Bagging Chateaus in the Loire

David here again. We spent 3 weeks in Tours, including one ‘’free’’ week after our language course had finished. The main sightseeing objective of the time in the Loire was to see some of the Chateaus that everyone bangs on about. We saw 7 and here is the review from worst to best.

Amboise
Someone told me that Gough Whitlam went to french language courses in Amboise when he was appointed UNESCO Ambassador. No idea whether this is correct. Amboise is 25 kms from Tours and is very upmarket and touristy. We visited the Chateau on an excursion organised by our language school. Our guide was one of the teachers and his commentary was the highlight of the trip.
The Chateau is above the town and overlooks the Loire River.

The reasons why it rates last are: It’s not that grand because a lot was destroyed after the Revolution; it's not well furnished; the view is nice but not spectacular; and it is historically interesting enough but not fascinating. In terms of history Charles VIII was born at Amboise and died there at the age of 27 after he struck his head on the lintel of a door while playing tennis. How many times have children been told not to play games inside and yet they never learn?

We also visited Close Luce in Amboise, which is where Leonard de Vinci (same person as Leonardo da Vinci) spent the last few years of his life. The house and gardens are pretty and the De Vinci museum is excellent. Models of his inventions are scattered throughout the gardens (but no quasi-crypto-religious-nut-bag-conspiracies alas).

Model of helicopter in foreground

Beauregard
Second worst because I had high expectations and was let down. The French tourism industry trumpets the Gallery of Portraits as the largest collection of portraits known in Europe: "327 portraits adorn the walls of this room". This completely sucked me in, after all the last time I was in London it took me 3 days to get through the National Portrait Gallery.

What they don’t tell you is that two thirds of the paintings were done by the same painting school at the same time hundreds of years after the people themselves had died. The remaining third were also done in bulk some time later by a school and after most, if not all, of the subjects had died. All the paintings are also the same size – small.

On the positive side the portraits are displayed in an interesting way. Each section has a French King in the upper right corner and then his important contemporaries are displayed to his left and below him. This allows you to see the important people in the court at the time and to place foreign monarchs like Charles V of Spain and Elizabeth I of England with the French monarch of the same period. The Chateau and the gardens were also NICE.


Azay le Rideau
Architecturally very pretty. Surrounded by ponds pretending to be moats and nice but smallish gardens. Furnishings were ok. No Kings died there and no mistresses were thrown out. However it was largely built by the chief financier to Francoise I, who had to flee France when his patron (I think a chancellor) was caught out fiddling the till. Ed. Given the grandure of this house, no doubt he had a fiddle or two too.

Cheverny
This place was astonishingly furnished and is regarded as one of ‘’the big three’’ along with Chambord and Chenonceau. What is it with the ‘’ch’’? (Ed – Alliteration – Chateau starts with “ch” too)

Neither the building or the gardens are that interesting but this is more than offset by the amazing 17th century tapestry that still has vibrant red colourings (Ed. unlike every other tapestry in France that is faded), a travelling trunk used by Henry IV and a Louis XIV chest of drawers.

Table of 72 different marbles

Cheverny is also an important hunting venue and there are kennels housing about a hundred French hounds. This was a little bizarre.

It's a dog's life

When Henry II died, his wife (the ubiquitous Catherine de Medici) kicked his mistress (Dianne de Poitiers) out of Chenonceau and her consolation prize was being allowed to buy Cheverny.

Chambord
This place is amazing as a piece of architecture. Francoise I kicked off the building, reputedly with the help of Leonard de Vinci, but it was his son Henry II, and later Louis XIV, who made it look the way it does today.

Amazing double spiral staircase at the centre of the main building

There is also lots of historical information about the Bourbons who were restored to the French throne after the revolution. The Chateau was bought for the Duc de Bordeaux by crazy (presumably) conservative (presumably again) royalists in the 1820s and after the smallish incident with the Germans in 1870 (small compared with what was to come) he returned to Chambord proposing to head a constitutional monarchy but was apparently unsuccessful because he refused to enter Paris flying the tri-colour flag.

Gardens are so so and on the whole it is sparsely furnished.

Villandry
The gardens! They are simply magnificent. One blogger we read described them derisively as decadent. We describe them lovingly as decadent. Our memories of Villandry were aided by the fact that we made ourselves a sensational picnic consisting of Camembert de Normandie, some red wine from Chinon (Cabernet Franc) as well as plenty of bread, terrine and fresh fruit and found a lovely quiet spot to eat, drink and snooze for about 2 hours.

Gardens include extensive vegetable patches decorated with flower and fruit tree hedges

Dale rates Villandry Number 1 and Chenonceau Number 2 but I think he is influenced by the wine. We also had a nice picnic at Chenonceau but the gardens are not as good and we didn’t take wine.

The house is well furnished with early 20th century furniture as a Spanish scientist and his rich American wife bought it and spent her inheritance bringing the gardens back to life and refurnishing the house. Money well spent although they seem to have been religious nutters.

Chenonceau
For my money the best all round combination of history, architecture, furnishings and gardens.

It is built across the River Cher, meaning that it has water on two sides and you get stunning views from inside and out. It is the second best furnished after Cheverny with stacks of furniture from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The fact that it is built across water makes it architecturally interesting.

Dianne de Poitiers owned it when she was Henry II’s mistress but was booted out by Catherine de Medici when he died. Catherine ruled France as Regent from Chenonceau and you can see her study, which has divine views of the river. Its spine tingling to imagine all the scheming and planning, as well as highly competent administration, that went on in this room. The River also marked the boundary between occupied France and the Vichy Regime during the 2nd World War. Apparently the resistance was able to smuggle a lot of people out of occupied France through the magnificent ballroom known as the Gallery.


Gardens are also great and were the best after Villandry. It has a particularly good vegetable garden.


We had a lovely picnic and snooze here as well although sans vin.

Next instalment will cover our whirlwind petit tour of Switzerland to see the petit Suisse, and Alsace.