We headed 65 kms up the valley this morning, past Blois, to the Chambord Chateaux. We stopped a short distance away to take in the sight and get a few photos. We were treated to more than we expected. A right royal dust-up between a cycle tourist and one of the local inhabitants. He had put his used tissue into her rubbish bin while she was looking out the window. She threw open the window, and it was then that the yelling started from both sides. She was telling him to put his rubbish somewhere else and he was saying it was just a tissue and it was better in her bin then on the roadside (at least that is the gist of what we could translate through verbal and non-verbal signals). The funny part was that despite the wrath from both sides, every sentence either of them uttered ended in either a very polite “… monsieur” or “… madam”. Neither of them would back down, and it didn’t finish until the man’s wife took the tissue out of the bin with a ‘For God’s sake’ attitude. French pantomime at its best.
Once the show was over we moved on to the Chateaux. This place is HUGE! Set in the centre of 5440 hectares of woodlands surrounded by a 32 km wall (the same area as inner Paris), 800 hectares of which is open to the public. Wild pigs and deer call this place home and have done for many centuries, which gives the theme to the chateaux. You get the impression that this was more of a hunting lodge and boys club, turned chateaux, than where we were yesterday which was dominated by women and whose influence was apparent.
The focus on today’s visit was the architecture, rather than the personalities and stories of Chenonceau. To give you a sense of the scale of this place, Chambord is 156m long, 56m tall, with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms. It was just a shame that only one of the fireplaces was burning today, because although it was a cool day today, it was bone chillingly cold inside.
Francis I started the building of this place in 1519, and he was quoted as saying ‘If one is too concerned about the completion of things, one will never start anything’. Just as well he had that attitude because it certainly wasn’t completed within his lifetime. It was finally completed in 1745, after several breaks in construction due to strife, wars, and changes in power, including one hiatus of due years due to lack of interest. The chateaux is built around its central masterpiece, the double helix staircase rising up to a huge lantern shape for illumination, designed by Leonardo de Vinci, of whom Francis I was a huge fan. Two people can walk up and down these staircases and never meet despite seeing each other regularly through the numerous portals along the way.
Through the various rooms, you are continuously reminded that this was essentially a hunting lodge. Huge halls and galleries filled to overflowing with antlers and trophy heads of various game, paintings of hunting scenes with huge, opulent looking gilt frames. One of the strange things is that some of the mounted antlers are dated as recent as 1970. It makes you wonder how that came to be there, who shot these animals, and did they come from these grounds?
Despite the ‘boys club’ feeling you get from this chateaux Francis I is reputed to have been a ‘connoisseur’ of women, having included 27 young ladies of rank in his household and many more than that in the household of the queen. He is quoted as having said that ‘A court without women is like a year without spring, and a spring without roses’. Despite his fondness for the fairer sex, while in a melancholy mood in the autumn of 1545 he wrote on one of the window panes with his diamond ring, ‘Women is fickle, unhappy is he who trusts her’. It makes you wonder who and what inspired this mood.
Downstairs in the coach room there are seven royal coaches that were built in 1871, for a coronation that never happened. In fact these coaches were never used, because the said gentleman that was to be crowned in Paris, refused to be crowned under the tricolour and instead he wanted the white flag of France. So instead of being crowned he spent the rest of his days in exile, and these coaches are still doing nothing but gathering dust.
This theme of wasted opulence is everywhere here. The various kings and nobility that this chateaux has come under the power of, have never spent more than a handful of nights here each, during the entire life of this building. When you look at this place with that in mind, also bearing mind that this nobility class had these chateaux scattered throughout the country, you can understand why the French people revolted against the nobility.
After seeing as much as we wanted to of the building we headed outdoors and into the grounds. With 800 hectares at your disposal, where do you go first? We took the easy route and spent a couple of hours walking along the canal, trying to find as much sunshine as could, to thaw out after spending so much time inside that cold building. We walked along admiring the autumn leaves, the reflections in the canal, and watching out for wildlife. We did see a couple of pheasant, evidence of the pigs and deer that are supposed to abound here, and according to the evidence, they do abound.
On the way home, the dark roadsides and villages were interrupted at odd points with little fields with little gatherings of caravans, and makeshift settlements, centered around large fires seemingly for an evening meal. They look like gypsy settlements and we can only assume that that is what they are.
Once the show was over we moved on to the Chateaux. This place is HUGE! Set in the centre of 5440 hectares of woodlands surrounded by a 32 km wall (the same area as inner Paris), 800 hectares of which is open to the public. Wild pigs and deer call this place home and have done for many centuries, which gives the theme to the chateaux. You get the impression that this was more of a hunting lodge and boys club, turned chateaux, than where we were yesterday which was dominated by women and whose influence was apparent.
The focus on today’s visit was the architecture, rather than the personalities and stories of Chenonceau. To give you a sense of the scale of this place, Chambord is 156m long, 56m tall, with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms. It was just a shame that only one of the fireplaces was burning today, because although it was a cool day today, it was bone chillingly cold inside.
Francis I started the building of this place in 1519, and he was quoted as saying ‘If one is too concerned about the completion of things, one will never start anything’. Just as well he had that attitude because it certainly wasn’t completed within his lifetime. It was finally completed in 1745, after several breaks in construction due to strife, wars, and changes in power, including one hiatus of due years due to lack of interest. The chateaux is built around its central masterpiece, the double helix staircase rising up to a huge lantern shape for illumination, designed by Leonardo de Vinci, of whom Francis I was a huge fan. Two people can walk up and down these staircases and never meet despite seeing each other regularly through the numerous portals along the way.
Through the various rooms, you are continuously reminded that this was essentially a hunting lodge. Huge halls and galleries filled to overflowing with antlers and trophy heads of various game, paintings of hunting scenes with huge, opulent looking gilt frames. One of the strange things is that some of the mounted antlers are dated as recent as 1970. It makes you wonder how that came to be there, who shot these animals, and did they come from these grounds?
Despite the ‘boys club’ feeling you get from this chateaux Francis I is reputed to have been a ‘connoisseur’ of women, having included 27 young ladies of rank in his household and many more than that in the household of the queen. He is quoted as having said that ‘A court without women is like a year without spring, and a spring without roses’. Despite his fondness for the fairer sex, while in a melancholy mood in the autumn of 1545 he wrote on one of the window panes with his diamond ring, ‘Women is fickle, unhappy is he who trusts her’. It makes you wonder who and what inspired this mood.
Downstairs in the coach room there are seven royal coaches that were built in 1871, for a coronation that never happened. In fact these coaches were never used, because the said gentleman that was to be crowned in Paris, refused to be crowned under the tricolour and instead he wanted the white flag of France. So instead of being crowned he spent the rest of his days in exile, and these coaches are still doing nothing but gathering dust.
This theme of wasted opulence is everywhere here. The various kings and nobility that this chateaux has come under the power of, have never spent more than a handful of nights here each, during the entire life of this building. When you look at this place with that in mind, also bearing mind that this nobility class had these chateaux scattered throughout the country, you can understand why the French people revolted against the nobility.
After seeing as much as we wanted to of the building we headed outdoors and into the grounds. With 800 hectares at your disposal, where do you go first? We took the easy route and spent a couple of hours walking along the canal, trying to find as much sunshine as could, to thaw out after spending so much time inside that cold building. We walked along admiring the autumn leaves, the reflections in the canal, and watching out for wildlife. We did see a couple of pheasant, evidence of the pigs and deer that are supposed to abound here, and according to the evidence, they do abound.
On the way home, the dark roadsides and villages were interrupted at odd points with little fields with little gatherings of caravans, and makeshift settlements, centered around large fires seemingly for an evening meal. They look like gypsy settlements and we can only assume that that is what they are.
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