Laval: The Old Castle's Hoardings, Naive Art and the Floating Washhouse
Pays de la Loire, France
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Laval: The Old Castle's Hoardings, Naive Art and the Floating Washhouse
200 + 100 XP
The Vieux-Château of Laval, where Guy I established his castle after Herbert I of Maine gave him the barony around 1020, stands above the Mayenne with a round keep 33 m high and 14 m across at the base, its four masonry floors crowned by a 13th-century timber hoarding that the dendrochronology of its roof dates to 1219–1220 — an exceptional survival of medieval military carpentry. Since 1967 the keep's castle has held Laval's museum of naive and outsider art, in the town where the Douanier Rousseau was born. Below it the Pont Vieux of the 13th century crosses the river, and the Saint-Julien, a washhouse boat of 1904, is moored on the quays that put the washerwomen afloat.
Required Activities
1
of 4
In the Musée d'Art naïf et d'Arts singuliers inside the Vieux-Château, find the pictures the two Laval painters gave the town — Jules Lefranc, who handed over part of his own collection, and Andrée Bordeaux-Le Pecq, most of whose work came in from her husband in 1976 — then go up through the keep and look along the hoarding from inside, at the gaps in its floor the defenders dropped things through
2
of 4
Cross the Pont Vieux, built in the 13th century beside the ford the town grew from, and find where the houses and the fortified gate stood on it until they were pulled down in 1779 — until a new bridge was finally decided in 1804, everyone and everything travelling between Paris and Brest came over this one
3
of 4
Go aboard the Saint-Julien, built in 1904, and find the sloping washing boards and the hatch down to the river, then look along the quay for the Saint-Yves, the other survivor — the boats exist because the new stone quays took away the sloping banks the washerwomen had always used
4
of 4
Walk round to the Château-Neuf next door and set its Renaissance gallery, whose roof timbers were felled in the autumn and winter of 1544–45, against the keep's hoarding of 1219–1220 — three centuries apart on the same rock, and the courts only moved out of the gallery in 1998 after a partition fell in
In the Musée d'Art naïf et d'Arts singuliers inside the Vieux-Château, find the pictures the two Laval painters gave the town — Jules Lefranc, who handed over part of his own collection, and Andrée Bordeaux-Le Pecq, most of whose work came in from her husband in 1976 — then go up through the keep and look along the hoarding from inside, at the gaps in its floor the defenders dropped things through
Cross the Pont Vieux, built in the 13th century beside the ford the town grew from, and find where the houses and the fortified gate stood on it until they were pulled down in 1779 — until a new bridge was finally decided in 1804, everyone and everything travelling between Paris and Brest came over this one
Go aboard the Saint-Julien, built in 1904, and find the sloping washing boards and the hatch down to the river, then look along the quay for the Saint-Yves, the other survivor — the boats exist because the new stone quays took away the sloping banks the washerwomen had always used
Walk round to the Château-Neuf next door and set its Renaissance gallery, whose roof timbers were felled in the autumn and winter of 1544–45, against the keep's hoarding of 1219–1220 — three centuries apart on the same rock, and the courts only moved out of the gallery in 1998 after a partition fell in
Before you go
The washhouse boat is closed: the city's own page says « Le Bateau-lavoir est actuellement fermé jusqu'à nouvel ordre pour des raisons de sécurité », and even when it runs it only opens in July and August, afternoons, shut on Mondays — so plan on seeing it from the quay. The museum in the Vieux-Château is the reliable half of this day and it is free: Tuesday to Saturday 10am to midday and 2pm to 6pm, Sundays from 2pm, closed Mondays and on bank holidays other than 14 July and 15 August, with guided tours at 6 euros and free on the first Sunday of the month. The Pont Vieux is a public bridge.
The Vieux-Château and its museum are a single paid visit on municipal museum hours, with a closed day; the keep is climbed by four floors of stairs with no lift, and the hoarding is at the top. The Saint-Julien washhouse boat opens on a short season and limited days — check with Laval's tourist office before walking down to the quay. Laval is a ville d'art et d'histoire and runs guided walks that take in the bridge, the boats and the castle together.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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