Just mention the Loire Valley and to most people the typical image that would be conjured up in their minds is that of the myriad of incredible chateaux that populate the area. In fact there are more chateaux around here than a snail-eating local could poke the proverbial baguette at! (over three hundred to be less-than-precise!Umm chateaux that is NOT baguettes!) With big names such as Chambord, Chenonceau, Villandry, Chaumont and others you would literally need months to see them all properly.
So why does an area that is so seemingly in the middle-of-nowhere have such a rich treasure-trove of magnificent estates? Well basically this area which is known as the "Garden of France" and the "Cradle of the French Language" has been populated by peoples since the time that Asterix and Obelisk were running around hunting boar and annoying the heck out of Julius and his Roman legions! Its climate and the river, the longest in France paying a big part of why people lived here 2000 years ago. (Although to look at the Loire you might be forgiven for thinking this is NOT the longest river in the country! In fact at times the Loire looks so pathetic it is almost seems to be apologetically making its way westward out to the Atlantic and at any moment it appears ready to give the odd passerby a "pardon mois monsieur" and double back on itself sheepishly heading back into the hills from whence it arose! It is a mere trickle next to the mighty Rhone further south!) Anyway, as always, I digress!
As the royalty of France made this their home during the 12th to 16th C's the "hanger-onnerers" (if there is such a word!) followed suit and decided to set-up camp nearby to their rulers. Most of them had "a bit of coin" as well so figured they best keep up with the Jones' (or in this case "keep up with the Dubois' "!) (If Kanye West was around at the time perhaps the song Gold-digger would have been quite appropriate to all those members of the Royal Court who tried to get favours from each successive ruler at the time!) The "Val du Loire" itself is that region a few hours drive south and south west of Paris that extends over an area of ~800km2 and a length of around 280km of the Loire itself.
So without going into the detail of them all (which of course would take a few hundred individual blogs - here are just a few important ones I've had the pleasure to visit over the last few days. At times I felt like I was on a speed-dating day-out with all these different chateaux!
Chateau de Chambord - one-time home of the mighty Francois I and owes some of its design to the incredible man of the Renaissance - Leonardo di Vinci. Amazing roof design and an intricate intertwined double-helix staircase reminiscent of a strand of DNA! What a clever Leo!
Chateau de Chenonceau another one belonging to Francois I of the 1500's (well,actually he "borrowed" it (permanently!) from someone else but you can do that kind of thing when you're the king and there's bucket-loads of gold coming in from the new colonies!!) One of the most spectacular and most visited due to it's unique location straddling the serene River Cher. (As opposed to the UN-serene Cher straddling a cannon in THAT "outfit" in the video clip from the 90's!Not sure that Catherine de Medici who owned Chenonceau for a while had a wardrobe quite like that! )
Azay-le-Rideau no NOT belonging to Francois I for a change! Built on the quiet little Indre river which serves as a natural moat, Azay is a pretty "little" chateau in the western end of the Loire Valley. Built around the 1400's and a VERY cute little market-town right nearby.
Usse Well if any of the chateau of the Loire invoke images of Rapunzal or Sleeping Beauties then this is it. Usse is meant to be one of the European castles that inspired Walt Disney to build his very-own castle at Disneyland. (Then again the same story has been told before about the very famous Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria so I'm not sure which tale to believe!Given this chateau was built in the late 1400's and Mad King Ludwig's southern German counterpart not until the 1800's then perhaps Ludwig's architect "borrowed" some inspiration from Usse!?) In either case one could very easily imagine stumbling upon a sleeping beauty up in the tower, a dragon in the moat or even a large green ogre being followed by a hyper-active donkey and a Spanish-accented Puss-in-Boots nearby! Having said that within the upper rooms of Usse they do have in fact some displays of famous fairy-tales - a little bit kitsch but it drags in the crowds! Even has some nicely furnished rooms with displays of fashion from 18th and 19th C.
Villandry Of all the chateaux this one is renowned for its incredible gardens. The chateau itself is quite nice (as far as chateaux go!) but it's the incredible array of colours in the different formal flower and vegetable gardens that impresses here! There is a veritable team of gardeners whose only job is to remove the weeds daily from the different sections of the garden - when you run out of work please come and help at my home!!
Chaumont-sur-Loire Set high up above the Loire this one is impressive for its beautiful round towers at its entrance and drawbridge across its moat. Although the interior has some beautiful intact rooms for me it is the exterior that is most impressive with this chateau. Large gardens that yearly play home to a huge garden exhibition.
Amboise Also perched up on a rocky outcrop directly above the Loire River - yes this was another of Francois I's! Fairly empty inside but in great knick it plays host to a summer spectacular twice per week (see my earlier blog) but more importantly within the gardens is the beautiful Gothic chapel which houses the tomb of Leonardo de Vinci. An incredible chapel for an incredible man! His home for his final 5 years before parting this world,the Close Luce is a mere 500m walk up the road. |
| The chapel housing the tomb of Leonardo de Vinci |
Salu!!
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