Pierre de Ronsard and Le Prieuré Saint-Cosme, La Riche, Tours, Indre-et-Loire (37)

The great poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-85) spent his final twenty years at the twelfth-century Saint-Cosme priory at La Riche near Tours, where Catherine de Medici and her son Charles IX had given him the administration. It is here that he died and where he is buried, although his stone is recent.

For centuries Ronsard suffered neglect, although the quality of his poems were 're-discovered' by such literary figures as Sainte-Beuve and Flaubert. More recently, he has been quoted in songs by Serge Gainsbourg, Alain Bashung, Juliette Gréco, etc.

Ronsard's home at the priory, screened by the pergola.

His home from a different angle, and the ruins of the church.

Ronsard's latest tombstone.