Category: Visits

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.

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.

Then you can continue the visit of the interior of the castle, if time permits, or just like us from the castle walls and its fabulous views. Your children or you can disguise yourself as a knight the moment of the photo!
For lazy people, you can get to the castle esplanade by car, but it’s less picturesque

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!

Jules Desbois, born in Parçay les pins, a few meters from his museum, was a friend, a young colleague   of Auguste Rodin, and Camille Claudel, whose vision of realistic sculpture he shared, definitely not academic.

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.

Nearly 300,000 pieces, with a very large representation of soldiers of the Empire in chamarré uniforms, but also animals, circus characters, firemen, hunters or bathers. The characters are staged with the interior decoration of the red boxes designed by the company.
The tour begins on the ground floor with a sample of the collection, moulds and period utensils, and continues on the 1st floor with videos and showcases of the collection.
The lead figurines continue to be handmade using thousands of moulds from the company’s heritage, deburred, assembled and painted by hand.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, you can see the little soldiers’ painter on her workstation on the ground floor, and take away some souvenirs.
Allow 30 to 40 minutes, open from 9am to 12pm, 1.30pm to 4.30pm from Monday to Friday.
https://www.soldats-de-plomb.com/

Located about twenty kilometers from the cottage of the old school, through the woods and La Breille les pins, this small vineyard village is known for its troglodyte houses: two good restaurants (the Hélianthe, the Bistroglo) are settled there, if you want to test the atmosphere of this type of installation in the heart of the rock.

You will also find in Turquant the museum of la pomme Tapée (tapped Apple) , also installed in the cliff, which traces the secrets of making a culinary specialty of the region.

Located 25 km from our holiday rental through the woods of La Breille pine trees, you should visit the site of the abbey famous for the recumbent Plantagenet family including Aliénor of Aquitaine and Richard Coeur de Lion who are buried in the abbey church.
The monumental cloister and the very curious kitchen tower