10-20-17 The Chateaù of Ussé and Les Gueules Noires – Lover of Wine – Travel along on our adventures

Full shot of the Chateau from the Garden area. The current owner lives in the right side of the Chateau – without the towers.

The first site of the Chateau as you walk up the path.

Our first full day in the Loire Valley had us going to The Château d’Ussé located not far from our Villa. The stronghold at the edge of the Chinon forest overlooking the Indre Valley was first fortified in the eleventh century and passed through a number of different hands over the years ending up being purchased. In 1885 the comtesse de la Rochejaquelein bequeathed Ussé to her great-nephew, the comte de Blacas. Today the château belongs to his descendent Casimir de Blacas d’ Aulps the 7th Duke of Blacas.

Throughout the Chateau there is period furniture, rooms decorated with tapestries, paintings and also a collection of maniquins wearing period costumes inside the various rooms.

The stairs at the main entrance – wooden spiral going up were nicely crafted.

Vauban’s Lunge room – used for different purposes over the years but clearly a common room for enjoyment and parties

Each “royal” Chateau, which this was, required a King’s Bedroom – this was that room. Altho a King never slept here.

A Mazarin desk, French piece of furniture from the 17th century, inlad with lemon wood.

A 16th century Italian cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory. It contains 49 hidden drawers

The tapestry was really quite nice with several different scenes depicted.

Here we are enjoying the tour and the tapestry along the wall.

I found my suit! I might even fit in this thing.

A very old wine press – clearly one that required a LOT of labor to operate.

The current owner still lives in the Chateau and uses the funds from the entrance fees for maintenance and upkeep. It has been open to the public since 1970 – quite a long time actually. In addition to the main Chateau there is a separate Chapel and a collection of various carriages worth checking out.

One of the traditions, maintained by the Chateau, is that it was the castle Charles Perrault had in mind when writing “The Sleeping Beauty” To this end, there is a whole display in one of the upper levels of various scenes depicted in the story.

The inside of the chapel – where there are still family services from time to time

The ‘monk’ seats in the Chapel all had different carvings at the ends. The craving is of Moses after coming down from the Mountain – seems to have “horns” coming out of his head.

The chapel was the parish house of worship, even during revolutionary times. A dellaRobbia virgin and choir chair carvings are well done. The 12 apostles surround the entrance, each with the symbol that identifies them, of course, the extra 4 medallions of death and his minions need no special identification. The foundations of the entire construction are oldest, carved out of the tipical sedimentary stone of the area.

Of course, Janeen had to check out the garden. Not huge but had some nice plantings and a nice water feature.

After our visit to the Chateau, we returned to our Villa to relax and get ready for dinner at Les Gueules Noires (a la Cave Martin). This restaurant was highly recommended by our hostess so we had her make a reservation. The place is only about 2.5 Km from the Villa so quite close and when we drove up to it we were the first to arrive (they don’t start serving until 7:30 naturally we were there a few minutes early).

The front patio of the restaurant is set up for dining during warmer weather with the dining room and kitchen partially installed in the caves left behind from mining operations. The decorations in the dining room do seem to have a mining theme but the space is open with a large fireplace (actually with a fire) in the middle of the room.

Clearly not following a set “French” menu, this restaurant features fresh produce, items they can get that day and meats from local producers and the serve local Loire wines.

Fortunately, the hostess speaks English and was able to explain the various menu items available for the evening. Janeen settled on pumpkin cream soup with chestnuts and cheese to start and a veal stew with 6 or 7 vegetables while I started with the risotto with herbs and a dusting of cheese and the boor with vegetables. Both were beyond good – they were fantastic. For desert we shared a warmed fig dish with a scope of ice cream (you can look at the menu and read everything that was available.

Risotto with cheese dusting and lots of herbs.

Veal stew with at least 6 different vegitables

This is a place to go back to as the seasons change to see what they are presenting.