Hamlet of La Basse Chevrière

Depart from Place Alexander Calder (Town Hall).

After leaving the Town Hall Square where a mobile throne offered to the town by the artist Calder (1898-1976), you pass the St. Martin of Vertou church (XII century). Across the other side of the street, some old houses and an inn of the same period.

Turn left, the direction of Druyes. At first metal bridge, "photo stop", with behind the church of Saché and under the bridge: Indre Balzac called, in his novel "lily in the valley" its "valley of love, long ribbon of water flowing in the sun between two green banks "... in the distance, 400 m, a little to the right, stands the castle of Goatherd (Clochegourde in the novel).

Turn left at the crossed river, follow a small dirt road for 100 m, then turn left, and then discover 50 m, the "Moulin Rouge", typical, yet with its old bridge, that writer borrowed on foot, starting from Castle Saché to go in "Mantua" (long wooden boat) to the port of the goatherd, located 300 m upstream (the place being marshy). "Pause picture" of the Indre. Back to the bridges along the same path...

3 bridges crossed the stop sign, cross the road (RD 84), just take you to the paved road and 70 m, you will discover: on your left, 200 m further west: the last workshop of Calder, there in which he expressed his great stabile and mobile. To your right, to the north and 300 m, a nice view of the castle of Goatherd. Back to stop, head of Artannes, you are in the hamlet, low drive Goatherd. Faced with the number 27 "photo stop." Of the ferryman's house (number 10), charmingly, became in 1957 the Gouacherie (paint shop) Calder and that has not changed since the death of the artist, in 1976. In the background, 100 m just right: the Indre again. And the spanning, green mill of the Goatherd, even with its wheel, always in action... At his feet, the ancient port of Goatherd (now defunct), from where a ferry used before the construction of bridges, was passing from one bank to another: "carts, riders, cattle... sedan chairs, carriages". Balzac landed and then joined "Clochegourde", along with a path to the east, the ferryman's house, then the dirt road that climbs behind you left.

At number 33, stands the "home Francis I" (XV century), former wine house, with its Fuyes pigeons, adjoining the crest of the hill dug many tunnels, from which we extracted the tufa, stone castles. Calder takes up residence there in 1954 with his studio, barn, that he should be glazed. There he invented and produced most of his works "mobile and stabile".

Between number 33 and number 10, is a restored country house (dated 1715), unusual: the home of the painter and glassmaker Ray Sutter. Y remain stained glass in colored glass tiles, in a technique called "concrete", symbolic and figurative drawings, often lit at nightfall, and visible from the road, or the "passage of sighs", left.

The route then follows a series of troglodyte caves, once inhabited, for some, a persistent background noise: the spillway green mill nearby, which dates from the twelfth century (1). The route stops 50 m. At the foot of the rock wall is a curious plaque, recalling the passage of the Tour de France in 1957. It is due to the sculptor Gino Stagetti, who worked for the artist Joe Davidson (1883-1952), sculptor of "celebrities "which was installed not far from there, the" mansion Bécheron "... and whose son became... later, the son of Calder.

The return to the Town Hall Square is via the same path as on the way.

(1) The falls of the mill offer the greatest vertical drop of the Indre, which may explain the resonance.