. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. his most intimate con-fidence. Louis was fond of la chasse, and Scott doesnot overlook this fact in Quentin affairs of state did not press, it was thekings greatest pleasure. For the royal hunt nopains or expense were spared. The carriageswere without an equal elsewhere in the courtsof Europe, and the hunting establishment wasequipped with chiens courants from Spain,levriers from Bretagne, bassets from Valence,mules from Sicily, and horses from Naples. The attractions of the environs of Tours aremany and interesting: St
. Castles and chateaux of old Touraine and the Loire country. his most intimate con-fidence. Louis was fond of la chasse, and Scott doesnot overlook this fact in Quentin affairs of state did not press, it was thekings greatest pleasure. For the royal hunt nopains or expense were spared. The carriageswere without an equal elsewhere in the courtsof Europe, and the hunting establishment wasequipped with chiens courants from Spain,levriers from Bretagne, bassets from Valence,mules from Sicily, and horses from Naples. The attractions of the environs of Tours aremany and interesting: St. Symphorien, Va-rennes, the Grottoes of Ste. Radegonde, and thesite of that most famous abbey of Marmoutier,also a foundation of St. Martin. Here, underthe name Martinus Monasterium, grew up animmense and superb establishment. From anold seventeenth-century print one quotes thefollowing couplet:* Tours and About There 219 De quel c6t6 que le vent venteMarmoutier a cans et rente. From this one infers that the abbeys originalfunctions are performed no In the middle ages (thirteenth century) itwas one of the most powerful institutions of itsclass, and its church one of the most beautiful 220 Old Touraine and the Loire Country in Touraine. The tower and donjon are theonly substantial remains of this early edifice. A curious chapel, called the Chapelle desSept Dormants, is here cut in the form of across into the rock of the hillside, where areburied the remains of the Seven Sleepers,the disciples of St. Martin, who, as the holyman had predicted, all died on the same day. Beyond Marmoutier, a stairway of 122 steps,cut also in the rock, leads to the plateau onwhich stands the gaunt and ugly Lanteme deRochecorbon, a fourteenth-century construc-tion with a crenelated summit, an unlovelycompanion of that even more enigmatic erec-tion known as La Pile, a few miles downthe Loire at Cinq-Mars. CHAPTER XI. LTJYNES AND LANGEAIS Below Tours, and before reaching Saumur,are a succession
Size: 1557px × 1604px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1906
