(background image: mine, Chateau Veauce entry gate)
9/10 Tuesday - pretty clear day, set out for Chateau Veauce, which is about 23 miles/38km or so west of the hotel. Got there about 10am or so after a long off-highway drive over long fields and up 'n down deep valley roads. Google maps announcements didn't match some of the road signs, where there were any road signs, one of them was a little white board on a peg about a foot high, running off into this field and then up the mountain. There's a little town that was pretty much empty except for some construction guys working on one of the steep roofs of some building along the road, and a couple moms walking their kids and prams. A little parking lot with a few cars, and a bus sign indicating tour bus or commuter bus stop, couldn't tell which. No other tourist-guidance sort of signage around. There were another couple construction guys working near the Mary church and I buttonholed one of them "parle vous l'anglais?" "No". Sign language and baby talk question to him: "Bus? Castle entree? eh?" Shrugs and smiles and no good answers. Time for some pics, hover for comments:
Still stumbling around to find the entrance to the thing, I thought this monster was blocking the road to it, and I and the workmen engaged in a tradeoff of incomprehensible banter, they couldn't move it, they didn't know how to get into the castle, and neither did the moms I asked. One of them vaguely hinted at "telephone?" Some quaint houses/structures down the road here.
I thought maybe the main entrance was down the road the construction guys were blocking with their big portable scaffold but this wasn't the case after all. I could see the huge crenelated towers back in the woods and I thought there was some other main access so I drove down and around the way I came in looking for some other likely road but this just took me into the fields again. I backed into some grassy driveway of a little cottage to try to make more sense of the map and within a couple minutes there was this friendly old French woman leaning in my window and chattering away in French, not a shred of English anywhere. I smiled and tried to get out of here where the main entrance might be, or road or whatever, with my few scraps of French. Didn't work at all and the Google translator was worthless in this case. She kept pointing down the road and saying "voiture" (car) here and there. I finally let her go and headed back up the hill to the castle I could see. Got out and walked to the main gate again and looked closer. Sure enough, "we're closed" sign pasted over the little marquis placard next to the gate. Got it, this was the main entrance, and they were closed. This was a real downer, especially since I'd done about 4000 miles looking forward to seeing this particular pile, and another. So I thought I'd finally shoot some local music video as was part of the plan, and I managed to do it, with some followup from home later, see below:
Trying to get smooth notes on site out of a jangly instrument with no amp for sound control is always a riot but when you've come 4000 miles to "play Chateau Veauce", you've played it, no apologies! Two old French tunes, first "Laride", second "Belle, Qui Tiens Ma Vie", a great version of which was done by the John Renbourn Group.
And the amp'd-up home-front versions, slightly cadaverous demeanor courtesy of covid19 virus, (or do I always look that way haha?) which I caught in some airport/flight on the way home...I vote British Airways/Heathrow.
After getting my little footage in the phone I packed up the gear and sat in the car trying to figure out how to get inside some castle or other to save the day. Sure enough all you have to do is search on "chateau" in these parts and you'll get a few, but not always ancient, many are "hotel like", and I spotted one. I'd seen Chateau Villemont already on the map but since it was under renovation I didn't think it was worth a visit, but I changed my mind and it turned out to be a great spot in spite of that. Just a few miles eastward or so and I was there. There was one workman who was friendly, in spite of ragged English and told me it was totally ok to look around anywhere, just don't go under the scaffold or inside that area. I walked all around the place and got some great pics including the gardens which were sort of a hidden wonder. Saved the day a bit after all, and gorgeous weather.
On the way there from Ch Veauce, finally able to get some countryside shots and of the little towns, you just have to slow waaay down through these.
Finally Ch Villemont. I don't know who pays for all these renos or how far they're going to go with them or what the final usage is going to be, more than I wanted to pry out of the workman. But obviously the place has enormous 17th century potential to be a huge party place, which would probably generate more dough than a museum...it is way out in the fields. Hover for the odd comment:
around back of the place, all these old stones
I was about to take off after all the courtyard views but walked through one of the arches behind the place and there were the huge gardens, which had obviously had some cleanup done on them. I think some gardens like these would have to be standard in a place like this.
And I guess if Monty Python were in France (they were, sort of, see "Holy Grail" movie) or here they might end off with this "trying not to be seen" shot too. And that's Chateau Villemont.
A little diversion between chateau hunting. Before next day's jaunt to Randan I drove into Bellarive to get gas and some provisions. Ended up at the big Leclerc grocery chain store which has everything, including clothes but not a pharmacy. Had to snap a couple pics of their cheese sections, the first one below is the refrigerated, the second one the semi-fridge deli style, both about 20 feet long, or more, and both solid-filled with nothing but cheese varieties. What a heaven! I bought only the pack of "Le Bonobon" which was excellent and lasted me clear through the final week down in Nice. Again I wish I could've known the name of the dynamite hot stuff I had at the Hotel du Bost dinner but you try guessing that out of two racks with a thousand cheeses! I got another great one from Holland (I'm sure they all sell eachother's cheese all over Europe, didn't have to be French) from the local market near Villa le Nid to bring hom to Corey.
After that I did swing into a pharmacy nearby to get some light painkillers and found that they sell absolutely all painkillers of any kind behind the counter, even Alka-Selzer. Couldn't possibly explain to the clerk what I wanted so punched it into the translator and flashed that, she gave me the smile and thumb-up and I got the stuff. Tried to get home without crossing the river but of course got myself funneled into a wrong street and ended up on the bridge and in a little circle on the Vichy side to get back, beyond belief how I kept managing to do that.
Got back to the hotel around 6pm or whatever and since I'd found an email to Chateau Veauce management I emailed them pronto to see if there was a chance of getting in there tomorrow. Jeremy emailed me back pretty quick and said he could try tomorrow sure enough, 1pm. Awful late in the day as I still had to see Randan but told him let's do it.
9/11 Wed AM - woke to pretty heavy rain so email Jeremy again by 9am or so, told him I was still on if he was, he wrote back quick and said so sorry but he was sick which was the reason for the closures recently (I checked Google maps again on 10/1 and they are still "Temporarily closed". I didn't press it but had to wonder. Here was this major historical site/attraction with only one guy working to possibly show it and if he's out that's it, no access. This is a bad surprise to come continents and oceans for but it illustrates what I tended to find all over the place (later Villars-sur-Var expedition a prime example too). So be warned if you're going to plan on seeing places like this, and phone/write ahead days/weeks/months to make sure the place is actually going to be open for you. I had to let it go and only hope I could be back to see it sometime.
The final chateau on the list was Estate of Randan which was the other one I'd earmarked from the "Haunted France" book so long ago. Only ten miles down the road southward from Hotel du Bost it was a quick jaunt and I set out by midday, they didn't open till 1pm, just like Chateau Veauce. Another indicator of tourism effort, or lack of it. It is set in a little town, Randan, and Google maps sent me right by it, there is a big gate on the narrow main town street but a rather invisible sign, if you're driving. Circling around I found the place and with the rain holding its breath for me I went in. There is a great little lobby/museum/center to give out tickets (free for just a walkaround) and which has a lot of old stuff from the castle from earlier days. It is unique in that it is the last royal estate purchased in France, circa 1812 and the woman that bought it did so to have a retreat from Paris in case the revolution flared again, which it did in 1830 in a big way, and then later again in 1870 or so. It lasted until the 1920's then there was a bad fire, cause unknown, and it was left more or less a ruin. I took shots of info-relics which help explain. Hover for the odd comment.
Some other times-gone-by pics and the disastrous fire, click to magnify...the last lord died of an overdose of something in the 1920's and it was thereafter juggled and finally bought/donated to local district somehow.
Wandered out the door of the little museum and out onto the estate. Weather was threatening and lovely spooky. Couldn't go into the place but free to walk wherever else. The enormous park and trees therein were half of the atmosphere. They have all kinds of culture events here and what perfect spot. Did a long walk around the place then circled back to the chateau itself and sat on a bench soaking up the atmosphere.
Walked back through the little musuem/center and got a few more pics of the curiosities. See comments.
They had these great little comic caricature statues carved by some artist on demand for the family I guess, I would have liked to have bought one but they didn't have any replicas, too bad.
I took my leave with many thanks and as I walked toward the front gate the rain cut loose, just sparing me long enough to see the place nicely, and having left the umbrella behind of course, I was grateful. Got back to Hotel du Bost and packed to get out early for the long drive back to Nice.
Short of a couple more little forts down on the Cote d'Azure the last week, that was all the chateau hunting I was going to do this trip, and it was plenty. See you next week.