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| Chateau de Goulaine, Loire |
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| Chateau's Park |
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| Here is the layout along the Loire River |
Actually we tied up in an important but quite ugly
industrial harbour near Nantes and St. Nazaire, called Montoir de Bretagne.
Miles of docks, containers, cranes, railway tracks and similar constructions
were a good reason to head out of town. It was a cold and drizzly morning,
where a tour to a Chateau sounded appropriate, as tourist cruising along the
Loire River or wandering around St Nazaire seemed to promise nothing but a dull
few hours spent seeing rain and more
rain.
So I headed off – per ship’s tour – to a Loire Chateau
closest to the port. Chateau Goulaine fit the bill perfectly for several
reasons: close by, traditional Chateau, family run since about a thousand
years, not destroyed neither in WWI nor WWII, and good Muscatel wine to taste
and a few pet butterflies of the present marquis to admire.
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| Reception Room |
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| Gable on the Chateau |
The reason Chateau Goulaine survived more or less intact, is
due to the fact that from 1788 until 1858 it was temporarily Dutch owned during
the French Revolution, thus evading the destructive wrath of French
revolutionaries.
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| The Red Room |
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| Detail of one of many beautiful Tapestries |
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| Painting on Wooden Door |
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| Segment of a tapestry |
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| The Blue Room - of the ladies.... |
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| Detail of a painted wood panel |
In 1149, Jean de Goulaine was mayor of the City of Nantes. His
son Mathieu was the mediator between the two Kings, which resulted in permission
to create the family’s Anglo-Francais
Coat of Arms. The Chateau was constructed during the 15th century in
Renaissance style, built on a substructure dating from the High Middle Ages.
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| Goulaine Beauty |
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| Fleur de Lys and Lions |
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| Not so happy Goulaine camper |
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| They go back a long way.... |
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| Coat of Arms on the fireplace mantelpiece |
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| Marquise de Goulaine, pale, well fed, idle.....rich in other words |
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Newly wedded ladies were depicted with a dog on their lap, symbol of fidelity and loyalty and faithfulness.
And that in La Belle France..... |
The Chateau de Goulaine is one of the last Loire Chateaus that
still produces its own wine, which makes it the oldest wine growing business in
Europe.
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| Present day Goulaines and their dog |
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| The Chateau Muscadet |
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| The Marquise helping out with selecting wine for purchase... |
The trouble with tours is that one has to put up with fellow
travellers, time restraints and guides. Montoir de Bretagne is not by any means
a hot tourist destination; hence things are a little trying. To start off with,
the gangway provided by local authorities only admitted nine people to walk
across it at any one time. As EVERYONE was eager to leave the ship, either on
tour or heading for the local excitements via shuttle bus, disembarkation was
tardy. So were the tour buses, as they were caught in the usual foreseeable
Nantes morning traffic jam. The lady guide spoke English, but her commentary
was at best spotty and singularly boring. (i.e.….now we are taking the exit
from the highway to a country road to …wherever)
The Chateau on the other hand was delightful with long and
convoluted history both in battle and love. The Goulain’s were instrumental in
negotiating a peace treaty in the Middle Ages between the then King of England
and the then King of past France. Hence they show in their heraldic emblem the
Fleur de Lys as well as the British Lion.
The latest descendants of this long lasting dynasty of
marquises and their wives and lovers, have opened the Chateau to the public. It
is a romantic venue for weddings, small meetings, concerts, exhibitions and
various other festivities. The owners grow their own wines; have their own
chef, their own produce gardens and vineyards. To add to the entertainment,
there is a small butterfly ‘aviary’ – compliments of Robert de Goulaine, the
grandfather of the present generation – where one may admire the enchanting
creatures at close range.
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| Tropical Butterfly |
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| Inhabitants of the Butterfly Farm |
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| LuLu Cookies... |
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| Where is the cookie in this painting? |
The family also owns/originated a cookie factory known by
Lefevre Utile which makes butter cookies since decades. They have reached
national celebrity status. I tried one of them together with a glass of home
grown and produced muscatel wine – the wine was better. However, many famous
artists have immortalized the LuLu cookies in many pieces of art, both
marketing related and for the sheer pleasure of creating a good painting or
sculpture. A wing of the castle is dedicated to the exhibition of the Chateau’s
collection of LuLu cookies related works – and they are eclectic indeed.
Madame La Marquise made an appearance during the wine
tasting and chatted with her visitors. She only seemed perturbed a little, when
one of her guests – a boy all of about three years old and screaming his little
head off uninterruptedly whilst parents adoringly looked on – tore through the
elegant historic tasting room without being checked by either mother or father.
She was not amused, neither was anybody else apart from the nouveau parents,
who seemed totally oblivious to the fact that junior was not perceived as a
lovely delight by anybody but themselves.
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| Tapestry Detail |
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| Fontaine, the famous French writer of Animal Fables is remembered in some of the tapestries. Here a Dolphin and a Monkey...I forgot the story behind it. |
Holland America introduced a new policy that wine purchases
are no longer allowed to be brought back aboard, unless one is willing to pay a
$US 18 fee at the gangway. This somewhat arbitrary rule had been waved for this
tour, and we could purchase a bottle of the Chateau’s muscatel (prices between
5 and 12 Euros) to take back for private enjoyment in our cabins. So we travelled
back to Prinsendam loaded….
It was a pleasant way to spend a rainy day in Brittany….
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| Peaceful Chateau |
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| Well, one paints during the leisure hours after returning from an outing. Here my latest attempt, a scene in Lisbon's Alfama district... |
