tempête Xynthia

This raging storm passed through Richelieu on the 28 February 2010. In the domainal parc of the château de Richelieu the tall, tall plane trees took the brunt of the wind. Most of them survived and live on but an occasional tree in the lofty avenues was shattered in the storm's fury.

The foresters quite quickly reduced the fallen into nice stacks of split logs. The price of firewood slumped, especially if you need plane tree wood.

The tempest past, the ethereal calm of the parc is now re-established and the canals mirror the plentiful surviving trees. The newly restored handrails on the canals' bridges in 'permitted' oxbood paint now seem to have weathered in well. And shrunk a bit.

20th anniversary twin-town visit to Schaafheim

fdv20

King Henry II, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard Coeur-de-Lion

These great monarchs were buried in the abbey church at Fontevraud, 15 miles NW from Richelieu.  Henry / Henri and Eleanor / Alienor, father and mother of King Richard I 'the Lionheart', Robin Hood's absent true king of England, and his brother 'bad' King John, the hero of the Magna Carta of 1215 limiting the power of the English Monarchy;  all three men Kings of England, but vassals of the King of France on the continent.  French speaking members of the Plantagenet dynasty who ran their huge domain from Chinon castle.

Richard I at Westminster

The abbey had a very noble pedigree and was always administered by an abbess during the ancien regime.  The inconvenient or devout daughters and dowagers of the high nobles of France filled its echoing corridors up to 1789.

After that it became a notorious Napoleonic high security prison with many famous inmates, even the recent well-known writer Jean Genet, author of 'A thief's journal'.

It has now been restored in its entirety and yearns for a multitude of sweet new novices to fill its immaculate rooms.  But the daughters of today's celebrities prefer clubbing in Ibiza, Mustique and Dubai!

find the location on the map to the right ------>

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New activites on the mansions of the Grande Rue

New parigot owners move in to the hôtel particulier number 5 Grande Rue

An entry-gate clean-up of 11 Grande Rue, 

the only hôtel particulier wth a side entrance on rue Traversière

Work continues on the comprehensive restoration of number 14 Grande Rue

with a concrete delivery, while the main façade masonry is being repaired

The restored rear range of 14 Grande Rue in its new flamboyant colours, and

the half-complete new slate roof at the rear of number 14

with 5 new dormers.

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no town is complete without its own polo field

Behind a line of houses along the coupure du parc - the snippet of the park - a 19th century suburb of Richelieu carved out of the northern extremity of the ducal parc, is that grandiose and stylish asset, a 300 x 200m polo field. Not only a polo field, but a string of live polo ponies as well.

We will have to stop calling it 'that poor little town of Richelieu', or maybe insist that all the BIG money lives in Chaveignes, the little commune that includes the coupure du parc.

Location on the map in the column to the right....

And the local taxes are lower in Chaveignes, they say.

Persian polo as played in the 1550s

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Bacchus? - Obélix? - Mandragore? - Depardieu?

The keystone of the Orangery of the château de Richelieu built in the 1630s to designs by Jacques Lemercier has this blobby portrait in vine leaves? hop leaves? cut in the 'tuffeau' stone work. One can see many images incorporated, not just the hirsute face......

the 'dolmen' at Ligré - 5km from Richelieu

Stonehenge is more impressive, it is true, but not by that much.  On a hill top above the wine village of Ligré to the north west of Richelieu we find the dolmen or burial tomb that overlooks the sweep of the river Vienne.
One itches to get the one fallen stone upright to re-complete the stability this ancient structure.
Was it covered with an earthen burial mound?
It makes it clear that even in pre-history the region was influential.  In later centuries Chinon castle, a couple of miles away, was to rule the Europe of the Plantagenets from Spain to Hadrian's wall in Scotland.   Touraine has been the play-park of noble families and kings for a long, long time.

p.s it is now stranded in a field of rape seed; last year it was sunflowers, I think.

see the location on the map of Richelieu locations to the right....

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the Grande Rue internet cafe owner & photographer J.L.L.

Jean-Louis Lawrence runs an internet cafe located on the Grande Rue.  He is an expert in l'informatique and computer installations of all sorts.  Fascinated by the digital camera, his shop is filled by photos that show his love of the cité idéale of Richelieu.  The shop is, like all internet cafés, quite a hub for the town and is often full of every sort of person clicking away.

He too runs a blog on events in the town - but this time in the native French language.

Here is the address:

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

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1902 book illustrations by Maurice Leloir in the book 'Richelieu' by Théodor Cahu

CLICK HERE
for more illustrations
Even the  cardinal himself could not prevent smoke coming down his own chimney
(here apparently in Luçon!) when the wind blew the wrong way - try shutting the window, Émminentissime! 
And he never sorted out what to do with all those messy oak logs lying by the hearth.
Bet he trips up over those tongs too...

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Theatre costumes by Désiré Chaîneux - Comédie-Française,1904

the cardinal duc's guard

the cardinal duc's trumpeter

the cardinal duc's officer of the guard

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from 'La Legende de Richelieu' - Conseil général de la Vendée, July 2008

I hope they won't mind - the pencil and wash drawings are so elegant!

A Philippe de Champaigne web-site; the complete works

Champaigne was the court painter to the cardinal duc de Richelieu.  This  site tells one all one needs to know (and more) of the artist through whose eyes we perceive the painterly aesthetic of the court of Louis XIII and his first minister Armand-Jean du Plessis.

http://www.philippedechampaigne.org/

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Les Très Riches Heures 4 - the summer months

 AUTUMN * WINTER * SPRING * SUMMER

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Here are the last three months of the year cycle, the summer months.  Click on the seasons above to see and read about the other nine paintings painted by the Limbourg Brothers in about 1410.

Although the Duc de Berry owned a large part of central France and governed the Languedoc, he was often unable to meet the enormous expenses of his extraordinarily luxurious life. A great patron and friend of artists and a passionate collector, he commissioned works of all kinds; he loved sumptuous buildings, rare jewels, and richly illuminated books.

An avid builder, Jean de Berry personally supervised his restorations and constructions. The master architect for most of them was Guy de Dammartin, who successfully created in the upper stories a graceful decoration that fit in with the imposing grandeur of the whole. The palace and Sainte-Chapelle in both Bourges and Riom, the renovation of the palace and the Château du Clain in Poitiers, and the completion of the facade of Bourges Cathedral were accomplishments worthy of the importance of the Duke's three capital cities as well as monuments to his good taste in architecture.

By restoring châteaus and by building anew, the Duke provided himself with a series of beautiful homes throughout France: Nonette in Auvergne, Lusignan in Poitou, Genouilly and Concressault in Berry, and Gien, Montargis, Etampes, and Dourdan between the Loire and the Seine. The most famous residences, noted for their beauty and magnificence, were the Hôtel de Nesle on the left bank of the Seine facing the Louvre, the Château de Bicêtre to the south of Paris, and the Château de Mehun-sur-Yèvre, four leagues from Bourges.

An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
with a lecture about the Belles Heures
also by the Limbourg Brotherst

July

château sur le Clain, Poitiers

August

chateau d'Étampes

September

château de Saumur

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