One More Day in the Country

Settled safely into our timeshare outside of Paris, we decided to spend one more day exploring the countryside east of Paris before heading into the city itself.  Our first stop was the medieval city of Provins, once a busy large center of trade in Europe.

First we visited the church in the center of the old part of town, the Saint-Quiriace Collegiate Church, built in the 12th century.

  

I liked the pink plaster with the white relief decoration.  It reminded me of icing on a wedding cake.

More fun taking pics of the light.

The colorful bright windows were really wonderful here.  I loved the Sun and the Moon.

This window was my favorite.  At first I thought it was depicting scenes from the life of Christ, but then I realized that it is dedicated to Joseph, the earthly father of God's only begotten son.  It was beautiful!

Joseph marries Mary, despite the complications.

Now they are in Egypt.  See the Sphinx?  Christ and his family are being served to by angels.  I love the sleeping baby, and the way Joseph looks at him.

The toddler Jesus being visited by the wise men.

And presenting the baby Jesus to the temple.

I really like this one of Joseph teaching the young Jesus carpentry in his shop while Mary is spinning.

Finally, the grown Jesus is at Joseph's bedside during Joseph's last moments.

Absolutely beautiful glass work.

Another fun colorful window with decorative painted embellishments all around.

This guy is just cool, hanging out, waiting for the action.

More Gothic arches and vaulted ceilings (this town is just full of them)

And more pretty kaleidoscope windows.

Outside, it was a beautiful day, and a pretty little town to explore.

Great gate! (Say that 10 times fast.)

That building on the main square was built up against a very very old ruin, that had somehow sprouted into a garden of sorts.

I love this cottage with the sloped roofline.  It looks like something from a fairy tale.

This window on a very old school has great gingerbread details.

That old school is so old school!

I love the colorful flags and banners hanging all over town.

Another view of the square and the half timbered houses.  These are filled in with plaster, unlike the ones we saw in Tours that were filled with brick.

Ooo, lets go over that way!

I had to carefully compose the shot of this cool old abode to avoid taking a picture of the big pile of trash that had been set out in front.

An old vineyard right in the middle of town. 

The landmark of Provins is Ceaser's Tower, the 12th century keep that served as a watchtower, prison, and bell tower for the church.

Provins was a neat old, well-preserved Medieval city, but the best part of the city...

was actually the 13th century walls, gates, and ramparts around the city.

Once the capital of Champagne, the feudal lords of the area thumbed their noses at the kings of France by building a wall around their city, and offering a passport for safe passage through their city for merchants from all lands near and far on their way to Paris.  This made way for the famous Fairs of Champagne, seasonal trade fairs in huge vaulted corridors where people came from all over to trade their wares behind the protection of these fortress walls.

Just to get an idea of how BIG these wall were - that is Dennis up their waving his puny little arm.

I think he is shooting an arrow at us from the ramparts.

And then you turn the corner, and the wall goes on!

It is fun to imagine knights and soldiers in their chain-male and armor having at it at those walls.  My boys would LOVE this!

Another country house with a crooked roofline.

After driving further through the beautiful countryside, we drove down this lovely and long tree-lined drive to the grand country Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte.

The grand gates of the chateau.

The stables were very nice.

Inside the stables was a terrific display of carriages. 

Check out this one - it has no wheels, but is carried between two horses, one on the front and one on the back.  Can you imagine a grand lady with a huge powdered wig arriving at the ball in this?

And I can picture the elite riding through the filthy streets of Paris in this, snubbing their noses at the peasantry, and running over street urchins with their wheels, leaving them for dead as they rush home to the comfort of their fancy chateau (Yep, I was reading a little Dickens on the flight over the pond.)

This is what they would be rushing home to.  OK, well now I understand the haste.

And there they are, the nobility, minus the white makeup and powdered wigs.

Ho Hum.  Just another chateau, another moat, another garden.  All this opulence is getting tedious.

The Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte was built by Nicolas Fouquet, King Louis XIV's finance minister.

He hired the best architect, a fantastic artist, and a genius landscaper, to complete his opulent masterpiece.

The landscaper used mathematics to design an ingenious garden of terraces that were hidden from view until one was upon them, creating a series of optical illusions.

Well, when the chateau and gardens were complete, Fouquet, tickled pink with his new showpiece, threw a big housewarming party, and had the nerve to invite his boss, King Louis XIV himself.

King Louis, was a little too impressed, and had his host arrested on the spot, for suspicion of embezzling the Kings money, I suppose, and the King promptly took the architect, the artist, and the landscaper back to his uncle's hunting lodge and had had them build Versailles.  Party pooper!

You can see what made the Sun King jealous, huh?

OK, I'm thinking the HUGE gold crown fountain might have been a bit presumptuous and maybe was the tipping point for good old King Louis, the self-proclaimed Sun King.  You don't outshine the Sun King.  Just saying... 

That is why Vaux-le-Vicomte is said to be the inspiration for Versailles.

The gardens really were beautiful, but after seeing the colorful gardens of Villandry, they seemed a bit... well... drab.

I loved this sweet statue of two lions giving each other a tongue bath.  She is really enjoying that!

OK, where do we go from here?

We thought we wanted to go to that hill with the statue on it, to get a view back to the entire garden,

But when we approached, found that there was a long canal in front that we would have to walk all the way around.  Ugh!  And since it was about 95 degrees outside, we thought better of it.  We didn't enjoy that optical illusion at all!

Apparently, the gorgeous fountains are what makes this place, but they were not on while we were here.  The dry fountains added to the dry, parched feelings in our throats I think.  I imagine this fountain is spectacular when flowing!



The only fountain on for us looked like a broken sprinkler.

Hey, its Bacchus, god of wine, and Dennis, god of mine.  (He-he, that rhymes!)

The wildflower garden was a nice contrast to the manicured structure of the rest of the garden.

I love the shrubs in the shapes of ball, pyramids, and cones.

They had an ingenious way to raise funds to restore expensive slate roof on the chateau. For five euros you could purchase a new slate roof tile, etch you name into it, and it would be installed onto the chateau.  In return, they gave you one of the old tiles that had been on the chateau since it's last re-roofing in 1865!  (the cheapest souvenir in the whole shop, too.) Kinda cool, huh?  Mom is etching her name onto her slate.

I etched our tile with the names of all the boys so they could say that their names are etched forever onto the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte, or at least for the next hundred years.

Another great day in France!