Roquetaillade Castle and Chateau Cadillac

Early in the morning, in the dark, we left Fort Medoc and cruised down the Garonne River past Bordeaux on the way to Cadillac.  Jan took a picture of one of the first bridges in Bordeaux that we passed under.

 We cruised past the Bordeaux city center waterfront.

The Captain had a challenging job in passing underneath the historical Pont de Pierre, commissioned to be built by Napolean.   Constructed by 4,000 workers between 1810-1822 to cross the River Garonne.

It took 17-spans to cross the river.  The tides cause strong currents.

Whew!  We made it!  I talked with the Captain later in the morning.  He said he had to slowly position the ship with his forward and aft thrusters to hold off the currents!   Later in the morning we saw several chateaus.

Remember we're still in this very large Bordeaux wine region.  We finally arrived at Cadillac after passing under another Eiffel-type of iron bridge (1880).

Another gorgeous weather day greeted us!  Yes, Cadillac is THAT Cadillac.  Antoine Laumet adopted his title after this town's name, naming himself Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac.  He was a French explorer that emigrated to New France and founded Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit (which became the city of Detroit).   After breakfast we were bussed to Castle Roquetaillade, which is near the town of Mazeres.

This is the 'new' castle, dating back to the 14th century.  The following pic shows the 'old castle's' tower, dating to the 12th century.

The following is a picture of the chapel and of its exquisite ceiling.

This castle has been owned by the same family for over 700 years!

In 1864 the owners commissioned architect Viollet-le-Duc to bring the building up to date and transform the interiors.  We couldn't take pictures while touring the inside .. but here's one from Wikipedia :

On to Cadillac and the .. Chateau Cadillac.

A massive castle!  Construction started in 1598 and ended in 1634.  It has a long and somewhat dark history, as you can tell by this duke & duchess :

The Duke of Epernon, who built this chateau, has been linked to the assassination of King Henry IV and Marie de Medici.  This is his 'black legend'.   This chateau, after the French Revolution was converted by the state into France's first women's prison.   In 1891 it was again converted to house young girls, including vagrants, girls of bad character, and girls who were sent there by their fathers.   It was very hard to hear and see pictures of this.  This chateau indeed has a very dark history.

We walked back to the ship through one of the town's gates.

Here's our ship!

It's time to cruise back to Bordeaux.   

We docked near the city center.  For dinner we were invited to eat at the Captain's table!   What a treat!   I proceeded to bore him with river navigation questions!  Jan got to sit next to him .. not fair!

Tomorrow we tour Bordeaux.  Should be a fun day, until noon, when it will start raining!   Uggghhh.   Hey, we're on vacation, it'll be fine.  Take care, Joe & Jan