Montsoreau: The Castle in the Loire
Pays de la Loire, France
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Château de Montsoreau
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225
XP
+100 France
= 325 total
1 day
Montsoreau: The Castle in the Loire
225 + 100 XP
Montsoreau was built between 1443 and 1453 by Jean II de Chambes — Charles VII's chamberlain and from 1444 his first maître d'hôtel, a man who went as ambassador to Venice, Rome and Turkey — on a tuffeau rock at the Loire's edge, immediately downstream of where the Vienne comes in and at the meeting point of Anjou, Poitou and Touraine. Its north front was washed by the river itself until the road along the bank was built around 1820. Alexandre Dumas wrote La Dame de Monsoreau here between 1845 and 1846, taking his heroine from a real countess of Montsoreau, Françoise de Maridor, who married Charles de Chambes in 1576 and whose name stayed attached to the killing of Bussy d'Amboise. Since 8 April 2016 the château has held the Château de Montsoreau-Musée d'Art Contemporain, built round Philippe Méaille's holding of the conceptual art group Art & Language — the largest collection of their work anywhere.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Walk the river side of the château and find the bare tuffeau rock showing through at the foot of the walls, then pace out the width of the road built along the bank around 1820 — before it existed the Loire came right up to that north façade
2
of 5
Go through the largest collection of Art & Language anywhere — the English, American and Australian collective generally credited with inventing conceptual art — and before you leave find the François Morellet work fixed to the château's own façade, put up in December 2016, months after he died
3
of 5
Stand under the walls and settle the name: Dumas has his characters derive Monsoreau from Mons Soricis, the mouse's mount, while the first record of it, in a cartulary of 1086, is Castrum Monte Sorello — then work out which of them a 1086 scribe would have recognised
4
of 5
Climb the original 15th-century stair into the quadrangular courtyard, pick out the two tall pavilions standing either side of the lodge on the Loire side, and follow the surviving stretch of curtain wall on the east to the stump of the tower that gets called the keep and is not one
5
of 5
Walk or drive the short distance upstream to the bec de Vienne, where the Vienne runs into the Loire, and find the view Turner painted in watercolour with the château beyond it — three old provinces, Anjou, Poitou and Touraine, meet in the water in front of you
Walk the river side of the château and find the bare tuffeau rock showing through at the foot of the walls, then pace out the width of the road built along the bank around 1820 — before it existed the Loire came right up to that north façade
Go through the largest collection of Art & Language anywhere — the English, American and Australian collective generally credited with inventing conceptual art — and before you leave find the François Morellet work fixed to the château's own façade, put up in December 2016, months after he died
Stand under the walls and settle the name: Dumas has his characters derive Monsoreau from Mons Soricis, the mouse's mount, while the first record of it, in a cartulary of 1086, is Castrum Monte Sorello — then work out which of them a 1086 scribe would have recognised
Climb the original 15th-century stair into the quadrangular courtyard, pick out the two tall pavilions standing either side of the lodge on the Loire side, and follow the surviving stretch of curtain wall on the east to the stump of the tower that gets called the keep and is not one
Walk or drive the short distance upstream to the bec de Vienne, where the Vienne runs into the Loire, and find the view Turner painted in watercolour with the château beyond it — three old provinces, Anjou, Poitou and Touraine, meet in the water in front of you
Before you go
The museum opens every day of the week but only from noon to 6pm, so do not arrive in the morning expecting to get in; the riverside walk, the façade and the bec de Vienne can be done at any hour.
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About Pays de la Loire
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
225 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
325 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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