Le Château des Ravalet

On my recent visit to Cherbourg, I made a short trip to the beautiful château pictured above. It has some wonderful gardens and a great tearoom. It's worth a visit - especially at this time of year - just to enjoy these gardens which were laid out by René Clérel de Tocqueville. If the name sounds familiar - it is because he was the  nephew of Alexis de Tocqueville - who wrote "Democracy in America". It was Alexis' father who bought the château (and began to restore the manor house).

The château is also famous for other reasons. At the end of the sixteenth century the manor was lived in by the Raval family which included eleven children. Two of them were very close, Julien (b 1582) and Marguerite (b 1586) - to the extent that their parents separated them, and married off Marguerite to a thirty year old, when she was just fourteen. It was an unhappy marriage and she fled to her brothers home near Paris (he was 21 by this time). Her father had the two arrested and they were tried for adultery and incest. They were both executed on 2nd December 1603.

There was also a murder at the château. In 1661 Charles de Franquetot was killed by five masked men, two of whom were his valets.

Today the Château is owned by the town of Cherbourg. The (French language) website can be found at http://www.ville-cherbourg.fr/themes/culture/patrimoine/le-chateau-des-ravalet/ 

Brittany Ferries also has a brief description on its website - http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/guides/france/normandy/cherbourg/attractions/chateau-des-ravalet 

Portsmouth

Last week I went on a short "holiday" to Cherbourg (more of that in posts to come) - but in order to catch the early morning ferry (I live in Milton Keynes which is 120 miles from the ferry port), I had to go down the day before to Portsmouth. In fact, I've visited Portsmouth many times in recent weeks.

While I'm in the city, I enjoy exploring the history, of which it has so much. For many centuries it was the major centre of Britain's naval defences. The dockyard houses Nelson's flagship, the Victory, on which he died at the Battle of Trafalgar; the Mary Rose from the Tudor period - and so much more. I haven't visited on any of my recent visits - but I hope to soon.

The defences for the city itself are worth a visit. From just south of Gunwharf Quays (and the Spinnaker Tower - pictured above) the walls can still be walked around. That is pleasant in itself, but there are also interpretation boards which tell the visitor more about the history. Southsea castle is also worth a visit.

During our visit we bought some of the "Portsmouth Papers" which are short booklets about various aspects of Portsmouth's history. I'll be writing pieces based on some of them, once I've read them!

We also visited the birthplace of Charles Dickens, which I also indeed to write about in coming posts.

So - keep an eye on this blog - and together we can explore Portsmouth (and other places)