Châteaux of the Loire Valley

This trip was taken over the Easter holiday (Pâques), April 11 and 12, 1998. We started off our Sunday by attending Easter services with the Visser's, a Baptist missionary family in Nantes. After saying our good-byes we piled into 2 cars(our normal mode of transportation thru Europe) and set out to see some of the famous Châteaux of the Loire Valley. On our way to our first destination, Azay-le Rideau we passed by the Châteaux of Angers and Saumur. We visited Azay-le Rideau and Villandry on Sunday afternoon, then spent the nite in Tours. We were up again early Monday morning to begin our trek to Chaumont sur Loire, Chambord, and Chenonceau. Due to time constraints we were unable to see the Château Ussé, which is where the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale was supposed to have originated. We will try to fit it into our next trip to France.

Azay-le Rideau

We arrived at Azay-le Rideau around 15:30, to find to our surprise that the entrance fee was free that day. After entering the grounds we immediately saw that the Château was under renovation (beaucoup de scaffolding) and the fact that the Château was not open to explore the inside (Bummer!). We were able to walk around the outside and admire its beauty, there appeared to be an interesting spiral staircase at the main entrance to the château.

Now without further delay, On to Villandry ! ! !

Villandry

We arrived at Villandry around 17:45, needless to say there was a very long line at the entrance to the Château. I'm glad the admission to Azay-le Rideau was free, because this place was NOT cheap. As it turns out, I think Villandry was the most expensive Château we visited. There was one fee to visit the inside of the Château and another fee to visit the gardens. We payed for both, times seven people, OUCH! ! !. Hey you only live once, RIGHT?

Villandry was completed around 1536 and was the last of the large Châteaux built on the banks of the Loire during the Renaissance.

The gardens need considerable upkeep, surrounding the garden there are 1,260 lime trees which have to be pollarded. This task takes four men four months to complete. There are 52km of box hedge in the gardens. The gardens are weeded entirely by hand because box has very delicate roots. 250,000 flower and vegetable plants are raised each year in the greenhouses and planted out in the gardens.

Chaumont-sur-Loire

This turned out to be my favorite Château of the five that we were able to visit. The book that I was given by my work associates from Alcatel in Orvault entitled Châteaux of the Loire lists fifty-one châteaux scattered throughout the Loire valley.

Chaumont was small enough and the tour of the inside seemed to cover a large segment of the space that I felt that I had recieved a formal introduction. The rooms were furnished and there were beautiful tapestries hung through-out.

Chambord

Chambord, the last of the royal châteaux of the Loire, was a park before it was a château. Created by the young François I around 1519, it is a last imposing piece of chivalric scenery. Ironically, François never saw it completed. No one actually lived in it, it was not a residence but a symbol. The court of François I spent only a few days there during his forty-year reign. Four hundred forty rooms and a one hundred fifty-six meter façade make Chambord the largest of the Loire castles.

The weather was still cool the day we were there and there were huge logs burning in some of the fireplaces. There were over three hundred fireplaces as well and the ceilings on the first floor seem to rise up to the sky. A spiral staircase at the center of the château had two entrances, which meant that two people can walk up the opposing stairways and never meet, INCREDIBLE....

Chenonceaux

On our way to Chenonceau we passed by Cheverny, we did not have time to go in, but we were able to get a peak thru the bushes.