Two Castles and a Concert

This monster of a bull watched us drive by...

We headed for Sully a little after 9 and arrived around noon. Thomas, a friend of the Godons, was about to lead a tour so we hurried to catch up with him. 

Fortunately, I was given a room by room written explanation in English. 

The family still lives in this castle so the tour is limited and I couldn’t take any pictures indoors. The outside was more impressive anyway. 

The land on which the castle sits was once a prehistoric lake which might explain the moat and the muddy paths. 

Hunting had been a big sport for this family. There were stuffed boar heads as well as a badger and a boa constrictor that graced one fireplace mantel.

In one room there were marble columns that were actually holding up interior castle walls above. Years ago they had wanted a different facade and built the new exterior wall in front of the old one. Later they wanted to expand the first floor room so they knocked down the old wall, but it had been holding up the walls above so they had to add the columns.

Though the moat surrounds the castle, I think the back is more impressive than the front... There is a landing on each side of this courtyard and a small rowboat tied up at each landing.

If you look closely, along the top of the moat wall on the right, you can see concrete balls and triangles. The wall has been decorated to look like a crown.

At one point in history it became out of fashion to live on a first floor. The solution was to dig out the front interior courtyard and add steps to reach that same first floor. 

We are completing our circle around the outside of the castle and its moat. This picture shows the bridge we earlier crossed to reach the front of the castle. The idea of the outer wall looking like a crown is also easier to see.

To reach the car we had to walk through a huge horse barn with stone troughs along the wall at one end and wooden ones at the other.

Then we stepped out into another yard and I wondered what all those square spaces were for. Francis said it was probably for raising rabbits as part of the farm produce. That's a lot of rabbits!

In the barn across the way we found that winter's wood was being stored along with equipment and two antique cars in disrepair...

We moved to a field where there was also parking so that Lauryne's dog, Laos, could run a bit and we could eat in pleasant surroundings.

Francis took Laos for a walk and noticed that trees are being planted to create a long, tree lined entrance. 

I noticed balls of mistletoe in most of the nearby trees.

And Charolle cows (I need to check this spelling) contentedly grazed in the next field.

And thus we ended our time at the chateau in Scully. On our way home we stopped to visit the chateau in Sercy, but it is almost midnight so that will have to wait for tomorrow.