Chenonceau

I knew before I reached the vaste open plains of the Loire that I would love it here – what a relief I was right. Sure the winters here are a bit more harsh than those of the south of France, but I love the lushness of the long, flat feilds that break between thick forests. These enchanted forests with their winding paths promise to lead you to forget you are a young adult in the 21st century – instead you’re lagging behind your caravan as a gypsy waiting for a charming prince on a white horse to come fall for you. Like a child playing mermaid in the public swimming pool, it’s easy to let your imagination get the best of you as you continue on, filling a bag with chestnuts you’ll roast over a fire with friends back at the house.

We were supposed to have rain… we had clear blue skies instead.

My goal has been to visit five chateaux in the Loire Valley during my two week vacation here. Surprisingly, this has proved easier than I predicted (having access to a car certainly helps) even despite my long hours reviewing French in an intensive language program.

Earlier this week, we piled into our small (English) car and were off just in time to make the ball held in the long gallery over the water at Chenonceau. Ok, so there was no ball; we just missed it by about 300 years – none the less I was very excited to finally see one of the most adored chateaux of the Loire, perhaps even of France.

Fresh flowers made each room shine with life. This was once Diane de Poitiers’ (mistress of Henri II) room.

Chenonceau (Chenonceaux with the x refers to the village, without the x refers to the château) had two features to it that I have yet to find in any other chateau I have visited in France. First of all, almost every single room had a large bouquet of fresh (real) flowers. Secondly, in some of the rooms the large fireplaces were still being put to use! Being able to warm up next to the fire gave the chateau a much homelier feel to it than some of the others and the numerous (and enormous) floral arrangements made it seem as if the queen was still wandering the halls, thus the royal staff would naturally be filling every space with flowers cut from the castle gardens.

Crackling fires kept the chill of fall at bay in what used to be Catherine de Medici’s (queen, thus wife of Henri II) room. For an amazingly thorough virtual visit of the chateau and each of its quarters, you might want to check out the Chenonchea official website.

My favorite element in the castle of Chenonceau was the kitchen which houses an amazing collection of old utinsels and tools from the 16th century. I can’t imagine how crazy the head chef would have been on the day of a ball, but even still, the kitchen was planned quite logically. The kitchen is situated on the lower floor of the gallery – thus, over the water. Underneath one of the arches is a small dock that used pullies to delivery goods directly into the kitchen – a guest never would have seen large bags of flour, countless plucked chickens, or bottle after bottle of wine being delivered to the castle. Though I’d rather be the queen, I also wouldn’t mind being the baker whose sugar was delivered by boat into a little window overlooking the peaceful Cher.

I can see why Catherine de Medici refused, at least in the end, to let Diane du Poitiers have Chenonceau.

The greatest thing about chateaux out in the middle of the valley, is that many are surrounded by vaste forests. Chenonceau was certainly no exception. After walking though the vegetable gardens, complete with a little commoners village where the castle employees would have lived, we wandered deep into the forests. Crunching through the leaves, we saw wild mushrooms, berries, multitudes of chestnuts, beaver-ish animals, red squarrels and ducks. My favorite, though not wild, were the cute little donkeys in the village that were too stubborn to find out if I really had a treat for them or not.

Little known fact: I adore donkeys.

Chenonceau was great for a break from the rush of everyday life. We wandered here and there without anything pressing us to walk faster or finish up the day. There was no where to be and being low-season, no crowds to rush passed. In fact, as soon as we arrived at the château, we stopped for a little French picnic instead of running to the castle gates.

Tagged as: Chateaux, Chenonceau, Loire Valley, Travel