Château de Chenonceau

Latter that same day, we went to the Château de Chenonceau, which was my second favorite castle in the Loire Valley. This is the château of women, seven women took part in the creation and preservation of this splendid castle. Catherine Briçonnet, Diane de Poitier, Catherine de Medici, Louise de Lorraine, Louise Dupin, Marguerite Pelouze and Simone Menier.

The sphinxes that protect the entrance to the walkway that leads to the castle are not original to the castle. They came for the château de Chanteloup that had been destroyed in the XIXth century. This castle was somewhere in the Amboise forest, and only a small remnant of it remains.

The Chapelle at Chenonceau was the smallest chapel by far. But its history is interesting. The stained glass windows, vitraux, are from 1954 because the original ones were destroyed when the Allies attempted to bomb the Nazis. Although it was small its bright windows and nice paintings made it look beautiful. 

This picture of the Three Graces hangs in the salon of François I. Its a beautiful renaissance room with soft yellow walls and a glowing fireplace. The painting done in the 1700's depicts the three graces as three of the king's mistresses, the Mailly-Nesle sisters.

 Louise Dupin had the château in 1706. And she was a well read women who brought education to Chenonceau. She entertained guests such as Montesquiue and Voltaire. And she even had Jean-Jacques Rousseau stay to tutor her children.

Above is the room of Diane de Poitier. Diane, the mistress of Henri II created the bridge over the river Cher. This is probably Chenonceau's most recognizabel attribute. He gave her the castle because she was his favorite mistress. She helped to create the large formal gardens.

 

 In the center of the main part of the castle there is a grand staircase. It isn't super fancy, but the stairs lead up to the center vestibules on each floor. The turn was a little ominous on the way down because there were large drops from the pivot of the stairs.

 At the bottom of the grand staircase there is the kitchen. There where separate rooms for baking, cooking and preparing meat. There were also many different utensils used in the kitchen ranging from the copper pots on the left, and the hooks and knives on the right, to the mortar and pastel on the bottom. In each room there was a head of some animal that had been killed and most likely eaten.

This is the chamber of the five Queens, the two daughters and the three daughters in law of Catherine de Medici. Margot the wife of Henri IV, Mary Stuart, Elisabeth de France, Elisabeth d'Autriche and Louise de Lorraine.

Louise de Lorraine, the daughter in law of Catherine de Medici and wife of Henri III, was left the château her mother in law. Upon the death of her husband, Henri III, she had her room decorated in black, with a small kneeler in which she could pray for his soul. He was assassinated during the Wars of Religion by a fanatic monk but was probably the best son of Catherine.

 This is the chamber of Catherine de Medici. Catherine, after the death of Henri II, chased Diane out the castle. Afterwards she made the bridge over the Cher into a gallery that is absolutely beautiful. She also made a formal garden to rival that of Diane.

It made me really happy, in a sorta evil way, that the portait above of Catherine was not hung in her room but rather the room of Diane de Poitier. I think Catherine would have liked the idea that she is the most dominant figure in Diane's room. A nice way to stick it to her I think.

 This beautifully long gallery was made by Catherine de Medici. She added this on top of the bridge that Diane made. They celebrate Christmas until Febuary in France, so there was still decorations lining the black and white gallery. Along both walls are faces of famous people. It has 18 windows each that face out onto the river Cher  Simone Menier, during the First World War, was a nurse and Chenonceau was turned into a hospital. The castle also facilitated escape from Nazi occupied France in the Second World War to the free zone on the opposite bank of the Cher River.

This vine covered Rapunzel tower is all that remains of the first castle here. It's called the Tour des Marques and was once part of a larger construction that was razed in the process of making Chenonceau by Thomas Briçonnet, a royal chamberlain in the 16th century.

Catherine Briçonnet was the wife fo the royal chamberlain and helped construct the castle. He husband Thomas acquired the castle in 1512 and she over saw its construction. She thought of a way to have all the room in the main part of the château lead off from a central vestibule on each floor. Hence the grand hallways.

Marguerite Pelouze, whom I couldn't get a picture of, bought the castle in 1863 and tried to restore it to the the way Catherine Briçonnet would have wanted. Luckily she ran out of money before she could tear down Catherine de Medici's gallery.   

Although it is January, the gardens jardins were still quite beautiful. The grounds are wonderful, along with the Gardens of Diane and Catherine, there is also a 17th century farm ferme, flower gardens potager des fleurs, lines of trees and a park of donkeys parc aux ânes. There is also a hedge maze labyrinthe and some caryatides a sculpted figure that takes the place of a supporting column.

Over all, I found Chenonceau beautiful.