This week’s walk is, at first glance, a carbon copy of last week’s: we take a walk along the Loire, …
… see a beautiful castle …
… and visit a historical little town that was built in its shadow.
What’s more: the centrepiece of the walk is another river island in between the train station and the castle that offers you a preview of what is to come.
There is, in other words, undoubtedly a certain resemblance between last week’s walk around Amboise and this week’s trip to Saumur, but there are also differences, and it is these differences that ultimately matter.
Humans, after all, share 60 about percent of their DNA with the banana, but few of us find it difficult to tell one from the other.
We did both of the walks in question in the space of two days and, while acknowledging their similarities, never had any feelings of deja vu. The experience was more akin to hearing a song in two versions by two different artists, either of them interesting in their own way. In the end, we even found it difficult to say which one of the two we enjoyed more.
Saumur – where we are going today – is a small town on the banks of the Loire almost exactly between Tours and Angers, the two main cities of the region.
The first big difference between this week’s and last week’s walk is the river Loire itself, more specifically the way it flows around the river island which we must cross on the way to the castle.
Walk down the stairway on the near side of the isle – which is sometimes called the Ile d’Offard and sometimes the Ile Millocheau (so good they named it twice: differently!) – and continue clockwise, always keeping close to the river: otherwise you may miss the footpath that starts near the camping site.
The branch of the Loire on your left looks less like a river and more like a pond …
… because that is what it basically is, at least when the water level of the river is low.
During these periods, the flow of the Loire is exclusively conducted towards the left side of the island, leaving the other branch virtually as a still body of water.
Rounding the tip of the peninsula, you can see the slightly elevated sandbanks that divide the pond that we have just passed from the flow of the river on the far side of the isle.
Soon after, on the back leg of the circuit around the isle, you will spot the church of Notre Dame des Ardilliers on the left bank of the Loire.
This chapel was built in the middle of the 16th century and extended in the 17th, during the reign of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu (the period of the Three Musketeers), after it had become one of France’s most visited pilgrimage churches.
This is another difference to last week’s walk: in contrast to Amboise, Saumur has no “second castle”, but you can treat the Notre Dame pilgrimage church as such.
Unless you want to swim across now (something we do not advise), however, this is one to leave for later, because first, it is time for …
… your first full view of the fairy tale castle of Saumur.
It may not be as historically important as the chateau we saw at Amboise – where kings lived and died and where Leonardo da Vinci worked for the last years of his life – but it is certainly more gloriously pretty.
Saumur Castle was built in 1370 by Louis, Duke of Anjou, the second son of King John II of France, who – I suspect – saw it as a project to restore his dignity and to show everybody that there was something he could do right.
A few years before, Louis had fallen into disgrace at home for a breach of chivalry etiquette, having – in the eyes of King John himself – displayed “unknightly behaviour” in his escape from British captivity.
The fairy tale castle of Saumur may look architecturally extravagant today, but it was even more splendid in its original shape.
How do we know this? From the portrait in the Book of Hours, the most famous illustrated manuscript of the Middle Ages, which, incidentally, was commissioned by the Duc de Berry, another one of Louis’s brothers.
But Saumur not only looks like a fairy tale castle: it is also the main character in one.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful castle: the most beautiful in the country, perhaps the most beautiful in the whole wide world.
But then, this graceful and elegant beauty, the Cinderella of the Chateaux de la Loire, fell on hard times. Unloved and neglected, it eventually became a prison for offenders of high rank, then an army barrack, and after some years of housing these rough necked mercenaries, its once delicate features had deteriorated so much that the former royal beauty was considered suitable only as a lowly storage place for ammunition and equipment.
Just when it seemed that everything was lost, however, architectural tastes changed, medieval buildings became popular again, and Cinderella had its if-the-shoe-fits-you-must-acquit-moment when (in 1862) it was declared a National Monument.
All’s well that ends well, I guess – although even today, Saumur Castle, originally designed as a palace, still bears the marks of its long use as a military building, as you will see when see it close-up, perched on a hill above the city.
The castle is surrounded by a public park with panorama platforms for splendid views across the Loire and an open-air cafeteria.
And finally, if you have followed us on last week’s walk, you will notice a certain difference between the two towns that were built in the two castles’ shadow: the fairy tale castle of Saumur is bigger and more lively than Amboise but also a little less charming.
Although you will come across some pretty corners here as well.
Once you had a look around, the time has now come for the brief trip to the Notre Dame Chapel.
You can walk there by the river Loire – partly by the road, partly on an adjacent footpath – …
… and easily be back in town within 30 minutes. This is the perfect way of rounding off your trip.
