Fanspot
Parc du Verger
“A small gain is worth more than a large promise.”
Excerpt from The Fisherman and the Little Fish by Jean de La Fontaine
We are in September 1663. Jean de La Fontaine is visiting Châtellerault. He sends a letter to his wife, dated the 5th, in which he mentions the city of Poitou. The fabulist is traveling with his uncle, brutally exiled by Colbert because of his connections with the superintendent of finance Nicolas Fouquet, imprisoned by King Louis XIV. So the time has come for the uncle to put himself in the green and to be forgotten for a while.
Châtellerault, at the gates of Poitou, welcomed the uncle and his nephew. Legend has it that one day, sitting on a stone bench in the city’s parc du Verger, Jean de La Fontaine wrote his fable, The Fisherman and the Little Fish, the result of a scene he witnessed on the banks of the Vienne River.
Many experts are cautious with this legend. Knowing that, like many of his writings, La Fontaine would have been inspired by a fable of Aesop, The Fisherman and the Little Fish, and that in the letter to his wife he makes no mention of his new creation, there is little historical evidence to support the theory. On the other hand, his stay in Châtellerault cannot be revoked and this is enough for many people in Châtellerault to be convinced that the famous author did indeed write his few lines in the parc du Verger. An idea like this is not something you can fish out of the ocean.
The Fables of La Fontaine contains 243 allegorical fables published by Jean de La Fontaine between 1668 and 1694.
Parc du verger
Adjacent to the Chateau du Verger, the park has many varieties of trees, amazing sculptures, a party room and hosts many story readings.
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