We spent our first night in Paris at a hotel near the Gare de Montparnasse, and left the next morning by train for Nantes to pick up our rental car. From there it was a quick trip to St. Sornin, where we had a lovely dinner with Jeanne and daughter Pascale and her partner Kyra. After Pascale and Kyra departed the n ext day, we took in some local sights, such as the Chateau d'Apremont, about an hour away. The view of the town above is from the chateau.
The main structure of the chateau remains, although two upper stories are gone. Here is a view from one of the two remaining towers over the countryside. Below in the trees is a river, that was to become a port, many miles from the sea.
The door at the base of this tower leads down to the ground level through a passage large enough for horses. It was designed so that horses and riders could enter below and emerge on the upper level, and be seen from below -- very impressive.
The tour included a trip up the very creaky stairs, to the kitchen which was on a very VERY creaky floor.
This is the kitchen fireplace, with the bracket for holding pots.
And this is one of the pulley mechanisms we have seen in a few places, that allowed for the automatic, or perhaps almost automatic, turning of a rotisserie over the fire.
And so we don't get too jealous of the chateau kitchen with all of its modern conveniences, this is the pastry ovens -- a simple cabinet of stone, with three cavities opening on the top. Not shown is the oven below for tossing in the wood for the fire. Not exactly precision work.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch in a local cafe and sped back to Jeanne's home, La Gite.
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