This residence is not a castle. It is the house of a major figure in French literature: that of Pierre de Ronsard, “the poet of princes, the Prince of poets”. The writer was inspired by nature to write his works. André Manoukian reveals everything to you.
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“Darling, let’s go see if the rose. Which this morning had opened. Her purple dress in the sun. This vespre is perfectly lost. The folds of her purple dress. And her complexion is the same as yours.” Who doesn’t know this poem evoking the youth of a woman who passes like the brightness of a flower?
When we enter the gardens of the Saint-Cosme priory, near Tours, these verses resonate among the roses. Because it is here, in Touraine, that the famous poet Pierre de Ronsard spent the last twenty years of his life. Appointed by King Charles IX, the court poet official was in charge of it. It is also here that he wrote the Franciade, an epic dedicated to the history of France.
The poet Pierre de Ronsard born 500 years ago died at the Prieuré Saint-Cosme where his grave is located.
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© I. Amelot / France Télévisions
The place is a hymn to the rose. Rose bushes of all kinds are in the spotlight. But above all the Pierre de Ronsard rose whose scent perfumes the garden.
Alongside them, the vegetable garden of the monks of the time: aromatic plants, medicinal plants, forgotten vegetables, flowers… Ronsard was very attached to nature and the priory garden.
The poet enjoyed gardening while writing. Among the 500 plants which today adorn the Priory gardens, nearly 350 are mentioned in the poet’s texts. He often said “I really like the garden which smells of the wild.”
In the vegetable garden, there are these exotic plants for the time: fig trees, fennel, but also artichokes. It was Catherine de Medici who brought them back from Florence. She loves it. Especially the background.
“The wild garden is between nature and what we are beginning to domesticate. This is how artichokes were born. The artichoke is a domesticated and cultivated thistle.” explains Vincent Guidault, head of the Prieuré Saint-Cosme.
François I has just declared French as an official language in place of Latin by the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539. The leader of La Pléiade (founding movement of French-language literature) then plays mimicry with nature in his texts to ennoble the French language: “He is very fond of the art of grafting, which is to take advantage of a plant that is well established in the soil and from it, we will give something else.” says Vincent Guidault.
The art of grafting is what Ronsard will practice for language. To the vernacular language, he will add a little Latin, a little Greek to make it richer, more beautiful.
Vincent Guidault, head of the Priory of Saint-Cosme.
To find out more about the Saint-Cosme priorysee you on the Château show! by André Manoukian, to discover this Sunday, December 15, 2024 at 12:55 p.m. on France 3 Centre-Val de Loire, or now on the France.tv platform
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