber-roofed halle building which is host to most of the food stalls in the twice-weekly market. On Mondays, as well as meat, cheese, fish and fruit and vegetables in the market hall, the Market Square has a large selection of non-food stalls, which on a busy week can occupy the whole of the Square with varied goods on sale ranging from beds, fabrics, clothes and shoes to hardware. The Friday Market is mostly food, and there is usually a queue at the fish stalls where oysters sell 'like hot cakes'. There are also plant and flower stalls. I always watch what vegetable and salad plants are for sale, either to buy, or to give a good idea of what grows well in the area. If you buy flowers or house plants for a present, they will gift wrap them for you at no extra charge.

On the first Monday of each month there is a market in nearby Lencloître (24 km south).  This means that Richelieu's market is very small that day; all the traders go to Lencloître where the market is truely HUGE. You can buy virtually anything there, including live animals (chicks, geese, hamsters, sheep, goats, donkeys etc.), tractors and general merchandise. There are food and wine stalls dotted around, and we were amazed/amused/appalled(?) at one food stall selling barbecued eels, starting with the live items wriggling. This is definitely worth a visit, even if you don’t need to buy anything.

Other regular markets are at Chinon (21 km north), on Thursdays, and Châtellerault (30 km south), on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Les Halles at Châtellerault is the permanent market - a beautifully maintained building with a large variety of top quality foods. 

A more unusual local market is the nocturnal one held below ground level in caves near La-Tour-Saint-Gelin (9 km east). Held on a Friday evening (possibly the second Friday most months), and advertised widely by the roadsides around Richelieu, it is worth the effort to follow the signs and find this unusual setting.  There are plenty of stalls offering tastings, as well as a main bar and eating area where you can have a set meal. 

Of course, there are the seasonal markets, too. As well as the Christmas markets and the truffle market, look out for farms which open to sell asparagus in the season from mid-April to mid -June.  Some also sell their own honey, vegetables and even oil.

Happy shopping!

(thanks to Susie for this entry & pictures from Lencloître Monday Market)

Mousquetaires de Richelieu - Puy du Fou, la Vendée.

Mousquetaires de richelieu
Uploaded by spirette

Londres à Richelieu, for Rosbifs

Calais to Richelieu - 365 miles - practically 6 hours tunnel to door.

Autoroute Calais to Rouen, through Rouen towards Caen and Le Harvre, then take the new autoroute south past Alençon, then around Le Mans, and onward to Tours, all still by autoroute, finally joining the Paris/Bordeaux A10, until exit 25 (St Maure-de-Touraine) half-an-hour south of Tours, then the same time on local roads to Richelieu. (See the smaller map below). 

Autoroute tolls are about 6€ before Rouen, 26€ at Tours and 4 € at St. Maure. The new Rouen route avoids Paris and most of the heavy trucks, which are much less of a problem to the driver as a result. And of course no standstill in Paris! (perhaps a petit bouchon in Rouen.)

The Cardinal and Monty Python's Flying Circus

A video version of the sketch with sub-titles in French.

Richelieu and the black truffle of Perigord

One of the villages of the Canton that are administered from the town of Richelieu is Marigny Marmande.  For a long time it has had a reputation for its black truffles which grow round the roots of certain types of oak trees.  Lineaus  calls them Tuber Mélanosporum; most call them b***** expensive at 1 gram for 1€ (middle quality!)

Markets are held through the winter, this particular one between Christmas and New Year.  While the truffle is the 'main event', there are many other gastronomic products for sale, direct from the local farms.  

Foie gras of either goose or duck is for sale for the St. Sylvester evening meal (New Year's Eve), to be eaten with sweet raisin bread, fig jam and a bottle of Côtes de Layon (or two).

...a foggy night in Richelieu town...

A foggy mid-winter night in the Place du Marché shows off the square's new lighting scheme. The buildings are lit by projectors attached to points around the square, and these powerful lamps light up the foggy damp air in a spectacular way.
The square is almost empty as everyone is home in bed! Brrrrrr.....

19th & 20th Century shop fronts

The town of Rchelieu, being a sleepy place, has still retained several old shop fronts.  This paticular one, fastidiously maintained,  was shuttered up for the New Year 2008 when we took a snap of their meticulous restoration and pretty floral stencilling.  It is nice the way the traditional shutters fold back into the façade once they are re-opened.

More or less opposite is la boucherie chevaline or horse-meat shop with its extraordinary façade from the '1950s.

World-o'-Bloggers

The town of Richelieu is served by two separate blogs; the one you are reading at present, created mainly for the visitor and written  in the English language, and the other and original created in French by Jean-Louis Laurence and called 'Le blog du Cardinal'.

Jean-Louis is an IT expert and runs this computer centre now relocated to impressive premises right on the Grand Rue.  He offers all sorts of IT-based services, including a 'internet café' and a wi-fi zone that allows visitors disconnected from their usual IT bases to contact the world during their sojourn in the town of Richelieu.  

Citizens of the town can rely on him to solve their IT installation and running problems. Well done for building the entreprise in the real world as well as in the virtual.

Bonne année 2008, Jean-Louis!

http://www.richelais.eu/blogducardinal/