A road trip that’s chateau so good
NIGEL HEATH gets invited in for coffee with the mayor and walks in on the execution of Mary Queen of Scots!
SETTING out on a road trip around small picturesque villages in Northern France on a Monday is not generally a very good plan. You’re likely to find many a bar or tabac closed come coffee time.
So it was, when my wife Jenny and I drove in to Parne-sur-Roc, a Petite Cité De Caractère in the Pays De La Loire region, that a pleasant surprise was in store.
We parked in a sunny side street and wandered up to the centuriesold church where all seemed silent and still.
There was no one about, as is often the case in these small places in rural France.
Ah! a sign of life. There were two cyclists who’d parked their tandem by the church steps and close by, a villager in blue shorts and a white shirt who seemed to be carrying a clipboard.
“Is there anywhere here to get a coffee?” we asked him. It seemed a forlorn hope.
“No, but I can make you one,” came his surprise reply. He beckoned to us and the French couple to follow.
We all trooped after him towards the Marie – or Town Hall – only to discover we were being hosted by Monsieur le Mayor!
His receptionist welcomed us with a smile as we all trooped into his office where, because of our poor French, a rather disjointed but humorous conversation ensued courtesy of Google translate.
Forget TGI Friday, I thought as we waved goodbye to Mayor Daniel Guerin, and to Olivier and Marie, our fellow guests from Nante, because for us it had been TGI Monday!
Like the village of Lassay les Chateaux, where we have our holiday home, Parnesur-Roc was another of the little towns and villages in the Pays De La Loire region awarded the distinction of being named as ‘Petite Citiés Du Caractère’.
Our plan on this tour was to visit a selection of these delightful places, all of which are renowned for their heritage.
So it was that we drove on to picturesque Saulges, with its 11th Century Church of St Peter and famous Rochefort and Margot caves in the wooded limestone valley below.
Luckily, the patron of the hotel and restaurant opposite the church did not seem to mind that it was Monday so we dined on vegetable wraps with a salad garnish followed by a trio of fish at a table set out in the gardens under a shady tree.
That afternoon we visited Asnieres-sur-Vegre, whose church of St Hilaire has an outstanding collection of 16th Century wall paintings before moving on to the small town of Parce-sur-Sarthe for a pleasant walk along the shady banks of the River Sarthe.
Now, it was time to head further south to Thorigne de Anjou where we were booked for two nights at a lovely 1850s guest house set in its own mini-parkland on a tributary of the River Mayenne.
Our hosts – Laurence, an excellent cook and Serge, who grows all their own vegetables – could not have been more welcoming.
We dined al fresco in the charming company of a Belgian couple who were on a cycling holiday along the river.
Next we planned to make a petite fore into the Loire Valley but luckily we got side-tracked by visiting the magnificent Chateaux Serrant, whose survival intact through troubled times is largely due to two remarkable pieces of luck.
It escaped the ravages of the French Revolution because it had been acquired by the Walsh family of Irish Catholic descent.
Then, during the Second World War, it was taken over as a hotel for officers whose Wehrmacht Field Marshall made an extensive inventory of its possessions to prevent looting.
Ironically one guest also contributed to the chateaux’ heritage by painting a mural of Prussian officers on a wall in the servants’ quarters.
We rounded off our sunny day by wandering around the quaint little streets of Behuard, the only department on an island in the Loire river, and visiting Jean-Luc Duvignon’s woodcarving studio. He was raising funds for a school in Brazil so we bought a necklace made from deep red Brazilian seeds.
Then it was back to the guest house where Serge had hooked a delicious Sandre – a freshwater fish – from the river for our supper.
As if being hosted by a village mayor wasn’t enough of a surprise, we were in for another the following morning when we crossed the drawbridge and entered the magnificent 15th Century family fortress of Le PlessisBourre, which is surrounded by a lake-sized moat.
Armed with a plan of the castle, we set out on a self-guided tour through its beautifully furnished state rooms only to open a heavy oak door and come upon the beheading of Mary Queen of Scots!
We’d stumbled on the dramatic set of a historical documentary film being made for French TV, as was explained by a young man called Maxime who was playing The Duke of Norfolk and spoke excellent English due to time spent at the University of the West of England in Bristol.
There was now just time for the traditional €13.50 three-course lunch in a typical French hotel and a wander around Saint-Denis D’anjou, our final Petite Cité de Caractère, before beginning our mid-afternoon drive home to Lassay.
It had been an expedition with a certain je ne sais quoi.