Little journal of friends of Montautre - n°16

Dear friends of the Montautre site,

Here is already the sixteenth issue of the " Petit journal des amis de Montautre "! The first 13 issues are already available on our website ( www.chateau-de-montautre.fr , news/blog section), in French and now also in English !

0. News

The restoration of the turret is almost complete , that of the chapel is in progress and the woodwork of the guard room has been put in place. See below the photos of the lower and upper grooves of the 15th century framework of the turret: with a few repairs, they could be largely preserved. However, admire the " line of Jupiter " to preserve 2/3 of an old beam on the lower groove (first photo, to the left of the central axis), and the progressive covering of the turret in slates from Travassac (Corrèze) according to the traditional method called "brouillée" (and of course nailed). All that is missing is the finial with the coat of arms of the Mondin de Montautre : to come in the next issue of our little newspaper! Thanks to the companies #EPCharpente and #Blanchon for the work carried out under the leadership of our architect Luc Joudinaud ( #lagarearchitectes ).

As a result, the guided tours, which continue to be a success, are also becoming very interesting again for those who have already taken them because they allow them to appreciate the progress and extent of the restorations. The next ones are on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 April at 3:00 p.m. As the tours are still limited to 20 people, it is still necessary to register by email ( contact@chateau-de-montautre.fr ) or on our website ( www.chateau-de-montautre.fr ). Don't hesitate to let people know: you are our best ambassadors!

1. Gallo-Roman period

While waiting for the surveys planned for the autumn, we had the (pleasant) surprise of discovering, during the restoration of the chapel wall (15th century), a reused stone which is clearly the top of a column from the Gallo-Roman period (however a little different and smaller than the top of the 5 monolithic columns already present at Montautre). It quickly joined the many remains already accumulated in our mini-museum from this period!

2. Medieval period

Two texts dated from the 19th century were discovered at the National Library by our friend Claude Dargent (himself a descendant of Bertrand de Maulmont , Baron of Fromental, to whom Olivier Mondin de Montostre paid homage in 1465). They indicate the passage of the Black Prince (Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, son of the King of England) in Montautre in the summer of 1356 during his second ride, just after having taken the King of France, John the Good , prisoner in Poitiers. The absence of cited sources, however, does not allow us to advance in understanding the history of Montautre before the 15th century. Here is one of the two texts discovered:

3. Modern period

The expertise of our friend Jean-Robert Carias has helped to elucidate the use of one of the pieces of furniture we had in the bakery and whose purpose we could not understand. It was a sifter , but we are missing the crank and the set of cylindrical filters that were used to sift the flour with different levels of fineness. Most of these sifters have been transformed into simple buffets and have lost their mechanism (call for applications for those who know of a mechanism to recover!).

Thank you all, friends of Montautre, for your support and the promotion you make of the place and our activities: you are our best ambassadors!

Everyone is welcome to drop by when you pass by. Please say hello to us or to Kitty and Adri , who continue to maintain this truly unique site.

And that's it for today... but the end of the restoration of the chapel and the guards' quarters will be revealed in the next issue!

Kind regards

Serge