28 December 2009

A Christmas Carol, Robert Zemeckis


A Christmas Carol is the classic tale by Charles Dickens about a miser - Ebenezer Scrooge - during the Victorian era in England, making everyones life as well as his own rather miserable.
It's a man who doesn't like seeing other people happy or wanting to help anyone but himself.
This tale has been told in many a various and fascinating versions and this one was also fascinating in its own particular way. Director Robert Zemeckis has done a good job or rather the technical staff around him.
First of all one have to give credit to those working with the animations/the techical side of the film. Nowadays animated films are so well done that it takes something special to make an impression and in this particular case I think they have succeeded.
The most particular figure of all was of course Ebenezer Scrooge himself.
Both they way he is depicted, how he talks and reacts faced with all the peculiar things happening around him, made him both tragic and funny.
That he is a man of few emotions is clearly shown both by his actions - or lack of actions - and appearance.
The different ghosts haunting him and wanting him to repent - or die - are all very different but the most fearsome one is however his former - now dead - colleague.
The second one in fire is quite cuddleome.
The third ghost, an incarnation of Santa from Hell, is somewhat tiresome with his recurrent laugh: "How, how, how!"
As we all know Scrooge decides to live on, changing his way of life. This after having seen his life in retrospective (thanks to the ghosts), displaying all the lost chances in life, the opportunities whereby he could have done something good both for others and for himself.
He undergoes a metamorphosis and becomes the benevolent maecenas!
The story follows the original Dickens very well although maybe not in details. It's long since I read the book whereby I can't claim this with certainty.

Among the visitors in the cinema there were many children (with parents) and I think that a story of this kind is more suited for us adults, depending of course on the references and expectations of the children - and their parents.
In older times, however, children were told stories by the Brothers Grimm and these stories - and the stories by H.C. Andersen - were by no means nice and harmless!

I didn't see this film in 3D but from what I saw I can imagine that this is a powerful experience.
However nothing new was added to the story and I wasn't surprised by any particular element in the film, more impressed - as I wrote - by the technical skill, sometimes eradicating the border between 'real' and animation!
When it comes to creating a certain ambience corresponding to a time and a place, I'm not as impressed. Compared to a film like Rattatouille, the latter succeeded much better.
A happy end in Christmas times might also add to the plus.

27 December 2009

Le Vilain, Albert Dupontel





This day we intended to see A Christmas Carol by Robert Zemeckis at Cinéma Lux in La Châtre but we missed it because it began earlier than we had thought (or than I, Gunnar, had thought to be more exact).

Instead we watched the french film Le Vilain (The Vilain) by Albert Dupontel who also had one of two leading roles. In the second leading role we could see Catherine Frot.
This is a story about an old woman - Maniette (Frot) - who together with her neighbours tries to fight back the plans to build a bank on the same site as their houses is situated. The property developers has succeeded in buying free some estates but this stubborn woman and some of her neighbour-friends don't want to move.
One day her son Sidney Thomas (Dupontel) - whom she hasn't met for twenty years - knocks on her door. He is chased by a van with vilains trying to kill him. He seeks a refuge and finds his old home where his mother still lives.
Spontaneously she becomes very happy but what she doesn't know at first is that he is a 'vilain' - a bank robber.
She finds however some evidence pointing in the direction to him, displaying aspects of his personality she didn't know of and soon she finds out that he's not at all working in a bank (as he had told her).
It also seems as if she can't die (even though she wants to) as long as he is living the life he lives. God obviously has a plan for her life, wanting her to make him a better son, or at least this is what she thinks.
When the son get's to know that his mother will die if he behaves good and becomes a decent person, he tries hard to fulfill this her wishes. If his mother dies he will inherit her!
He even tries to kill her but she is well aware of this and now an interesting game emurges between the two and this is interfoliated by the story about the struggle between the bank and the house owners among other things.
Maniette however now realizes that she can use her son in this her effort to fight back the plans of this property developer.

How it ends? Well...................................

To say something concerning the two principal actors:
Personally I think that Albert Dupontel is an actor and a director who deserves being better known outside France. He has in his acting displayed a diversity in characters and a versatility that makes him interesting.
This goes for his films too. Although this is'nt his best film, it's however a charming œuvre with a lot of warmth and humor.
He actually started of as a medical student and in some of his films you find a somewhat particular doctor and this goes for the above film too.
Catherine Frot is an actress, not as well known as some of her french 'acting sisters' and this is a pitty as she also has a multitude of 'strings on her acting harp', spanning from dramatic to comic roles.
A minus in this film was her make up. If the intention was to make her look old, they didn't succeed. This became obvious in the scenes with men and women in 'a certain age' acting along side her.
This was a light comedy but as such rather charming as I said and in some way I saw a certain resemblance with œuvres by Peter Sellers or Alec Guiness (in his comic roles). Maybe I'm wrong but this was just a feeling I had.
The film had some superficial aesthetic affinity with films by Jeunet.

20 December 2009

Le petit Nicholas


Obviously this film has been a great success in France why they are running it again.
Last time this film was shown at Cinéma Lux in La Châtre we missed it but tonight we attended this 'extra screening'.
This is a very charming film about the young Nicholas and his friends at a boarding school.
We get introduced to his friends with Nicholas voice over telling us about their different characteristics.
The director and the responsible for the casting has really succeeded in finding different characters for the different rôles in this film.
The intelligent, very studious boy with spectacles, the always tired one being punished for not doing his homeworks, the big, fat boy eating all the time and so forth.
It's somewhat like the seven dwarfs in Snow White, though not identical with them.
One of the boys tells the others that he is going to have a brother (or sister of course but these boys can only imagine it will be a brother as girls are no good anyway) and this makes him sad as he is convinced that his parents will neglect him and only pay attention to the 'newcomer'.
Before his parents told him the news about them having a child and him becoming a brother, they acted strangely, according to him.
The other boys wants to know how and he delineates some of the 'strange behaviours'.
One day Nicholas finds his parents acting in a similar way and he now fears that they are going to have another child and that he is going to become a brother.
From now one starts a process in which his friends participate. They have to get rid of this little brother of Nicholas when he is born. Nicholas don't want him to intrude and create 'problems' in their family relation. Among many other things they decide to hire a villain to 'kidnap' and abduct him. It's however not as easy as one might think or rather as they have thought it to be.
Parallell to this story we also get to follow other 'side stories' like the daily 'work' at school, getting to know the different teachers - also with special characteristics - being acquainted with the parents of Nicholas when they, among other things, wants to prepare a dinner for Nicholas fathers chief.
The scene with the dinner is magnificent! This very much thanks to the actress Valérie Lemercier who is a wonderful comédienne, acting with small but effective means, being the somewhat neurotic mother.
In all her eagerness to prepare a perfect dinner, she of course spoiles everything!
There is a particular scene where she want's to impress on her husbands boss and his wife, talking about 13th century Scandinavian litterature, trying to prononce the name of Snorre Sturlasson! It's just fantastic!
The actors are generally very good and it's not least impressing to see the young boys displaying a tremendously talented acting with a lot of humour and wit.

12 December 2009

Soirée Opéra at Lion d'Argent

Tonight we are going to visit the restaurant Lion d'Argent in La Châtre for an evening with Dinner and Opera.
This is the first time this restaurant arrange an event like this and it will be very interesting to participate, though only as spectators and listeners. I'm not going to sing (I think) and nor will Aurore (I think)!
In Stockholm we have a restaurant called Regina with the same concept. We will write more about our experiences from this evening in next post!

French/Français:

L’équipe du Lion d’Argent de La Châtre organise pour la première fois une soirée opéra le 12 décembre 2009. Cette soirée débutera à 19h et comprendra :

- Un apéritif concert
- Un dîner, boissons comprises
- Une deuxième partie de concert

Brigitte Diguet (soprano), Dominique Gérard (soprano), Joëlle Chaillou-Chouraki (pianiste) et Arnaud Oreb (pianiste) interprèteront des œuvres de Mozart, Haydn, Schumann, Offenbach, Bizet, Bellini...

(Photo Lion d'Argent copied from: http://www.google.fr/images?q=lion+d%27argent+la+chatre&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=fr&tab=wi)

29 November 2009

2012



Today we visited Cinéma Lux in La Châtre in order to see the film 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich, with John Cusack in the leading role.

We were quite sure that we knew what we were going to see before seing the movie and of course we got what we expected. "Nous étions prévenus"/"We were warned" as the texts declare.
No surprises, only the cinematically recurrent history of Americans saving the world, or in this case a part of it.
John Cusack was the main character - Jackson Curtis - and 'hero', white and American, of course. His wife - Kate Curtis (Amanda Peet) and children survives - of course.
His Indian friend and colleague, dr Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) and his family dies - of course.

Emmerich tried to mix 'white' with 'yellow' and 'brown' or 'black' but as a whole this was the same, rather ethnocentric, story we've seen over and over again in different American catastrophy films.
The ethnocentricity concerns the description of who is actually able to save the world, making the right decisions etc, even though one had tried to ameliorate this by depicting a black president - Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover).
He also dies however!
When all other people aorund him dies in similar situations, our hero makes it, sometimes even with a smile on his lips!

The main female characters always remains well dressed, almost no stains on their clothes with a great make-up and perfect hair, even if sulphur is falling over their heads.
This makes the film look more like a comedy than a dramatic story.

How come, not least American actresses, are so afraid of looking dirty, lacking make up or rather why doesn't directors let them look that way? Would this spoil their 'star image'?
Yes of course, as so much within the American film industry is focused on the surface: 'Perfect looking' actors, 'perfect' technical machinery, 'perfect' light and all to often perfectly uninteresting.

The film nearly made us feel that the end of the world must be a rather fascinating event and sometimes even amusing! Of course hundreds of millions of people die but that's only 'collateral damage'.

The music accompanying the story was a carbon copy of other musical scores from similar films, (do Hollywood only have one or two composers to musical scores in films?) not to mention the plot, the characters and the Biblical story of Noah's Ark (Evan Almighty)!

Only one thing impressed on us: The technical skill! It won't be easy making a film with catastrophical scenes made in such a brilliant way!

Well, now we've seen it and that was that!




(Poster with monk at the mountain copied from: http://media.zoom-cinema.fr/photos/3509/affiche-2012.jpg)
(Poster 2 with the flooded city copied from: http://fin-du-monde.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/film-2012-fin-du-monde-8.jpg)
(Poster 3 with the plane going through the town with falling skyscrapers copied from: http://www.dinosoria.com/cinema/2012-7.jpg)

28 November 2009

Aux frontières du génie chez George Sand

Today at the museum in La Châtre - partly dedicated to the author George Sand - we visited a lecture with the above title: 'At the borders of genius of George Sand' or in French:

"Une heure, une œuvre au Musée de La Châtre : "Aux frontières du Génie chez George Sand". Conférence sur une œuvre du musée George Sand et de la Vallée Noire, animée par le Docteur Baum et Franck Lloyd"

Psychiatrist, doctor Baum and teacher and director Frank Lloyd, talked about the bipolarity (bipolar disorder) George Sand had to struggle with.
I write "struggle" but her bipolarity was, according to these two gentlemen, in part also an explanation to her enormous creativity and explains how she managed to achieve so many things in her life. This mostly during her manic periods of course.

Besides writing almost 70 novels, she wrote novellettes, stage plays, fairy tales, literary critic, autobiographies and some 20 000 letters, that is to say 3-4 letters per day at an average.
The person to whom she wrote most frequently was Alfred de Musset.

She also helped other writers and musicians as being their foremost patron, friend and maecenas. Many of them should, perhaps, not even have survived without her help.
Among the men around her we found Frédéric Chopin, Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Honoré de Balzac and many others.
Of course she also had female friends, of whom we, unfortunately, know less.
She is said to have had at least 19 lovers, of both sexes.

Among both past time generations and contemporaries she was and is considered being a feminist although she didn't characterise herself as such.
Besides her extensive writing, socializing and her engagement in the welfare of other writers and musicians, she also engaged herself in politics, although not within a specific political organisation.

In the audience (the museum totally filled up with people) there were a great number of people knowing the works and life of George Sand very well and a quite vivid discussion came about.

As being a Swede, I would like to say that George Sand deserves becoming more well known as a writer in Sweden. Most Swedes know her as the muse of Frédéric Chopin and as a rather marginal writer. This picture need to be revised.


George Sand. Confidences de la Dame de Nohant
envoyé par efiestas. - Découvrez plus de vidéos créatives.










(Picture of George Sand copied from: http://thebsreport.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/georgesand.jpg)


22 November 2009

Micmacs à Tire-Larigot



We primarily watch films on TV in France but the week-ends we try to visit the cinema in La Châtre, as today.

Micmacs à Tire-Larigot is a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director who - among other films - directed Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain).

In this film the story circles around the main character Bazil (not John Cleese's character in Fawlty Towers), a role created by the popular comedian Dany Boon.

Bazil is working in a video store and one day he witnesses a gun fight between two men outside the shop and accidently gets hit by a bullet. The surgeons decide not to take the bullet out, as this could risk his life but this bullet turns him into another person, where previous memories and intellectual capacities are disrupted.
He meets a group of individuals living in a junk yard, made into a home and head quarter from where they try to make a living and take advantage of their different skills. Bazil becomes obsessed with revenging the weapon manufacturers selling the weapons and bullets, turning his life - and others - upside down and his friends are more than willing to help him destroying these two companies.

They come up with an intricate and very complicated plan aiming at the elimination of these two companies, taking advantage of each and everyones special 'gifts' in life.
One of them is extremely strong, another a former circus artist known as the canonball man, a third a woman being a human 'rubber person', being able to bend her body in all kinds of extraordinary ways.

This is a typical Jeunet film when it comes to aesthetics and the 'fantastic' story of extraordinary men and women, not being super heroes but unique in a multitude of ways. A story of friendship between people disregarded by society.
There is a quiet, mild humour with some almost 'slapstickian' moments but not hysterically funny.
The plot is rather predictable but it's however a rather charming film although the combination of moral statements and humour doesn't really merge too well.
It's as if Jeunet wanted us to bethink the atrocities the weapon manufacturers are responsible for, but dressed in a comedy it becomes a little bit of this and a little bit of that, overshadowing the serious message he seems having the ambition to convey.


(Poster displaying the different characters copied from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WkKZJVG5wTk/TS1wL-UwBkI/AAAAAAAC8uc/TyFqsDz6kmo/s1600/micmacs-poster-3.jpg)
(Photo three of the friends copied from: http://www.twivi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/micmacs-a-tire-larigot_dany-boon-465x310.jpg)
(Photo 'rubber woman' copied from: http://www.cinemovies.fr/images/data/photos/16303/micmacs-a-tire-larigot-2009-16303-2078441583.jpg)

15 November 2009

Lucky Luke, James Huth



Lucky Luke is one of many famous comics character we grew up with.
We expected no exceptional film adaptation but agreed about the fact that Jean Dujardin was a very good embodiment of 'John Luke'.
The slapstick aesthetics felt very old fashioned but we liked a lot the "one-armed bandit" segment.
The horse is also very good in the role as the horse!

To put it in a nutshell: I think we got enough of it and won't watch any sequels, even though we like Jean Dujardin as an actor.

1er salon du chocolat à Argenton-sur-Creuse


As we are chocolat lovers, we decided to visit the first Chocolat Festival in Argenton sur Creuse, a very charming city with - among other things - a museum displaying the history of the shirt and male elegance (Musée de la Chemiserie et de l'élégance masuline).

But today the chocolat was the most important subject in Argenton sur Creuse.
Manufacturers of chocolat from around France had gathered to exhibit their different specialities.

As being the first chocolat festival held in the 'salle des fêtes', there were only ten exhibitors and the size of the building was somewhat to small.

Afterwards though, we read that the festival had been visited by 5000 people during these two days. Quite impressing but the French love chocolat and delicacies as we know!

The last few years we've visited the Chocolat Festival in Stockholm, held in Nordiska Museet ('The Nordic Museum'), a much larger event of course but on the other hand a smaller event than the chocolat festival (Salon du Chocolat) in Paris, New York or Tokyo!

We talked with one of the exhibitors and he told us that his firm had visited the chocolat festival in Stockholm some years ago.


01 November 2009

G-Force, Hoyt Yeatman

Since we avoid reading most of the film critics revues, we were convinced we were about to watch a "children's film". It was not!

I (Aurore) was a bit disappointed after having seen this film since it looked like an action film from the 1990's starring guinea pigs and this was not what I had anticipated.
The guinea pigs were however cute!


30 October 2009

Berry Movies: The Films

Back from Cinéma Lux in La Châtre and Berry Movies!
Here is a list and some video clips with the competing films:

Nouveau monde, directed by Hervé André from Sauvigny-les-Bois
(Des êtres étranges, un langage incompréhensible, des expériences inquiétantes, ici tout est bizarre...);


Bric à brac, produced by a group from L'Ecole Méliès in Orly (click on the image). (Rencontre et cycle de vie, le temps d'une musique, de deux personnages faits d'éléments de récupération);
Alleluia, produced by the group 61 du Cygne from Clichy
("La religion est née le jour où le premier hypocrite a rencontré le premier imbécile", Voltaire);

ALLELUIA from 61 du Cygne on Vimeo.
Wesh, directed by Vivien Loiseau from Paris
(Ce soir, Jérémy a été invité à un dîner romantique par une charmante jeune femme. C'est normal, il a tout pour plaire: beau, jeune, intelligent... Entre deux rendez-vous amoureux, il sauve même le monde. Pourtant quelque chose cloche...)


WESH par floflo1971

Love and Pets
, produced by Videotrack from Poitiers
(Clip musical)

Meringue, alcohol and us - "Love and Pets" from VideoTrack on Vimeo.
Bob et Joséphine, directed by Liam Engle from Paris
(Bob veut séduire Joséphine. Mais son plus gros obstacle est peut-être...lui-même.)



En premier
, directed by Jon Smith from Bordeaux
(Clip musical)

Le vent en poupe, produced by La boîte à Fizz from La Châtre
(Une équipe TV suit le quotidien de Fabrice Poupe, maire de Pont-au-Julot /réputée pour sa production de chaussettes/ en lice pour les futures élections municipales)


Le Vent en Poupe par guiguidu36

Mets-toi à l'aise
, directed by Joli Rôle from Trans-sur-Erdre

(Journée ordinaire, pense Ghislain en quittant la maison. Au bureau, l'accueil n'a rien d'enthousiasmant, rien ne va. Et pourtant aujourd'hui c'est son anniversaire, il a 35 ans)

Mets-toi à l'Aise ! from tristan on Vimeo.
Lecture, stop, on rembobine, etc. directed by Sarah Wagner from Paris
(Au moment de la pause, dans le réfectoire d'une usine, quatre ouvriers aux habitudes très différentes tentent de cohabiter...)


Il était une fois la crise
, directed by Matthieu Le Texier from Nohant-Vicq
(Dans une région touchée par la crise, la lutte pour l'emploi fait rage. Un affrontement sans merci se prépare. Cinq cow boys pour une offre d'emploi...)

L'avant-dernier repas, directed by Julien Lefer from Angers
(Suite à une catastrophe planétaire, un survivant erre depuis des années se nourrissant de sales bestioles. Un jour, au milieu de nul part, il découvre un frigo qui fonctionne...).


L'AVANT DERNIER REPAS par Ehoan


"And the winner is...."

Nouveau Monde!

The idea to this film was quite original and it was carried out in a very entertaining and thought-provoking way.


The film opens with blurry pictures and a somewhat blueish colour and all of a sudden we see people surronding something or someone.
This someone is a baby (a couple of months old or more?) registering everything around him. What he thinks about his parents, the family, their friends, being looked at, hugged, caressed and played with, is made clear by a voice-over.

This was quite entertaining, displaying all the idiotic things we do with children and how this - possibly - could be perceived if children at that age had the possibility to speak out and analyzing events around them. Maybe they can?

This was one of my two favourite films.

Another favourite was Bric à brac (animation).
As this word is used in English too as another word for trinkets, I only have to say that the story circles around two figures made out of recycled things.
They are part of different items in a antiquity store and they both - in different ways - wants attention.
One is playing music and all of a sudden a fight or a contest emerges.
It gets so animated that one of them almost falls from a table. At that point the other figure tries to rescue his opponent (see for yourself below, if you feel like it).

This was technically perhaps the most complicated film to make and the story was well composed.
This my favourite came in fourth place in the competition.

Another four films were rewarded and those were:


2. Le vent en poupe
3. Il était une fois la crise
4. Bric à brac

5. Wesh
6.
Lecture, stop, on rembobine, etc.


Some pictures from this evening at Cinéma Lux:
These are the two berrichons in charge, Florent Choffel and Etienne Sautereau


This is the sheep in charge:

...and some of the laureates:



Berry Movies

Tonight the Short Film Festival in La Châtre - Berry Movies - is inaugurated!

This is a short film festival open for each and everyone! Those who want to participate don't have to be 'berrichons' as the locals call themselves and not even French.

This is the third time this festival is arranged and the organizers are working on a volontary basis but they do however get some financial support from the town and the region!

The winged sheep of Berry Movies - Le Mouton ailé


- is their 'trademark'.

Two of many people engaged in this film festival - and the 'founders' of the very same one can say - are Florent Choffel and Etienne Sautereau, former school mates of Aurore.

The jury were reunited on the 26th of September and among 50 films they selected the 12 short films we are going to see tonight!

18 October 2009

Rencontre de Chorales, La Châtre

In the church in La Châtre; Eglise St Germain de La Châtre, we overheard a choir competition today, called Rencontre des Chorales.
This is a recurring event in this town and in other towns too.

This competition consists of choirs from different towns in Berry who gather to compete in order to win a trophy.

For once I must say I was disappointed. The quality of these choirs did not please my ear.
As a Swede I'm used to a very high quality when it comes to choral singing and this is due to a long and vivid tradition of collective singing and also related to the great interest Swedes find in singing together like this.

Maybe this has to do with the collective mind of the Swede.
Although Swedes can be very individualistic at some levels, the possibility to hide in a group is, in my opinion, the over all sign of a Swede.

According to the information I've found there are around 600 000 choral- or choir singers in Sweden - amateurs- or/and professionals comprised.

Back to the choirs tonight.
The choir I found least bad - I'm sorry to say so but this is true - won.
The choir Aurore found least bad came in second place!
I won!

There are a lot of work to be done in order to ameliorate the quality of chorales both in this region and - I think - in France as a whole.
I've heard other church chorals from France (in French television) and I'm sorry to say that they didn't make me want to run to the next choir competition or church concert!
Maybe it's better when it comes to more professional choirs?

11 October 2009

Foire aux potirons Tranzault Indre 2009

This is called the fair of the potirons and a potiron is - in latin - Cucurbita Maxima, a sort of squash.

This is an event displaying all kinds of vegetables you can find in a garden on the countryside: Pumpkins, lagenaria vulgaris - which is a sort of Cucurbitaceae belonging to the squash family with among others the Calabash - parsnips and much more.

People from different farms in Berry sell their garden products but we were also given the possibility to eat and drink, not least products made from all these varieties of vegetables. We had the chance to watch an exhibition displaying how these vegetables could be used if not eating them!

Lien

Welcome:


This is the wonderful orchestra playing music sounding like a mixture of traditional Keltic or French country music and klezmer and they wandered around playing, walking in circles, stopping, dancing, creating a very nice ambiance!





'Nature-' or 'feuilles mortes'.

A plentitude of beautifully arranged vegetables! It's only to carry it home.

These pumpkins (below) are displayed before weighing them in order to decide which one weigh most. The winner weighed 468 kilos!
The record in France is however 553 kg and a female cultivator in Ohio, USA, holds the world record of 783 kg! , according to this article in La Nouvelle République.



This is the exhibition hall and below you can see puppets and marionettes made from the vegetables! Fantastically imaginative!

If you need a bed room lamp, a vase or any other decoration, you can find it here.

Talking about decoration: These birds and flowers make a beautiful substitute for the real ones! The man making them told us that it's very hard to 'sculpture' these vegetables, no doubt!

Finally we were demonstrated that music can be performed using any kind of tools, like in this case cucumbers or pumpkins...

...and this is the man responsible for these beautiful pieces of art, demonstrating that it's actually possible to play melodies!

His name is:
Patrick Chauvet

04 October 2009

...Château de Valençay

After our visit to Levroux we continued to Château de Valençay (photos above and below), a castle with a long and interesting history, dating back to 10th Century.

Already in the third and fourth century however, a villa was built at the site.
The first person who is said to have erected a castle-like building on the grounds, was Gauthier, seigneur de Valençay and this was at the end of the 10th century.
In those days the grounds covered an impressing 20 000 hectares!

Among many proprietors we find Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, regarded as one of the foremost diplomates in European history, born in 1754.
He first became a clergyman after studies in theology but after a political career, he became 'Président de l'Assemblée' in 1790.


Later on - as noted above - he became the most influential diplomate under the rule of Napoléon I, given the name 'the Prince of Diplomates' and the 'foreign minister' of France under the dictator.
In 1803 he became the proprietor of this castle, ordered to buy it by Napoléon who wanted him to live in a 'respectable' way.

Above you can see the castle from the frontage and just below from one of the sides where we in front of the castle see a multitude of flowers growing rather 'wild', though not uncultivated.

In other parts of the garden we found trees, bushes and flowers made into sculptural forms.

This is the castle from the rear....


...and this is the - in France - mandatory wine cellar.


Columns near the exit.
Help! I want to get out!

I don't. It's cool here.