Château Time

Post written on Tuesday, June 10:

Châteaux are cool. I would just like to say that while France in the olden days was a bummer for the peasants, it sure did rock to be a nobleman. Actually, in the case of Château Chenonceau, noblewoman. Originally constructed by King Henri II and his wife Catherine, throughout the years it has been lived in by many high-ranking women through the ages. 

In the times before the French Revolution, the noblemen of France used their bountiful piles of money to build huge castle-houses along the river. After Henri II and Catherine finished building the main section of Chenonceau (though it was mostly Catherine's doing while her husband attended other kingly duties), Henry gifted the château to his favorite court mistress, Diane de Poitiers (which I found kinda cold. I mean, he gave the castle that his wife built to another woman). After receiving the château, Diane added the section to the building that makes it famous:   She created a building that actually stood over the River Cher. 

The château in all it's glory:

Diane wanted to have more hunting parties on the other side of the river, and instead of just building a normal bridge, she thought nah. Let's make a huge banquet hall building that spans the entire river instead. While other nobleman lived in château's along the river, she lived in a château on the river. In addition to creating the bridge, Diane also created gardens that became known as some of the most beautiful in all of France. 

After the death of King Henri II, Catherine removed Diane from Chenonceau and took back the château. After she was once again it's rightful owner, she added on to  Diane's work by building a second story to the bridge and another garden rivaling the beauty of the first.

Long story short, the château changed hands many times for a variety of reasons (ranging from bankruptcy to inheritance), each owner (mostly women) renovating and adding on to the château as they saw fit. As a result, Chenonceau has a wide variety of building styles, interior designs, and otherwise small "souvenirs" from each owner. At some point in the 1900's there was a lot of renovation in an attempt to revert the château to its former 1700's look, so much of the building retains an older look. However, some rooms and features were left as is and still showcase the different eras. 

Much of the interior is covered with colorful, detailed tapestries depicting everything from normal castle life to the great Roman gods. Every single room has a fireplace, often ornate and sculptured in older rooms and (relatively) simplistic in newer rooms as the trends changed. There are many original paintings hanging on the walls, and the over all impression of the decorations is fancy and rich. I can't really describe the richness of the château, but maybe these pictures can:

Carolyn and I on a stone balcony overlooking one of the famous gardens.

One of the many tapestries

The personal chapel's impressive windows

That is one of the fanciest beds I've ever seen

One of the plentiful ornate fireplaces, decorated with emblems of King Henri II and Catherine.

Carolyn listening to her audio tour in the chapel.

A queen woven into one of the tapestries. So many details!

One of the river-spanning halls had walls covered with stone carved faces. We're convinced that this one is Shakespeare.

This painting is of one of the court ladies (I don't remember who) dressed as the Roman female god of the hunt.

I don't remember who this is either, but I do remember that the man commissioned this painting of himself and then gifted it to his friend. Do you think his friend appreciated his gift? I dunno, but I think that it's definately a strange gift choice. What I actually thought was more interesting than the painting was the frame. Believe it or not, it's actually gilded carved wood. Look how detailed it is!

Pretty neat, right?

Our grandparents' plan was to give us a day education of châteaux by taking us to the two most famous ones: Chenonceau and Chambord (?). However, due to time restraints, it ends up that we had to limit the visit to our second château to just walking around the outside grounds and reading the pamphlets, since a full inside tour would take too long. Nevertheless, we still learned a fair amount about Chambord. While Chenonceau is famous for its river-spanning structure, Chambord is known for its enormous size.

Believe it or not, this château was originally a "hunting lodge" for one of the kings of France (since we weren't here as long, I don't really remember the details). When I think of hunting lodge, I imagine a cozy little log shack in the woods, not an enormous stone castle decorated with arches and sculptures everywhere that covers about the same area as Inner Paris. 

An incredibly fancy tower in the "hunting lodge." Geez!

After a quick walk over to view the château from another side, time was up and it was time to hit the road again.  Which sidetracks me: if you ever want to go to Europe, make sure you have lots of cash. Or euros. Or whatever. Just make sure that you have lots of physical money. Ends up that European countries have fancy credit cards with two "chips" that the computers scan. In America, credit cards only have one chip, and as a result they don't work in a lot of the scanners. If you have any desire to get through the multitude of toll booths in a reasonable amount of time, have some euros on hand to pay the booth. 

Anyway, back on topic. Originally our plan was to get to Holland (our next stop) tonight, but we got stuck in highway traffic (bouchon in French, or the cork in a wine bottle). Grammy was worried about Grandpa driving for too long and stressing himself out, so we checked into a nearby hotel for the night. Time to get ready for tomorrow!

*Side note: there was this side pond at Chenonceau covered in algae or something. Can you spot the frog?