Anyway, I'm posting today because we went out and saw a cool castle today! I had seen it in my guidebook, but it was closed for the winter, so we hadn't visited yet. Also, growing up, Colleen and I always watched the movie Ever After with Mom. It's a Cinderella story with Drew Barrymore and we loved it. Coincidentally, the entire movie was filmed in the Dordogne region, where I live! The main castle is Hautefort, the castle I visited today, though another castle I've visited is also used in the movie as is the town of Sarlat, which I visited once with my friends and where I stayed with my family. It was pretty cool to see the castle and think about all the scenes in the movie where it's featured.
Château Hautefort in some classic Dordogne weather.
However, that also made me think, "Really? You're more excited about this castle because it was in a movie, not because it was built in the 1600s?" But, hey, you all know I like history, so that part was cool, too - plus we really watched Ever After all the time, so it's funny to think that I was watching a movie at age 10 and had no idea that in 12 years I'd be living where it was filmed. I'm definitely going to go home and watch it with Mom and Colleen!
The outer wall of the castle with some kind of grove next to it. You'll see in the other pictures that the castle is also known for its fancy gardens and bushes.
Walking up to the castle. Needless to say, we later got caught in a thunderstorm. Not a big one, but it started to rain on us as we were leaving and we didn't get to walk around the gardens as much as we wanted to.
Fancy bushes.
View of castle across said fancy bushes as we were entering this long archway of bushes.
The gardens and view were really very gorgeous. It would have been nice to be there on a really sunny day because you could see really far and see a lot of tiny tons dotting the hills. It has, at least, started to get green here again, which is nice. The countryside is a very pretty green and it's so much nicer now than it was during the winter. It's all rolling hills, grass, and farms. Plus tiny towns and castles.
A semi-view of the surrounding countryside. The light wasn't great to take pictures of it unfortunately.
The very pretty archway of bushes/trees that we walked through in the gardens.
In terms of the castle itself, it wasn't overly interesting inside. It was nice and there was an area to walk through and old furniture to look at/read about, but it was more fun outside and in the gardens. The castle has been renovated many times - several times over the centuries of course, but also in 1968 because there was an enormous fire (started by cigarette butts at a reception). Much of the castle is original, but the fire apparently really did a number on much of the interior.
In the courtyard of the castle.
Looking down at the "village" of Hautefort. I put that in quotations because it's so tiny! People live there (you could see cars and toys and a trampoline) but it's very small.
The girls looking out over the gardens and village from the courtyard.
Fancy gardens!
More fancy gardens!
Entrance to the castle - with small drawbridge and all!
We spent a few hours at Hautefort and really enjoyed ourselves. I really liked the castle! On the way back we stopped a couple times when we saw an old abbey (that was closed, despite the sign saying that it was open every day between 2pm and 6pm - but in France, I'm pretty sure signs like that are just suggestions) and a pretty waterfall. We took a long way back to Périgueux because we took some wrong turns and just enjoyed driving through the countryside. In all, a pretty good day!
Tomorrow we're going to a barbecue-type thing with our friend Eve and her boyfriend Flor and then I need to take some time and actually prepare for my classes this week. I haven't thought much about what I'm going to do with my classes or with my tutoring students. Luckily, I don't work much on Mondays, so I have a couple days to figure it out. And, phew, only five more weeks of it! And then I never have to teach a class of high schoolers again! Hopefully.
Happy Saturday - everyone have a good weekend!
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