France 3 Centre-Val de Loire highlights Rabelais’ Touraine and the Cadre Noir in Saumur

In the footsteps of François Rabelais in Indre-et-Loire

To mark the f estival des Nourritures Élémentaires (basic food festival) which took place in Chinon on the weekend of 9 to 12 November 2017, France 3 Centre produced a documentary on Rabelais and his legacy in the Touraine region. Even though the 16th-century author invariably evokes the feasts from the beginning of the Renaissance, he was also a much more complicated figure than he appears. 

Behind the scenes at the Cadre Noir in Saumur

The Cadre Noir in Saumur is a highly-regarded institution in the equestrian world, added in 2011 by UNESCO to the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

The documentary deals in turns with the work of the grooms and riding masters at the Cadre Noir, dressage, the smithy and the library where publications on the French equestrian tradition from the 18th and 19th centuries are kept.