After a delicious breakfast out our little French countryside B&B, Melissa and I set off for another day of castle-touring.
Our first stop was le château Chenonceau. This was definitely a lady's castle as it was given as a gift from the French king to his favorite lady, Diane de Poitiers. However, when the king died, his wife, Catherine de Medici, traded it back.
This is the road leading up to the castle. Very grand and majestic, huh?!
It is such an interesting castle. Thankfully, Melissa and I share a love for history which makes visiting old places such as castles even more enjoyable. We made sure to read every sign! We were too cheap to pay for a guided tour, but wanted to hear all the little trivia that guides seem to know. So...what did we do? What any smart tourist would/should do! We found a group of elderly tourists that had paid for a guided tour and sneakily tagged behind them from room to room, pretending to be occupied with the paintings, but listening very closely to the guide's every word! Here's a little of what we learned:
- Catherine de Medici was married at the age of 14!
- Although Catherine and Diane were rivals, they were also cousins.
(Sherlynn, I'm so thankful our relationship does in no way resemble theirs!)
- The reason beds at this time were so very short and wide is because when guests arrived at the castle, they generally slept in the same bed as the host. There were no guest rooms--unless you were the king of course. AND, back then, they slept sitting up because it was bad luck to sleep in a posture that resembled death.
Now, do you love history?!
This is Catherine de Medici's garden.
And this is Diane de Poitiers' garden.
This is the room from which Catherine de Medici ruled France!!! Can you believe it?!
By the way, there are HUGE fresh flower arrangements like this in every single room of the castle and they are re-done every day of the year! Incredible!!!
The castle was used as a hospital during World War I.
Not too shabby for a hallway, eh? This is where they would have the dances.
The castle also sat on "la ligne de démarcation" that separated free France from German occupied France during World War II. Because of this location, the castle was used to smuggle people from the free zone to the occupied zone. A German tank sat on one side ready to destroy the castle if necessary.
I love touring French castles with this pretty lady!
This is the oldest part of the castle--originally part of "le château fort."
The stables and gardens were magnificent. I've read in books of how "the air was perfumed with the sweet scent of roses" and usually scoffed at such exaggeration. Let me tell you, if you get enough roses in one place, the air can indeed smell of roses!
Melissa's new faithful GPS did a great job of getting us from place to place. However, we knew something was a bit wrong when Tomtom said, "You have arrived at your destination" and we saw this:
Definitely not Chambord!
After a little re-routing, we arrived at the real destination.
It is enormous!
It has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms!
It was built as a hunting lodge for King Francis I. The kings who used this hunting lodge only stayed here a couple of weeks out of the year.
Unbelievable!
The paintings were huge and there were tons of them!
The famous staircase.
It is actually two double spiral staircases that intertwine but never actually meet and go up 3 stories. The design was supposedly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.
The view was amazing.
This is what I want in my backyard: a little creek with a stone bridge that leads into a lane with tall trees on both sides.
Thank-you, Melissa, for being such a great road-trip buddy!
You are truly beautiful and I love you.
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