Europe, with an Arctic cruise, a Balkan tour and bits of France and Malta

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volcanic bombs that mark the rock as volcanic tuff

Please explain

 

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I'm surprised there wasn't more damage from WW 2

Possibly because it was a prison housing many French resistance members?

 

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Please explain

You know when you see a volcano going off, there’s a huge plume and column of what they call ash. That falls to the ground and creates layers of ash ( fine rock particles from fine sand grain size up to grit) and in general that’s called tuff or tufa, a sedimentary rock. There are other types of deposits pushed out from a volcano such as a lahar, but we are just talking about tuff here.

Well, as those ash layers settle, the volcano keeps spitting out bigger stuff and you’ve probably heard the term of volcanic bomb, which is actual rock such as the size of a football. These go splat into the unconsolidated ash layers and you get a feature like the one I photographed in the Galapagos Islands, where softer layers are deformed by the incoming bomb. The bomb itself has broken into several pieces on impact and then was covered by more ash layers, the lighter grey stuff above it

When weathered out they can also act as handy chin rests for itinerant seals.



At Beze, the bombs being hard solid rocks stick out from the wall as the softer tuff weathers.

 

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Possibly because it was a prison housing many French resistance members?

It was also turned into a prison after the French Revolution by Napoleon I (the monasteries being dispersed it was abandoned for some years) , being one of the toughest prisons in France from 1814.

There is a bunch more, but essentially repetitions on a theme. Until you come to this building, which you can see to the right in my first pic of the complex, above.







Its function is not known for sure but current interp is that it was a kitchen/bakery - it abuts the refectory. Inside, the towers are almost certainly chimneys.

 

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Just some other scenes about the place, and adjacent town

 

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Yes, that corner is quite unlike the rest of Fontevraud with its ornate round roof. It is almost like it was added separately. Understandable as the place has been under various reconstructions and renovations over the centuries. Kitchen makes sense. If there was a fire, there are no wooden roof trusses to burn down

Its also a hotel IIRC?

 

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Its also a hotel IIRC?

Not that I saw. Away from the bits I toured, its a modern art exhibition space and a meeting venue.

On the way to the Abbey from my parking I came across the Church of St Michael - built in the 12th century and altered through the centuries. Very pretty.













And close to where I parked my car, I blithly walked past this building, the chapel of St Catherine, another 13th century building! Hardly signposted (may be privately owned?)

 

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Not yet done for the day - still Château d'Azay-le-Rideau to go, and it was a goodie. From the linked Wikipedia page:

Built between 1518 and 1527, this château is considered one of the foremost examples of early French renaissance architecture.

The current château of Azay-le-Rideau occupies the site of a former feudal castle. During the 12th century, the local seigneur Ridel (or Rideau) d'Azay, a knight in the service of Philip II Augustus, built a fortress here to protect the Tours to Chinon road where it crossed the river Indre.

However, this original medieval castle fell victim to the rivalry between Burgundian and Armagnac factions during the Hundred Years' War. In 1418, the future Charles VII passed through Azay-le-Rideau as he fled from Burgundian occupied Paris to the loyal Armagnac stronghold of Bourges. Angered by the insults of the Burgundian troops occupying the town, the dauphin ordered his own army to storm the castle. The 350 soldiers inside were all executed, and the castle itself burnt to the ground. For centuries, this fate was commemorated in the town's name of Azay-le-Brûlé (literally Azay the Burnt), which remained in use until the 18th century.

The castle remained in ruins until 1518, when the land was acquired by Gilles Berthelot, the Mayor of Tours and Treasurer-General of the King's finances. Desiring a residence to reflect his wealth and status, Berthelot set about reconstructing the building in a way that would incorporate its medieval past alongside the latest architectural styles of the Italian Renaissance. Although the château's purpose was to be largely residential, defensive fortifications remained important symbols of prestige, and so Berthelot was keen to have them for his new castle. He justified his request to the King, Francis I, by an exaggerated description of the many 'public thieves, footpads and other vagabonds, evildoers committing affray, disputes, thefts, larcenies, outrages, extortions and sundry other evils' which threatened unfortified towns such as Azay-le-Rideau.

The château was still incomplete in 1527, when the execution of Jacques de Beaune, (the chief minister in charge of royal finances and cousin to Berthelot) forced Gilles to flee the country. Possibly fearing the exposure of his own financial misdemeanours, he went into exile first in Metz in Lorraine, and later in Cambrai, where he died just two years later. Disregarding the pleas of Berthelot's wife Philippa, Francis I confiscated the unfinished château and, in 1535, gave it to Antoine Raffin, one of his knights-at-arms. Raffin undertook only minor renovations in the château, and so the building works remained incomplete, with only the south and west wings of the planned quadrilateral ever being built. Thus, the château preserved the distinctive, but accidental, L-shape which it retains to this day.

The approach. That's the main French Renaissance style staircase in the middle, the escalier d'honneur . Unlike most other staircases at the time, it was not spiral, but straight 'ramp on ramp' and is one of the oldest surviving examples of this style.







Its on an island. The other side is more impressive.



The entryway pediment features the salamander of King Francis I



and the salamander also appears on pediments throughout the castle.






The tour of the house was one of the more interesting of my visits. It took you into the roof space, showing the wooden beams that support the steep roof. The extra space also allowed extra ceiling height in some of the grander rooms below. The oaks were cut in 1518-19.









More regal salamanders (specifically, not dragons)

 

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The Biencourt salon, styled in the 19th century manner of of the then owner, Marquis de Biencourt.

 

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There are some lovely 16th and 17th century silk and wool tapestries, including a series depicting the 'Story of Psyche'. I'm not sure where these pics falls into the sequence.