Ronsard Lived Here

 The jettied gallery where Ronsard wrote and the apsoidal end of the church at the Prieuré de Saint-Cosme.

We have written about the Prieuré de Saint Cosme before. It is one of the lesser known historic sites of Tours (actually in La Riche, once a separate village, but now absorbed into the Tours agglo). It is stunningly picturesque with ruins surrounded by a garden full of roses, as befits its most famous former occupant, the 16th century poet Ronsard. Here is his most well known poem, Quand vous serez bien vieille and three rather different translations of it -- you will see why roses feature so much in the Priory gardens.

 The 14th century maison du prieur where Ronsard lived.

A ceiling has been installed in this room at some stage, so now a hole has been cut in it to allow us to see this earlier dragon-headed king post in the maison du prieur.

Roof timbers in the maison du prieur, showing the typical pegged joints, and a row of croix de Saint-André below the roof ridge to ensure it cannot twist in the wind.

A nice repair job on some old collombage (wattle and daub infill on a timber framed building) under the stairs in the maison du prieur. It looks a lot like our house, also probably 14th century and repaired by an artisan working with traditional materials in the 21st century.