A literary journey through the Touraine (1/5)

Chateaux, landscapes, vineyards, yes, but also Descartes, Balzac, Ronsard, Rabelais and Vigny. The Touraine is also the land of writers! Through regular short articles we shall look at each of these famous people and the areas of Touraine important to them and to their work.

On the trail of Honoré de Balzac (1799 - 1850)

"Shame on he who fails to admire my joyful, beautiful, courageous Touraine and her seven valleys which flow with water and wine!"

Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours in 1799, at 25 rue de l’Armée d’Italie (now 47 rue nationale; his birthplace was destroyed during bombing in June 1940). At the age of eight he was sent to the Oratorian College in Vendôme, 50 km north of Tours. In 1814 he moved from the Touraine with his parents to the Marais in Paris. Despite studying law and working as an articled clerk, he frequented the Sorbonne and decided to devote himself to literature.

• La Grenadière in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire

"A prince could make La Grenadière his villa, a poet his abode, and two lovers find the sweetest refuge." La Grenadière (1832)

In 1821, he met Laure de Berny, 20 years his senior, who became his confidante, his adviser and his mistress and who ntroduced him to the ways of the Ancien Regime. In 1830 he returned with her to Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, where he had been placed in the care of a nurse at the age of four, and rented La Grenadière for several months while he visited the Loire region.

La Grenadière is now a riding centre and is not open to visitors.


• Château de Saché in Saché

"In Saché I am free and happy as a monk in his monastery… The sky is so pure, the oaks so beautiful, the peace so vast!"

But the home which inspired Balzac the most was Château de Saché, situated in the heart of the Touraine a few kilometres from Azay-le-Rideau. There, he escaped for a while from unrest in Paris and his unpaid debts.

Through his friend Monsieur de Margonne, the owner of the premises, Balzac was able to stay for most of his time in an upstairs room. Between 1825 and 1848 he made regular trips and wrote Lost Illusions (1836), Maitre Cornelius (1831), Louis Lambert (1832) and César Birotteau (1837). He also started Old Goriot (1835) and the area inspired his The Lily in the Valley (1836)..

Château de saché, now Musée Balzac, is open to the public.
Rue du Château
37190 Saché
Open all year except 1 January and 25 December.
Tél. 02 47 26 86 50

• Château de Moncontour in Vouvray

"Moncontour is my favourite. It is so beautiful, I want you to come and see it. It is one of the most beautiful views in the Touraine and the resort of Vouvray is but a stone's throw away."  From Balzac to Countess Hanska on 10th June, 1845.

Countess Hanska became his wife months before her death in Paris, in 1850. Balzac was never able to raise the amount needed to buy Moncontour.

Moncontour is not open to the public today. However, you can visit the cellars carved into the cliff for the maturing of Vouvray wine.


• Other places in the Touraine appear in his work, including:

Château de La Michelinière (A Murky Business), Luynes and Ussé (The Two Friends), Langeais (La Duchesse de Langeais) and Turpenay at the entrance to the forest of Chinon, Rochecorbon, Azay-le-Rideau, Balan-Miré and Chinon (Droll Stories), Saumur (Eugénie Grandet), Artennes, Pont-de-Ruan and Pont-Cher are also places referred to in The Lily of the Valley...etc.

Sources: www.terresdecrivains.com, www.monuments-touraine.fr, www.lanouvellerepublique.fr, www.visitazaylerideau.co.uk, www.tours.fr.