de Blond between Limousin and Périgord in the most beautiful countryside in France. Above all, it is stunningly, unbelievably beautiful. Louis XIV’s mistress, Mme. de Montespan, was a member of the Mortemart family.
Her sudden prosperity is reflected in the magnificently overdone baroque decoration of the church, though she had the sense not to remove the 15th-century choir stalls with their carved misericords.
There are two old convents, a splendid timber market hall
and lots of picturesque old houses. The Château,
partly ruined and hastily
roofed over, watches its reflection in a mirror-still moat, and everywhere there
are flowers
and greenery and golden stone. I have a theory that the colour
scheme of Versailles – green and gold – was
suggested by the stone and verdure
of places like this, the core and centre of France.
