Today after breakfast we packed everything back in the car and prepared to say goodby to Chateau Arpentis.
The Chicoine family came from a tiny town in the Loire Valley called Channey sur Lathan. When my husband and I visited it about 25 years ago there were 2 streets forming a crossroads with the old church in the center. We arrived at lunch time and the place was totally deserted!
We looked at the church, tried the locked doors and went back to the car thinking that was the end of that visit. Then we saw a gentleman walking out of a building across the street. As he crossed in front of us my husband urged me to ask him if we could see inside the church. We showed him our drivers licenses to show where we were from and our last name. I managed to remember how to say "key to the church" in French. Anyhow, he figured out what we wanted, let us know to wait and he went back and got the key! He showed us around the inside of the church. When we were ready to leave he motioned for us to come with him back to his office. He brought out very old books and found the Chicoine name in them. Then he called someone on the phone. They must have had a phone party line because pretty soon all sorts of people showed up in the small office. They were all excited like we were long lost family. None of them spoke English and of course, my French was very little. Then after a few minutes a couple of young gals showed up. It turns out one of them lived in the local chateau and was a exchange student for a bit in the US, so she spoke English. She did the translating and told us where to go for books showing genealogical records of the area.
The girls were on their way back to Paris for college but they did relay that there was a couple Chicoine's left in town but were not home that day.
So, now, back to the present time. We were just in Channey sur Lathan for the girls to see where the family had come from. The church was locked so we didn't get to see inside. Jen stopped a woman on the street nearby the City Hall and was able to convey what we were doing. She took her inside and showed her a directory that showed there were still two Chicoine's that live in or near town. She said they were both old men now. We didn't try to track them down. We had miles to go before we got to our place of sleep.
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Our itinerary for Day 8
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| Goodby to our beautiful view! |
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| Goodby, horses! |
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| Goodby, Orangery at Chateau des Arpentis! And we are off on the road to new adventures! First stop, Channey sur Lathan. |
The Chicoine family came from a tiny town in the Loire Valley called Channey sur Lathan. When my husband and I visited it about 25 years ago there were 2 streets forming a crossroads with the old church in the center. We arrived at lunch time and the place was totally deserted!
We looked at the church, tried the locked doors and went back to the car thinking that was the end of that visit. Then we saw a gentleman walking out of a building across the street. As he crossed in front of us my husband urged me to ask him if we could see inside the church. We showed him our drivers licenses to show where we were from and our last name. I managed to remember how to say "key to the church" in French. Anyhow, he figured out what we wanted, let us know to wait and he went back and got the key! He showed us around the inside of the church. When we were ready to leave he motioned for us to come with him back to his office. He brought out very old books and found the Chicoine name in them. Then he called someone on the phone. They must have had a phone party line because pretty soon all sorts of people showed up in the small office. They were all excited like we were long lost family. None of them spoke English and of course, my French was very little. Then after a few minutes a couple of young gals showed up. It turns out one of them lived in the local chateau and was a exchange student for a bit in the US, so she spoke English. She did the translating and told us where to go for books showing genealogical records of the area.
The girls were on their way back to Paris for college but they did relay that there was a couple Chicoine's left in town but were not home that day.
So, now, back to the present time. We were just in Channey sur Lathan for the girls to see where the family had come from. The church was locked so we didn't get to see inside. Jen stopped a woman on the street nearby the City Hall and was able to convey what we were doing. She took her inside and showed her a directory that showed there were still two Chicoine's that live in or near town. She said they were both old men now. We didn't try to track them down. We had miles to go before we got to our place of sleep.
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| I told you, this is a small town. |
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| The back end of the church was supposed to have been built in the 1100s. |
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| Before leaving we had to drop a bit of money in the town. Unfortunately, there were very few places to do that. But, we did leave a few euros in that little shop across the street. |
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| The far end of town. |
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| As we left I thought again of how similar the landscape is to the southwest of South Dakota where so many Chicoine have ended up at the present time.
To be continued: And then we are on our way to Dinan. Lunch is our next stopping point. We have chosen the ruins of a very old fortress in the town of Pounce for a picnic.
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Our itinerary for Day 8
June
23 ~Thursday ~ Day 8 ~ Travel Day to Dinan
9:00ish
~ Leave for Channay-sur Lathan 1hour drive Map
8.1
11:00ish
~ Leave for a picnic at the ruins of pouance Map
8.2, 8.3
12:30ish
~ arrive at ruins of Pouance and have a picnic
2:00ish
~ leave for Dinan Map 8.4
3:30ish ~
Arrive in Dinan, La Maison Pavie Map
8.5 I told Hotel we will
be there AT 3:30ish - if we need to change contact them.
La Maison
Pavie
Maison d'hôtes
- Coeur historique de Dinan
10, place
Saint-Sauveur
22100 Dinan -
France
tel : +
33(0) 2 96 84 45 37
RESERVATIONS! La
Tomate
4 Rue de l'École, Dinan, France, 22100 Aucaleuc
jeu
23 juin | 19:30 | 3
personnes
Votre
réservation est confirmée !
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