Château De Chenonceau

On our way to the south of France for our annual family vacation, we stopped at Chenonceau. I remember that there were loads of (plastic?) sheep sculptures on the lawn, I wonder if they’re still there.

I also remember my mom sitting down on a bench in the castle and being chooed away by an angry supervisor, turned out the bench was part of the exposition :/

My parents have a watercolour painting of the castle which they got as a souvenir here.

The picture is a scan of an old slide my dad took back then.

Of the five Loire chateaux I visited last Spring, Chenonceau was by far my favourite. There is something magical about this place, and if you visit on a day with no crowds it’s perfectly possible to imagine you’ve stepped into a Disney film. If you only visit one chateau in the Loire, make it this one.

try to go at an off time to avoid the crowds because they are HUGE. but the castle is beautiful.

A few years ago, I was google searching for garden plans or gardens or something like that, and found a picture of the gardens at Chenonceau. I looked up more photos of the chateau, and learned that it was a love nest of sorts for one of the kings of France (one of the Henris, but I don’t remember which one) and his mistress, Diane De Poitiers. She was an interesting character. Apparently, the chateau was a point of conflict between the wife and the mistress, both wanted to own it. It’s also called the “Chateau des Femmes”, or something like that,

because every major improvement or restoration was done by a woman. It was used during WWII as a field hospital, and at one point all the original windows got blown out during that war, too. Sad.

ANYWAY, then I found this website about travelling in the Loire Valley and touring the chateaux on horseback! That sounded so fabulous. If I found myself suddenly with a lot of money and free time, I would love to do that.

http://www.hiddentrails.com/europe/france/loire-escape.htm

All the time I’ve spent in France and I never made it to the Loire Valley. I feel the need to see some fancy houses…