. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. The town is moreovermost curious and original, the great rectangu-lar donjon rising high into the sky above aseries of cliff-dwellers chalk-cut homes, intruly weird fashion. There is nothing so very remarkable aboutcliff-dwellers in the Loire country, and theiraspect, manners, and customs do not differgreatly from those of their neighbours, wholive below them. Curiously enough these rock-cut dwellingsappear dry and healthful, and are not in theleast insalubrious, though where a cave hasbeen devoted only to the storage of wine invats
. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. The town is moreovermost curious and original, the great rectangu-lar donjon rising high into the sky above aseries of cliff-dwellers chalk-cut homes, intruly weird fashion. There is nothing so very remarkable aboutcliff-dwellers in the Loire country, and theiraspect, manners, and customs do not differgreatly from those of their neighbours, wholive below them. Curiously enough these rock-cut dwellingsappear dry and healthful, and are not in theleast insalubrious, though where a cave hasbeen devoted only to the storage of wine invats, barrels, and bottles the case is somewhatdifferent. * Montrichard itself, outside of these scoresof homes burrowed out of the cliff, is mostpicturesque, with stone-pignoned gables anddormer-windows and window-frames cut orworked in wood or stone into a thousandamusing shapes. Montrichard, with Chinon, takes the lead ininteresting old houses in these parts; in fact,they quite rival the ruinous lean-to houses ofEouen and Lisieux in Normandy, which is say-. Donjon oj Montrichard The Blaisois and the Sologne 93 ing a good deal for their picturesque qual-ities. One-third of Montrichards population liveunderground or in houses built up against thehillsides. Even the lovely old parish churchbacks against the rock. Everywhere are stairways and petits che-mins leading upward or downward, with littlefagades, windows, or doorways coming uponone in most unexpected and mysterious fashionat every turn. The magnificent donjon is a relic of the workof that great fortress-builder, Foulques Nerra,Comte dAnjou, who dotted the land whereverhe trod with these masterpieces of their kind,most of them great rectangular structures likethe donjons of Britain, but quite unlike thestructures of their class mostly seen in France, Eichard Coeur de Lion occupied the fortressin 1108, but was obliged to succumb to his rivalin power, Philippe-Auguste, who in time madea breach in its walls and captured it. The
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1906
