. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. hichone has known before. The landscape only is changing, while thefruits and flowers, and the trees and foliageare more luxuriant, and the great chateaux aremore numerous, splendid, and imposing. Of his well-beloved Touraine, Balzac wrote: Do not ask me why I love Touraine; I loveit not merely as one loves the cradle of hisbirth, nor as one loves an oasis in a desert,but as an artist loves his art. Blois, with its bloody memories; Chaumont,splendid and retired; Chambord, magnificent,pompous, and bare; Amboise, with its greattower h
. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. hichone has known before. The landscape only is changing, while thefruits and flowers, and the trees and foliageare more luxuriant, and the great chateaux aremore numerous, splendid, and imposing. Of his well-beloved Touraine, Balzac wrote: Do not ask me why I love Touraine; I loveit not merely as one loves the cradle of hisbirth, nor as one loves an oasis in a desert,but as an artist loves his art. Blois, with its bloody memories; Chaumont,splendid and retired; Chambord, magnificent,pompous, and bare; Amboise, with its greattower high above the river, follow in turn tillthe Loire makes its regal entree into Tours. What a spectacle it is, wrote Sterne in Tristram Shandy, for a traveller whojourneys through Touraine at the time of thevintage. And then comes the final step which bringsthe traveller to where the limpid waters of theLoire mingle with the salty ocean, and whata triumphant meeting it is! Most of the cities of the Loire possess butone bridge, but Tours has three, and, as be-. Coijfes oj Amboise and Orleans A G-eneral Survey 21 comes a great provincial capital, sits enthronedupon the river-bank in mighty splendour. The feudal towers of the Chateau de Luynesare almost opposite, and Cinq-Mars, with itspagan pile and the ruins of its feudal castlehigh upon a hill, points the way down-streamlike a mariners beacon. Langeais follows, andthe Indre, the Cher, and the Vienne, all ampleand historic rivers, go to swell the flood whichpasses under the bridges of Saumur, Ancenis,and Fonts de Ce. From Tours to the ocean, the Loire comes toits greatest amplitude, though even then, inspite of its breadth, it is, for the greater partof the year, impotent as. to the functions of agreat river. Below Angers the Loire receives its firstgreat affluent coming from the country lyingback of the right bank: the Maine itself is aconsiderable river. It rises far up in theBreton peninsula, and before it empties itselfinto th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1906
