Southwest France - day three of WCC13

Sept. 18.  I was not a good delegate today.  I blew off nearly all of the presentations to catch up on this record, with some help from the guidebook that David Edwards-May and Tom Grasso prepared, the Conference program, and my own photos.  We were scheduled to board buses at 16:00 (i.e., 4:00 PM), but because of bad weather at Bonrepos, we were asked to delay.  Not a problem.  I doubt that any of the various sessions and/or presentations began or ended as scheduled.

I called this the back side of the chateau.

In any event we finally set off.  Bonrepos was the chateau belonging to Riquet and the site of his "hydraulic machine" - a kind of experiment to see if his scheme of feeder canals and reservoir would work.  The chateau is looking as if it had fallen on hard times - - and it had.  The village purchased it in 2005 or 2006 and has cleared the grounds and cleared the hydraulic machine.  That "test site" is downhill from the chateau.
Our guide was an Englishman, Dudley, who came to Toulouse four decades ago to work for Airbus. Now retired, he is a great font of knowledge about Riquet and his hydraulic machine.

Dudley, our guide, explaining the glaciere (ice house).

There we saw a drained basin defined by brick walls of about 400 feet long.  The basin was about the size of a neighborhood baseball field.

The railing just behind trees on the left identifies the spot where the basin drains into the much lower sluice.

Along the perimeter, above the brick walls, a pathway ran along the circumference.

My best view of the brick wall that defined the basin's perimeter..

We could see the lower drain where water ran out and down a sluice and out of sight.

That little dark triangle opened into the sluice.

Rather than return via the steps, we walked around the empty basin and began to walk up a slightly muddy, long, slippery slope. It got muddier and slipperyier.

One of us slipped on the mud; getting vertical again was tricky.

Several of us began sliding. I moved from the lower left side to the higher right side, hoping to find better footing. I struggled along with a friend; we kept each other company as we slowly and carefully made it to level ground. That's where the "slippery slope" sign was posted.  Humph.  Wrong place.

"Attention:  danger.  Slippery slope"

The chateau had been opened for us. It is owned by the village of Bonrepos since about 2005; the village has cleared vegetation from the hydraulic machine area and around the chateau. The village has also worked on the interior of the chateau. The building is stable, but could use some cosmetic work and incidental repairs.

This entrance is in good shape; the stucco needs repair; the lintel above the doorway is missing some bricks. But look through the door through the center hall to the opposite side of the chateau.

Its floorplan on the main floor was simple: a wide center hall flanked on each side by two large rooms. Some of the rooms were furnished sparsely; the parquet floors would be quite beautiful if they could be repaired, cleaned and painted.

I was impressed with the condition of the crown molding, the panelling, and those two pilasters.

Other rooms had dresssmaker dummies clad in 18th century clothing from simple to grand.

A lady's morning dress

And things for sale - - if I had realized that the proceeds from any sale went toward the refurbishing, I would have spent many of my euros.

The interior rooms were in pretty good shape.  Parts of the exterior clearly need assistance.

Not just the brick plinth needs repair; many of the shutters are broken and peeling.  But the moat wall appears to be sound - people are sitting on it.

Dinner was to be served in the adjacent brick Orangerie. The village has done an excellent restoration job on the Orangerie.

I found a pre-restoration photograph of the Orangerie.  

After all, it is rented for dinners, wedding receptions, conferences, and so on - a significant source of income for the restoration project.

The Orangerie is behind the two tents (the tents must have housed the caterer's kitchen/pantry.

This building had very large windows on the South side, fewer than I had expected.  We waited outside until the clock struck eight - and it was raining lightly.  Glad we were that it was not also muddy.

We were forced to wait outside the glass folding doors until exactly 20:00 hours (that's 8:00 PM in USA).

This was a lovely meal, with interesting appetizer using odd mushrooms, the main course was filet and potatoes, and the dessert was a kind of mousse.

Several kinds of wine, including the WCC 2013 variety.

My tidy filet with two types of potatoes - it was all good.

During dinner, there were a few speeches.  One caused great hilarity among the French-speakers.  Isabel Hardy, deputy mayor of Toulouse, said that we were there thanks to Pierre Paul Ricard (not Riquet). The hilarity was explained in the translation - - Mr. Ricard was the creator of "Pastis" and not of the canal.

A nice view of my table and the interior of the building.