Discover the Anjou Touraine Loire Valley
The largest Loire castle inhabited by a family is located about 10kms from the Old School.
Costumed visits for children, workshops in the afternoon during the school holidays, your children are busy while you visit the castle gallery, the common, the gardens with a guided tour or your audioguide
Candlelights visits on Tuesdays during summer
https://en.chateaudegizeux.com
Have a look at 2020 Schedule
– March 28th to 29th
– April 11th to 13th
– May 1st to 3rd
– May 8th to 10
– May 21th to 24th (Ascension)
– May 30th to June 1rst (Pentecôte)
– June 27th to 28th (Mills and heritage Day)
– September 12th to 13 th
– September 19th to 20 th Sept ( European Heritage Day)
If you are renting the Old school for the next event, I encourage you to participate by calling the owners on +33 2 47 97 98 24 to verifiy the visiting hours, otherwise, tasting is possible at any time.
www.drusse-vindeloire.com – Tel: +33 247979824
There is on the place du champ de foire in Vernoil-le-Fourrier, two Boule de Fort societies. This game is specific to the region Touraine, Anjou, Loire Valley. It was born in the 17th century probably created by the Loire sailors, and is registered as intangible heritage of the countries of the Loire Valley.
The track is curved, like the bottom of the gabarres (ships on the Loire river) from which could come the game, and the ball, in wood for the oldest ones or in resin for the modern ones, is rather an asymmetrical cylinder, circled of metal , with a heavier side: the strong, and a lighter side, the weaker. It is played as a team, slipper on the track, and as petanque to get closer to the “Small”, white ball. Depending on the type of throwing, the ball will have a more or less curved trajectory, accentuated if we use the curved edges of the track.
I invite you to watch this report and perhaps to push the door of one or the other of Vernoil’s ball games, maybe you will have the chance to see a competition, or get started by a member or even, like me, by a champion of Boule de Fort.
A few meters from our holiday home, are the Romanesque church of the twelfth century and the priory of the fifteenth century, both listed in French heritage buildings, jewels of the architectural heritage of the village.
The church steeple was in ancient times known as the highest bell tower of Anjou.
It collapsed in December 1711 after a terrible earthquake, happily sparing parish and parishioners.
Since then, it has been rebuilt in hexagon tower, on the whole, quite elegant, on eighteenth-century frames that do not conform to the width of its walls, and a less dominant position.
The town has been committed for several years to a heavy program of restoration of the church, which allowed the reopening of the church in spring 2019.
During the European heritage days 2019, on September 21 & 22th, the church will be opened from 10 am to 6 pm
Just backwards the church, the 15th century priory with its octagonal tower and its suite of houses leaning against each other.
At the back of the priory, extends a mall, flowered garden, with its lawns and bowling alleys, meeting place for the players of petanque in Vernoil.
Beside ponds and tennis at the exit of the village, the town has created a green area called “fitness trail” with tackles and obstacles. You can run it in small strides, or in walk mode, in this well-kept and airy green space. Tables for picnics are also installed.
If you follow the complete route, you will go around the two ponds for a distance of about 4 kms.
If you spend the afternoon or the evening in Saumur, it is wonderful to admire the panorama of the castle of Saumur. You park your car on the banks of the Loire river on a parking at the foot of the ramparts and start the assault!
It begins with a small flight of steps to discourage cyclists, but then the climb is gently sloping by a large secure path that winds on the rock on which are built fortifications.
Along the way, you have beautiful views on the Loire river.
When you arrive at the foot of the castle, you have the full view: on one side the castle bordered by an arpent vine, on the other the Loire, the bridges of Saumur, the island between the bridges. that’s wonderful.
You can refresh yourself at the aptly named refreshment bar: the panorama, or cross the drawbridge and prefer the guinguettes inside the ramparts.
Whether you are attracted by manual activities or you like wicker creations (baskets, trunks, trays), the workshop of Mr. Christian Pineau in Vernantes on the road of Noyant will interest you a lot.
Give him a call at 02.41.51.58.26 to know if he can receive you or organize a workshop discoveries (two successive mornings) or a training course a little longer, or you open his shop for exhibition and sale!
https://www.vanneries.fr
On April 29, it was the opening of the fishing in Vernoil, in the two ponds located near the old campsite
Nearby, other ponds in La Breille pines, Mouliherne, Vivy offer family fishing;
Further, the Loire offers a variety of more sporting fish to fish.
You can get day fishing cards at the tourist office of Saumur or online https://www.cartedepeche.fr/
This year, at the Jules Desbois museum, an exhibition entitled “The artist workshop”, which includes some sculptures of Jules Desbois, the child of the Parçay Les Pins, small village in the nearby, and pictures of the artist workshop, friend of Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel , from the realistic current in nineteenth-century sculpture.
While passing on the road from Noyant to Vernoil, I had always wondered what was this museum located in the Angevin countryside, well, this year, on the occasion of this exhibition and the guided tour that gently offered to me the young woman at the museum’s reception, that’s it, I’ve discovered it!
After the war of 14, the revival of interest for the sculpture benefited to Jules Desbois, for official orders of towns, who wanted to sit with this art the figures of the Third Republic, the tributes to the soldiers died for France, and to offer to the most of the strong symbols of the government.
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Less than 10 kilometres from the Old school in the direction of Bourgueil, is the last lead soldier factory in France (CBG Mignot), which exhibits the collection of figurines of his former boss.
