Monday, June 4, 2012

By way of introduction

This is the blog I meant to keep during my 2011 trip to France as part of Academic Travel Abroad's In the Footsteps of Eleanor of Aquitaine tour with author Sharon Kay Penman. I set it up in advance, but truth is that despite my best intentions I was way too busy having fun on the tour to stop and write!

I've consequently spent much time since that amazing trip obsessing over photos and books and travelogues. And finally, to mark the one year anniversary of the trip, I am starting to pull it all together into this format.

A few words about the tour and about my purpose in blogging are in order. Being an exceedingly private person, it's taken me a long time to get comfortable with online blogging. I'm still not comfortable with public selfie culture and so have chosen to mostly exclude from this blog any personal photos of myself and my fellow tour members, along with my most private reminiscences. My reasoning is this: if I don't know you, then you don't need to see my personal pix or hear my stories. If you are a friend of mine and wish to see my online photo albums for EVEN MOAR PHOTOS, personal reminiscences, complaints about my sore feet and sardonic commentary, then you know how to find me.

I took tons of photos on this trip, so what is contained here are combinations of both mine own shots and those of some very talented fellow travelers, all of whom were credited. I've also added photos of relevant sites that I took on subsequent trips to France. And I have also incorporated photos from websites, with due credit and appropriate respect for proprietary rights within the confines of fair use reproduction for discussion purposes.

Author Sharon Kay Penman was our go-to expert for the Eleanor-specific and Plantagenet relevancy of sites on this tour. She graciously educated us about what we were to see and entertained us with select readings from her book Lionheart, which at that point had not yet been released. It was such a pleasure to finally meet her, as I'd been reading her books and following her career since 1991. I am including links to her tour blog as we go along, because she does this stuff so much better than I could ever aspire to do!

I have to say straight up that creating a week-long tour with the goal of following "in the footsteps of Eleanor of Aquitaine" set the bar impossibly high. Due to time, money, and logistical constraints, there's simply no way that a tour like this could touch on every place where Eleanor traveled; she got around, visiting multiple countries and continents in her long life. I'm lucky enough in my life to have visited at most half of the locations she saw in her lifetime.

I'd actually visited many of our northern France stops featured on this tour some twenty years ago. Although that touring perspective was much broader (and I was much younger then), that first trip provided a basic foundation for my appreciation of this one. There were other relevant places in France that I wish our tour had included on the itinerary, and I'll mention those as we go along.

I am assuming that readers to this blog will have basic knowledge of Eleanor's biography and the history of the 12th century. Detailed history lessons are beyond the scope of this blog to detail. Authors never seem to tire of writing about Eleanor, so you have plenty of sources to consult if your goal is basic history.

My goal here is to relate what I saw on this tour to Eleanor, to the Plantagenet and Capetian dynasties of which she was part, and most generally to the High Middle Ages.

However, I do have other historical interests and can't resist commenting on some of them as we go along.

I have an enduring and obsessive interest in the preservation of architectural witnesses to history. Of course the further back one goes, the less one finds preserved due to the vicissitudes of time and history. Eleanor lived some 800 years ago and it's amazing that we have vestiges of buildings from that time. We certainly did not see anything on this tour that was exactly as Eleanor saw it. I've thus tried to discern and describe how I think things might have appeared back in her day, and note how they've been altered over time. Doing so helps me 'see' her world more clearly, and will hopefully do so for you as well.

My last caveat is this: I am by no means an accomplished photographer (although I expect you'll figure that out soon enough). So please don't hold me to any such standards!


Here is the itinerary that our tour followed:
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Saturday, June 4, 2011 -- Arrival

Sunday, June 5, 2011 -- Independent sight-seeing in Paris, group dinner at Bistrot de la Montagne.

Monday, June 6, 2011 -- Paris walking tour with local guides Jennifer Burdon and Herve Benhamou: Cathedral of Notre Dame; Cluny Museum; The Louvre Medieval wing and a tour of some Louvre highlights.

Tuesday,June 7, 2011 -- Falais to visit Chateau Giullaume-le-Conquerant. Overnight stay at Mount-Saint-Michel, dinner at Le Mere Poulard restaurant.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 -- Tour Mont-Saint-Michel, depart for Le Mans. Walking tour of Plantagenet Le Mans to include St Julien Cathedral, Maison du Pilier Rouge, the Bishop’s House, the Town Hall, Pilgrim’s House, Notre Dame du Pre and Maison de Coeffor. Stay at Fountevraud Abbaye.

Thursday, June 9, 2011 -- Visit Poitiers, seat of Eleanor's Aquitaine, tour with Mary McKinley. Tour the wine cellars of La Grande Vignolle, followed by a wine tasting at Domaine Filliatreau.

Friday, June 10, 2011 -- Visit Saumur briefly. Tour Chinon, fortress and Chapelle Sainte Radegonde. Evening reading of Sharon Kay Penman's Lionheart. Dinner at Fontevraud Abbaye restaurant.

Saturday, June 11, 2011 -- Visit Angers with local guide Mieke Overlaet's walking tour of the castle, cathedral, and old town. Overnight stay in Orléans.

Sunday, June 12, 2011 -- Chartres Cathedral guided tour with local expert Malcolm Miller. Return to Paris, group dinner at Le Polidor.

Monday, June 13, 2011 -- Return home.
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"Eleanor, by the grace of God, humble queen of England, duchess of Normandy and Aquitaine, and countess of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, counts, vicounts, barons, seneschals, provosts, justiciaries, bailiffs, all in the present and future to whom these letters will come, greetings."

Come and journey with us....

Sue Morris

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Please let me know what you think! As Eleanor once wrote: "So that this day may be firm and persevere unchanging in perpetuity, we have commended it to writing. Your comments thereof are welcome and may be affixed forthwith."