Crozant and Fresselines: The Painters' Creuse

Required Activities

• Climb the rock spur at Crozant between the Creuse and the Sédelle and pick out, in the ruins, the square 15th-century keep, the two 13th-century towers — one of them named for Isabelle of Angoulême, King John's widow — and the tour de l'eau, built so the garrison could fetch river water under cover

• In the Espace Monet-Rollinat at Fresselines, find out how the critic Gustave Geffroy brought Monet here to stay with the poet Maurice Rollinat in the spring of 1889, and that Monet painted 23 canvases of this valley, nearly all of which now hang in museums outside France

• Walk out to the viewpoint at Fresselines over the meeting of the Grande Creuse and the Petite Creuse — the spot Geffroy took Monet to the morning after he arrived — and see the bare rock scarps that reminded Monet of Belle-Île

• On the outside east wall of the church of Saint-Julien at Fresselines, find Rodin's bas-relief in memory of Maurice Rollinat, and see that it carries no signature, because Rodin was never paid for the commission; inside, look for the 16th-century Saint Julien in armour