My thoughts on – is it a castle?

My thoughts on – is it a castle?

Many years ago, my mother and I met in Paris, picked up a rental car, and drove around Normandy and the Loire Valley visiting various medieval sites I had chosen. It was a spectacular trip and one I wish I could repeat; we saw the Bayeux Tapestry (where I got in a touch of trouble for objecting to the subjective historical display), Mont-St-Michel, Angers, Loches, Chinon, Fontevraud and a number of other Plantagenet-era sites.

What did we not see? Almost all of the famous chateaux of the Loire Valley – Chenonceau, Usse, Amboise, Blois. Anything I considered to be ‘too new’ or, at least, updated ‘too recently’. I was happy to see castles that had a medieval base or still had some medieval aspects, but I refused to visit a palace.

And believe it or not, my mother put up with this vague, completely nonsensical selection of places to visit. Loches, Chinon, Langeais all ok, but not Amboise. One might have thought that she would tell me that she had flown across the Atlantic and she was driving in a foreign country and we would see what she wanted too, but she indulged me, as long as I was able to spout some history about the place. It was my own version of ‘Mary Queen of Scots slept here’ – ‘Henry II was here’.

Then, a few years later, I saw this brilliant illustration by Glen McBeth in BBC History Magazine that completely validated my ideas, in cartoon format. I include, for reference, my comment from when I first posted it to Facebook in defence of my actions.