3rd weekend - Castle Usse (Sleeping Beauty castle)

My third weekend in castle and wine country we decided to be smart for once and go to bed early on Friday night in order to get an early start on Saturday. After catching a 9am train to Chinon we biked about 8 miles up, down, and through deceptively-easy-looking-but-really-difficult hills, to the town of Rigny-Usse to visit Chateau d'Usse, which is the castle that inspired the story of Sleeping Beauty (supposedly). The legend goes that Charles Perrault visited the castle as a guest, and during his stay came up with the storyline for Sleeping Beauty. It is also the castle that Walt Disney supposedly used as a model for his creations.

The castle was first constructed in wood around the year 1000 by a Viking named Gueldin de Saumur, who used its location on a hill as a fortress. Over the years it passed through many different owners who each built on or reconstructed, so it gained elements of many styles and periods. Right now it is owned by the family of the Duke of Blacas. It was beautiful from the outside, and mostly beautiful from the inside, except for the rooms with bizarre 3/4 size mannequins depicting the characters in the fairy tale. They've turned it into a half-ass Disney display, and it just didn't work for me.

After the castle we biked another 8 miles, through more gentle but paralyzing hills (I swore I could feel the lactic acid building up in my thighs), to the town of Azay-le-Rideau to find some wineries. In the end the wineries were all 3-7 miles outside of town in completely opposite directions, and we were so exhausted from biking so far already that we just stopped into a shop that offered wine tasting, and tried quite a few of the local selections without having to travel there ourselves. We caught a train right from Azay back to Tours, had dinner with our host famlies, and then went and watched France play Romania in football.

Sunday was the big end-of-the-year sale and street festival in Tours, so all the shops on the main street (Rue National) put booths outside and sold most of their items at a big discount. I picked up some gifts for friends and family and got a few small things for myself, and enjoyed the nice weather and warm sunshine.

Town of Chinon.

Gregor carrying our bikes up a steep hill in Chinon before we realized there was an elevator.
Chateau d'Ussy.

The oldest part of the castle.

This staircase used to lead straight into the forest and was used as an escape route in times of war.

The bizarre mannequins.

Sleeping Beauty herself.

Waving from Sleeping Beauty's tower.

Braderie street festival/massive end-of-year sale.