Chateau de Cormatin

Wednesday, May 23rd, we left the gite around 11:15. I wanted to be sure to get to Taize before the monks held their 12:20 service since Carol really wanted to experience this. The grounds are more like a camp with tons of parking available because many people visit, and many stay for a week or more. It's a monastery whose purpose seems to be as a retreat for people of every age. The church was a long low modern building. At the entrance a girl was standing with a large sign saying Silence. We entered.


There were bleachers along the side wall and I sat there. The altar area was loaded with candles and an organ was playing. The main part of the church was a few steps lower than the bleacher area. Carol decided to go down there and sit on one of the little individual benches...about 6 inches high. There were no chairs for the congregation, just a few of those little benches. Some of the younger folk sat directly on the floor.

Eventually monks in plain white hooded robes wandered into the center section. I counted 58 of them. The service consisted of songs that were really musical chants. I have to admit, it was beautiful to observe and to hear. On our way out I took a picture of the bells that had called people to the service.

 On our way out of Taize we stopped to watch these guys and they came over to check us out as well                                       

Our next stop was the Cormatin Chateau.

The path leads across a river with day lilies crowding its banks.

The left wing of the house is completely gone and the upper floor of the center section is also missing. The formal gardens are on the right with an aviary in the background.

To the left are the kitchen gardens. We started there...

Who can resist climbing roses on a stone wall with lupine blooming nearby?                                                                                                     The use of twigs was fascinating and beautiful and practical as well.

 I also liked the use of twigs for raised beds.

When it was time for the house tour, we were given a booklet to explain each room we would be seeing. The chateau was first built to show the wealth and social standing of the family. Husbands and wives had their own chambers so they could each entertain their own friends. It was unlikely that they would have the same friends since marriages were not based on love and for the one family that lived here there was a 20 year separation in their ages...the wife was only 15.

After this we wandered out to the formal gardens. I thoroughly enjoyed the playfulness of the shrubs that were there. The pool and columbine added to the aesthetic appeal.

The aviary is in the midst of a maze created by high hedges and surrounded by a moat.  The house is also surrounded by a moat. In the front of the house there is a drawbridge leading to an open courtyard. At one time in history the moats were filled in to show that the family was loyal to the king and therefore had no need for defense. The dirt to do this was taken from the kitchen garden. Years later the gardens got their dirt back and the moats existed once again. The picture below is taken from the top of the aviary. It was an easy climb up a circular stair in the center. The 4 parakeets had the rest of the space. (Since I can't get the writing to go next to the pictures today, I'm making the pictures larger, but maybe that's better anyway.)

Behind the chateau is a handsome huge tree and a pond...

This evening we had dinner in Sologny with Francis, Marie-Annick, and Lauryne. I had finally figured out how to turn on BB's lights so we could go out after dark, but I needed Lauryn to show me the location of the horn. I never would have found it...all it takes is pushing in the end of the stick that turns on the lights! We used it a couple of times on our way home just for the novelty.