Angers part one

After a few days in Paris we went south to the town of Angers where we have some friends. This is our friends' farmhouse where we stayed. It was nice to be back in the country for a bit!


That Sunday we went to the Traditional Dominican monastery of Avrille for Mass.


The monks serving Mass.


After Mass we visited the 18th-century Château de Montgeoffroy, the home of the Marquis de Contades. It happens to have survived the French Revolution's plundering and destruction of all things aristocratic because the Marquis had an illegitimate child who became an avid revolutionary, and in the interest of perhaps inheriting the property after its inhabitants had been "dealt with", pushed the leaders of the Revolution to spare it. He didn't live to take control of the property however, since he too was gobbled up by Madame Guillotine on some charge or another.


The 12-foot moat surrounding the manor.


In the back, the lawn.


Some flowers were still in bloom, even though it was late October.


The kitchen. Unfortunately I couldn't get pictures inside the chateau since we were in a small group watched pretty closely, but I did manage to snap a picture of all these original 18th-century copper pans. The long oval ones were used for cooking whole salmon, caught in the Loire River.


A very typical house of the region.


We ended the day playing ping-pong in the garage.