Beauty is all around

(Coffee and bicky in from of Le Marie)

Sitting outside the cafe in Chateau-Gontier I wondered if the locals notice the beauty all around them or do they just get used to it? We moved to the local town when we ran out of groceries. The reception at Menil had a small Epiciere and you could order baguette and croissants each evening for the next day (a dangerous habit to start) but we needed slightly more healthy stuff, burgers maybe… So we travelled about ten minutes away to the old town of Chateau-Gontier. Here there are a couple of big supermarkets, gift shops, cafes among others and a huge car park overlooking the river where motorhomes are welcome and the overnight stay is free.

(Love these narrow streets)

We arrived around 10am and found a spot looking out on the river Mayenne. We covered the windscreen and all the windows as the sun was still shining and promising temperatures of 24 degrees or more today. We don’t have air-conditioning so we do what we can to minimise the heat. Denis (like his no sea sickness gift) is also less sensitive when it comes to living in high temperatures. But I crave shade and a nice breeze.

(I noticed this little lane and the smell of the Wisteria drew me in…)

I looked up Chateau-Gontier and it’s very old. It started in 1007 when Gunther built a castle to defend a crossing on the river. And the town just grew and grew. There’s Romanesque churches, a hospital whose history goes back to 1206, an Ursuline Convent plus it’s famous for hosting a huge calf market… we saw no calves.

(Pretty window reflecting the church across the street)

The walk along the river was glorious and the heat was bearable, we crossed the bridge and arrived in the old part of the town. Winding narrow streets - with cars - inched uphill. Streets with names like Grand Rue, meaning Big Street (not big at all) and Rue Jean Bourré (an advisor to King Louis XI) took us up to the Mayor’s (Le Marie) house where local government happens. We found our goal - coffee plus a couple of those essential croissants and a place to sit.

(We had to move from our river side spot to a car park for Saturday night because there was a vintage car rally scheduled on Sunday)

Our morning coffee in France is very simple. As you might have guessed we don’t mind where it is, supermarket, pub or at a push we make it ourselves but sometimes we hit the jackpot… and discover a place where coffee and beauty collide. This happened in Chateau-Gontier. The only cafe open and in the shade was Les Balançoires (The Swings) Denis went inside to order “deux Cafe Allongé et deux croissants” as I took in our surroundings. You will have to look at the photos I’m including here because words fail me. (I looked up the online Thesaurus and found, pulchritudinous, but it might not apply to buildings…?) How can people walk around doing their business and not be completely distracted by this? It feels like someone went to a lot of trouble to create a beautiful space.

(Can you see the apartments over the cafe)

And the locals live and work and in this beauty. There are apartments over every shop with little balconies and doors that open wide. I’m looking at one and imagine a woman sitting at her kitchen table drinking a coffee, or maybe reading a book or just writing a to do list. Every few moments her eyes are drawn to the exterior (I love, love, love the French word, extérieure and have been waiting for an opportunity to use it - when pronounced by a French person they have to rearrange their entire mouth to make the sound, I find it exquisite.) She has to be transported back through the centuries each time this happens because the house across the street from her’s has been here for centuries. How can she possible go back to her list or her coffee?

(The Ursuline Convent)

After my day-dream Denis was ready to do some work and I headed to the Tourist Office. Which was right next door to the Ursuline Convent (from 1634) and was as good a place as any to visit. Back in 1622 the locals invited the nuns to come and build a school in order to protect their daughters from Protestantism… Anyways, the nuns bought the La Touche manor (Coincidentally, the La Touche were a French banking family who lived in Greystones at one time, lots of streets named after them and the hotel (now apartments) was called La Touche.) The nuns left Chateau-Gontier in 1965 due to falling vocations but the extérieure (love love love) of the convent is still open to the public.

(The unlocked red door…)

And yes, it is beautiful… the lady at the tourist office directed me to around the side and down the street and said the red door would be open. Out on the street, risking accusations of breaking and entering, I tried three red doors - the last one opened onto a garden. The first thing I saw were four pairs of black boots placed as if walking towards the door of a small building. Strange enough but even more strange was that I was wearing a pair of very similar boots. Did the nuns wear boots like mine? Was I a nun in France in a past life? Is this why I love my boots? So many unanswered questions.

(Boots in the art installation and mine)

I think the boots were probably an art installation but as the door to the building they were headed towards was firmly closed we will never know. Unless you go visit and if you do could you let me know?

(The cloisters at the Ursuline Convent)

When I turned around I was in front of the cloister, a covered hallway open to one side in convents or monasteries where nuns or monks used to meditate or pray as they walked. I love any kind of covered walkway, something I realised years ago when we used to travel by motorbike. I fell in love with the covered walkways along the shopping streets in the city of Turin. Anytime I get an opportunity to experience a covered walkway and take photos of it, I’m in. I stood for a long time just taking in the way the bright sunlight fell on the floor, at the shadows of the arches, at the curved wooden beams of the ceiling. Even now just looking at the photos brings me to a place of calm and peace. Maybe I was a nun…?

(Downhill was easier)

Beauty is all around us, we don’t even have to pay for it. But we do have to look out for it, especially where we live.