The River Cher & Loire Valley in the Roth series

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When you read the books in the ROTH series you quickly realise you're in a bit of a travelogue. The stories take you around Paris from Roth's home in Montmartre to his office in the Ministry of the Interior in the 8th arr. and round Paris as he tracks down forgers and counterfeiters.

The Cher at Méry-sur-Cher
Another aspect of Roth's life is his friendship with Charles Laval, a rich businessman who shares Roth's love of philately and has been a fixture in Roth's life since he was a boy.

Early in the first book Roth visits Laval at his house in Rue de Lille and later Laval's chateau on the River Cher in the Loire Valley. The Loire is known for its many chateaux which populate the land surrounding the river and its many tributaries such as the Indre, Vienne, Brenne and Indrois rivers. One of the most significant tributaries of the Loire is the River Cher which joins the Loire at Villandry, home of the famous kitchen garden.

I chose the Cher as the location of Laval's chateau which I placed outside the village of Méry-sur-Cher and this morning (it's quite early) thought we'd have a look at how to find a model for a fictional location. When I write I have to have a picture in my mind of what a house or place looks like so I can draw its image for you, my reader. The Loire Valley is riddled with chateau like Blois, Cheverney, Chenonceaux and Valencay, below.
That is not what I had in mind for Laval - too predictable. He's old money and a devotee of a particular era in French history. In his Paris home at Rue de Lille he has nothing that dates after the reign of Louis XV (1710-1774).

Louis came to the throne as a child of five and reigned for fifty nine years. He had plenty of time to establish a style of his own which is known as Rococo - gilt, and, among other things, multi-coloured lacquer panels with oriental themes.

When it comes to a country house, the Chateau Plessis, left was a favourite of Louis XI, and what you might expect a traditional family like Laval's to have owned for centuries. But it wasn't what I saw for him.

So, when I went looking for a model for Laval's chateau on the Cher I needed something special, remembering that while Laval is probably a billionaire, he's quiet about his wealth. He likes to ride, shoot boar and keep a vineyard but he's not in the Rothschild mould.

You do know the Rothschild's place, Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, don't you? A mock chateau with every over the top feature money can buy. Hideous.
Waddesdon 
For Laval I saw something set in woods and a touch wild - no gravel parterres with fountains. More a substantial manor house than a castle. What I was looking for was restraint. The chateau below is close. What do you think?

It would have rides and woods like this, which beckon, do they not?

That's enough. Time for coffee. And toast.

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