Sercy, the Second Castle

A good night’s sleep and my day didn’t begin until 9:30 AM. I’m at the table having tea and, as promised, I’m working on the second castle, the one in Sercy. 

Yesterday, September 20th, was the one day each year when cultural entities open for the general public and are free, thus the crowd at Sercy. 

We approached up a long path past the horses who were grazing by the pond. 

This chateau doesn’t have a moat. but they do have a large pond graced by a willow tree on one of the two small islands.

Folks were gathering to hear a fellow telling the history of this chateau, but since he was speaking in French I took my time.

It’s a relatively small chateau, maybe not as impressive as Sully, but I think it is more beautiful than most. It has its own small chapel off to the side. Just keeping the mammoth hedges trimmed would have to be a full time job.

Apparently this castle burned in the early 1900s and sat for awhile until the family began restoring it in the 1950s. That may be why the one tower has open rafters at the top, but I don’t know for sure.

The chapel, though small, was quite beauti-ful inside.

Looking at the chapel from the back one quickly realizes that the worship area couldn’t be more than half of the building. The rear half was not open to the public.

There was a stone plaque naming the family members buried within the chapel, the latest just a few years ago. 

That might explain the purpose for the rear section of the chapel.

Marie-Annick and Francis joined me for a walk around the chateau. 

 I’m always fascinated by the openings built into the protective towers. Maybe in the melee of a battle it would be difficult to shoot into such an opening, but in a sneak attack I’d bet Griffin could send an arrow through.

Honey must be supporting some of the renovations. I’ve never seen this many bee hives in one location before.

Cattle grazed on the hillside out back, a herd of brown instead of the more common white.

We continued on our way to the other side of the castle where I was blown away by the cyclamen growing wild in a wooded glen. It was breath-taking.

Another out-building must have been the kitchen at one time, but gets used for storing toys and such in our more modern age. There was a diagram on the wall showing what the chateau looked like many years ago.

We were heading home, but others were still arriving.

This pond has moving water. I hadn’t seen an inlet, but water was flowing to the outlet.

One last picture. The cars weren’t here when, 3 years ago, Marie-Annick, Francis and I paused at this spot for pictures on our way to the north of France.

When we reached home we had 10 minutes to get ourselves to the local church just down the hill for a free saxophone concert by 4 musicians. That was well worth the hour or so of sitting on a hard wooden bench. Besides, my feet appreciated the rest.