We awake to another fire alarm - 7:15am wake up call. Not part of the plan. When we check out I hope they ask me how my stay was - I have my thoughts ready to tell them straight. We pack our bags, clean up any evidence of eating in the room and carry the garbage with us. We exit our room down the dark hallway to the elevator. No one is at the front desk. There is a note on the phone receiver to call for service. We make the call and wait for five minutes and finally a young woman shows up. Of course she doesn’t ask about our stay and we check out without incident. Note to self - avoid the Logis hotel chain.
Following the advice from the couple at dinner last night we enter Chenonceau into google maps and are again driving into the countryside. It really is fun exploring the Loire Valley. I recommend putting it on your bucket list but give yourself a week or more. The history gets in your blood. The wine is excellent and costs little. We saw wine caves with tastings multiple times during our drives. If I could go back in time I would add another week here to slow down and taste my way thru the valley - next time.
In the sixteenth century, Thomas Bohier and his wife Katherine Briconnet demolished the fortified castle and the mill that was standing in this location to create Chateau de Chenonceau, which spans the River Cher. In 1547, King Henri II donated the castle to his favorite lady, Diane de Poitiers. She created the gardens which were some of the most modern and spectacular at that time. In 1559 the king was killed in simple combat during a tournament. His widow, Queen Catherine de Medici had the castle given back to her. In exchange she gave Diane a different home, the Chaumont-sur-Loire. As regent, Catherine governed France from the green study and helped support the young king Henry III. Catherine died in 1589. Henry III was assassinated by a monk on August 11th 1589 and his wife, Louise of Lorraine withdrew to the chateau and went into mourning. She dressed in white and her bedroom is all in black. Her death marked the end of the Royal presence at the chateau. This is a window into the royal's world and you realize the court was a fickle place and these Chateaux's changed hands at the will of the King or Queen.
On to Tours to drop off the car (about 40 minutes away). We enter the hotel name into google maps and discover it’s right next to the train station. We new we were close but are happy it is so close. Our train tickets will take us from Tours to Paris then Paris to Geneva, Switzerland and it’s scheduled for 10:19am - nice planning. It's 2:45 but our room is not ready? They store our bags in a closet, we keep the computer bag. Google maps says we drop the car a few blocks away but we see a Europcar office on the side of the station. We go in and yeah, we can drop it here. First we need to fill the tank and we want to find a liquor store to stock up on wine because Switzerland is expensive. We fuel up and on our way back we see a Portuguese Cave store - it looks like it might have groceries and wine. We pull over. The store has an extremely strong odor - a cross between wet dog hair and rotten fish products, but the cashier is friendly enough to give it a look. Past the small cooler's full of strange fish related things is a fairly large selection of Portuguese wine at the right prices - they have cold beer too - not always easy to find. It is amazing how quick your mind shuts down a bad stimulus - I think it kicks into survival mode.
We drop the car and walk to the hotel, grab our bags out of the closet and finally enter our room. An hour later, after a few beers we decide we don't want to look for a restaurant - the area around the station is dead and we would need to get a cab to go into the town center. The train station can provide a veritable cornacopia of food stuffs. We grab Nacho Doritos, M&M's and make PBJ’s in the room - trying to use up things that will weigh us down since we are back to hoofing our bags around without a car. Plus, we have wine. After consuming our gourmet feast, we work on the late blog entries and go to bed. We will miss the car as the mode of transportation as it has a certain freedom implied. On the rails again to a new country, what fun.
Chenonceau Castle is an exceptional site not only because of its original design, the richness of its collections, its furniture and its decorations, but also because of its destiny, since it was loved, administrated and protected by women, who were all extraordinary and who, for the most part have marked history.
This is Diane de Poitiers’ bedroom.
Hanging over the fireplace is Catherine de’ Medici’s portrait. The fireplace was created by Jean Goujon, a French sculptor of the Fontainebleau School, which bears the initials of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici: interlaced Hs and Cs that could be considered as forming the D of "Diane”.
The hall is covered with a series of rib vaults whose keystones, detached from each other, form a broken line - one of only 3 known in France. The baskets are decorated with foliage, roses, cherubs, chimeras, and cornucopia. Made in 1515, it is one of the most beautiful examples of decorative sculpting from the French Renaissance period.
The Gallery: In 1576, according to the plans of Philibert de l'Orme, Catherine de' Medici built a magnificent ballroom gallery upon the bridge of Diane de Poitiers. It was inaugurated in 1577 during festivities hosted by Catherine de' Medici in honour of her son Henry III. She threw many parties here - if I had a time machine, I might go back to this place during one of those parties.
Louis XIV Drawing Room: In memory of the visit he made to Chenonceau on July 14, 1650, Louis XIV much later offered his uncle the duc de Vendôme his portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, with an extraordinary frame by Lepautre, made up of only four huge pieces of wood - as well as the furniture covered in Aubusson tapestries and a Boulle style console. On the Renaissance chimney, the Salamander and the Stoat conjure up the memory of Francis I and Queen Claude of France.
Louise of Lorraine's bedroom: Following the assassination of her husband King Henry III by the monk Jacques Clément on August 1, 1589, Louise of Lorraine retired to Chenonceau in meditation and prayer.
The gardens are huge and beautiful.
Detail of a planter in Dian's garden.