Friday 13th October
We had enjoyed a meal on Wednesday night in the Restaurant du Château in Tarascon and it was not difficult to notice the chateau, as it was lit up and directly opposite our table!
So following the purchase of my new bike in Avignon, it was time to test it’s durability and my road riding skills and head off to the Cháteau.
We left our campsite in Vallabrègues for the 7 km ride to Tarascon. (Saddle sore sprang to mind at this point!).
The ride was reasonably easy, no hill climbs, just a gentle rise in the gradient in parts and my pilot riding ahead did a brilliant job leading me along the safest parts of the road.
The Chateau at Tarascon was built around ca 1400 and sits on the banks of the Rhône, opposite it’s sister city of Beaucaire on the other side of the river. It has also served as a military prison from the middle of 17th century, up until the early 19th.
We entered the Chateau, crossing the bridge over the moat, which surrounds it and towards the middle courtyard.
We used the guide we had been given to explore the castle on the Rhône side first. This eventually led us to terrace, which was vast and allowed us to enjoy the views over Tarascon, Beaucaire, the River Rhône , as well as the Alpilles Mountains.
To access the town side of the castle, we had to descend via the northern turret. Most of the rooms on this side were the royal apartments. Although the rooms are devoid of any of their former possessions, inventories from the 15th century have been used to create ‘a picture’ of what life may have been like in the life King René.
I particularly liked the braille books. I’ve never seen these before.
If you are interested in contemporary art, then this might be a place to visit. There were many regional exhibits in different areas of the chateau, not to everyone’s taste though.
(Read this brilliant blog and you will get ‘a real’ flavour of the Cháteau).
Our particular highlights were the ‘en-suites’/latrines in some of the royal apartments. Even the French had standards! (Sorry the picture wasn’t clear enough to print).
Having had our fill of medieval castles, we set off for home in amongst the Friday night traffic. Friday 13th night traffic!!
Home safely, not even a little saddle sore, we enjoyed a G&T in the late evening sun and looked forward to our nightly visit of our colony of bats and our resident owl.