Castles and Carnivores

Travelling backward in time a bit. . .on our way from Beaune to Normandy we spent a day in the Loire valley, a beautiful area of green fields and magnificent castles. There are literally dozens of castles, the biggest and most grand of which is probably Chateau Charmond; you can see our picture there in the previous blog. Josh and I remember going there eleven years ago on a family trip while we were living in Paris. You know how most times you revisit a place after many years of growing up, and it looks so much smaller and less exciting. Well, Chateau Charmond looked just as large and even more magnificent than I could remember. There must be several dozen grand chambers, each of which is nearly as big as a house, and infinitely more valuable. Fancy portraits of kings like Francis the 1st decorate the walls, as well as tapestries depicting old legends or Homer oddysies. Then there are trophy rooms filled with stag antlers. . .kind of creepy really. i mean one hanging above a doorway is one thing, but a whole room with just antlers! it's like a room full of bones. the only difference is that they're more aesthetically pleasing.

Then there was this other castle, Chateau Severgny, which was equally ornate but much smaller. A wealthy family lived in this castle just until fifteen years ago or so, and now it is another great tourist spot. That cool armour picture from the previous blog was taken in this castle.

Just by chance, as we strolled into the castle grounds (which had some ginormous cypress type evergreens! like the giant redwoods) we saw a small crowd gathered around a zoo-like cage complex. We went over and saw about 75 hounds crowded in this staircase, baying and climbing atop each other. And on the main floor of the cage, below the staircase, lay a long pile of disgusting duck leftovers, bones, corn, and dog food. it smelled so bad, but of course so good to these hounds. Finally the gatekeeper unlocked the door and the hounds frantically ran to the food pile, and after a couple warning wips from the keeper, dove in. it was one of the most chaotic, primitive scenes i've witnessed in a while. the dogs fought over the biggest pieces, drew a little blood even, ripped and pillaged that meat. they ate every last bit, including all the skulls and bones. a little circus scene. of course, it was wild mostly because the keepers feed them all together, to make a scene for tourists. what a funny world we live in. we're embarassed to act animal like in any way, to let out our primitive instincts in public, and yet we enjoy seeing other animals epitomize it for us.