The Loire Valley: Splendeur

Day 1: Azay-le-Rideau, Langeais, et Villandry

My trip to the Loire Valley was exactly what I had hoped for my trip "somewhere else in France other than Paris" for my first visit to the country. It was a new experience for me in terms of location, cuisine, and touring style. The chateaus were incredible and I was glad to broaden my horizons. It's interesting that there are many countries, wonderful as they are, where the places that I would like to visit within them are pretty clearly defined and limited to one or a handful. In France, however, it felt like there were kind of infinite places I might want to visit. Still, the Loire Valley was a good start! This post is going to be heavy on the photos so there may be some spots with just a column of photos and little text. Still, I'll try to get up my response to each chateau and other experience!

After arriving in Tours by my very early train from Paris and wandering a bit to find the Tours tourist office (yes - weird coincidence of words, and try looking up "Tours tours" on Google...), my guide from Loire Valley Tours finally arrived, if a bit late. Simon was great, always with a quip or a joke and offering a wealth of information about the areas we visited.

The first chateau for the day was Azay-le-Rideau, which was our introduction to Francois I, who was responsible for many of the chateaus in the region. Though they were often inhabited by other people. In this case his finance minister, Gilles Berthelot, was the owner of the chateau (as well as several others). Any could be visited and inhabited by the king at any time, however. We learned of the salamander, which is the symbol of Francois I, and how it is spread across all the chateaus in the region to represent him. Here it can be seen as the central artwork above the mantel of a fireplace.


Many of these chateaus represented revolutions in architecture. For instance, this "gallery" style staircase was completely open to the elements. This was influenced by a conflux of factors such as a desire to be seen, popular styles in Italy that mimicked cloisters in their openness, and a desire to impress with something new. Despite, the staircase was meant to open onto a courtyard but the surrounding walls were never built. Hence, it oddly faces out at the entrance of the building. It still is quite impressive, however, and was a really cool way to be introduced to the architectural element of the chateau tour. Of course Azay-le-Rideau generally was a great introduction to the Loire Valley. This chateau, Chambord, and Chenonceau were the three that really stood out. The others were of course beautiful and must have been amazing homes, but they lacked the striking uniqueness of these three. Azay-le-Rideau was also bite-sized, though, so it allowed a kind of build up to the even more famous chateaus!

I've got a great new bed at home but wow...

Azay-le-Rideau: an incredible start!

After Azay-le-Rideau we were off to lunch at a local winery. We met with a guy who worked there and was the chef for the day's meal. His work wasn't necessarily in actually making the wine, although he helped out with that, but more with the behind the scenes work and also with the sales aspect of it. He had some interesting insights on the difficulties of trying to export wine to the United States. I tasted the red wine that was served here and did not find it particularly appealing. The white wine was okay but also not my favorite, being a bit too earthy. This was the beginning of "when in Rome" experience with wine in the Loire Valley. While I did later find some wines that I found okay (whites), I did not particularly enjoy the food at this establishment, set in a back room of the winery itself, and I continued not liking the food too much in the region. It's hard to describe but it involved duck, liver, paté, fish, mushrooms, etc. As my dad put it, "too many weird ingredients, for which the French are famous." Still, an idyllic setting. Then off to Langeais!

Forget this baby's name but
thought he looked fat & funny!

Langeais was a brief visit and there is of course the Chateau of Chinon itself in addition to the town but at Langeais we learned many of the stories about Francois I, his predecessors, his successors, and the women that accompanied their stories (stories of course male-centered given the mores of the time). I won't focus too much on Langeais and there aren't too many pictures; it was more of an auditory than a visual experience. The stories are of course available in history books and, more readily, on Wikipedia, so I won't retell them here! It was fun to see a legitimate drawbridge at the beginning of the Langeais tour. Indeed, Langeais was more castle-like than the other chateaus we visited. Many of them did begin as true "castles" in the sense that we think of them in English and became more like "palaces" later on as the importance of castles waned and they were refurbished. The guide said they use the drawbridge to close the chateau to tourists at the end of the day!

 

 

We were greeted by this fish

Our final stop for the day was at Chateau Villandry. The stop here wasn't to tour the chateau, in which people (the Carvallo family that bought the estate, kept it repaired, and now dedicates its life (supported off tourism) to maintaining) still live full-time. The star attraction of this chateau is its gardens, which include both French ornamental gardens and the most impressive kitchen garden in France (maybe in Europe?). The ornamental gardens demonstrate some of the typical styles of earlier times that were supposed to be representative. The sequence below demonstrates the four sides of love: tender, passionate, fickle, and tragic. I have listed them below in that order with captions under the pictures. Rather than explain how I think they are representative, I will let the gardens speak for themselves.

Tender Love

Passionate Love

Fickle Love

Tragic Love

As mentioned, the kitchen gardens at Villandry are also very impressive. They stock a whole host of herbs and spices that were traditionally used as remedies for various elements. The guide informed us that while they may not be as effective as modern medicines, many of them do, in fact, have the effect for which they were prized back in the day (I was a bit skeptical about the aphrodisiac but the rest of them seemed plausible). It was fun to see this and also to see the vegetables (some of which are probably technically fruits). There were all sorts of different vegetables, though most of them less usual roots or other types of less "staple" vegetables. I was particularly fascinated by the chilies, some little red and orange bulbs (I can't recall if they were tomatoes, some kind of pepper, or some sort of fruit), and the pumpkins, snipped and placed upon little stone plinths to keep them from rotting.

 

After Villandry, I was glad to be dropped back at my hotel, which despite being listed on the website as the "2 star" option rather than the "4 star" option, was awesome. I did have some difficulty finding a place to eat and ended up at a sort of French sports bar, but that was okay, the food was filling and the honey and warmed camembert for dessert was exquisite. I slept well and was up for day two!

Day 2: Blois, Cheverny, et Chambord

Renaissance

Day two was once again with Simon, our trusty guide. Our first stop was Blois; we did not stay long, but it did give us insight into some notable historical tales and more architectural interests. For instance, the helix staircase above was a taste of things to come at Chambord. Also, the three façades of the inner courtyard are in three different architectural styles, which is interesting from an architectural history perspective. Inside, we became more familiar with Francois I and were able to construct a clearer timeline of his reign and the reigns of those who preceded and succeeded him. Simon was even more jocose today, heartened, I think, by the fact that there were only three people on the tour, all of whom were with him the previous day, and that we had dropped some "bad apples" who had been difficult; they asked dumb questions, harassed him, were culturally insensitive, etc. He handled them well, but I think it was a relief to have a small, cohesive group. I certainly enjoyed the day, the company, and the atmosphere, even if it was a slate grey day! Below are the two other architectural styles of the façade.

Classic

Gothic

Louis XII, Francois I, Henry III, and Henry IV all had dealings with Blois, though Francois I failed to live there even after having it refurbished. Once again I will let other sources tell the tales, but there were two notable stories that I found fascinating. The first was the mystique of the "Chamber of Secrets" in which wall panels hide secret compartments that can be released by levers near the floor or fireplace. Supposedly in this place Catherine de' Medici hid the poisons for which she was famous (and that she delivered in different methods, such as poisoned rings or even poisoned ink on the pages of a book, transmitted by licking the fingers to turn the page (which her relative got ahold of, instead of the target... oops)). Historians firmly believe it was used to store valuable objects, not to hold poisons or any other thing like that, but the story is fun and it does demonstrate how powerful the persona of Catherine de' Medici was. The other story is about the murder of Henry I, Duke of Guise in the room below. The history is too complicated to go into, but the murder was fairly publicly known and not well hidden, which is surprising.

Two more pictures from Blois:

 

After a local lunch we were off to Cheverny. The lunch was good, again with a red wine (paired with fish?) that I did not particularly appreciate. The cuisine was also not my favorite with a non-filleted fish on top of a vegetable ragout and a rice-pudding and raisin dessert. It must sound decadent to some, but it's not my cup of tea. Cheverny is a lovely house and the duke still resides there (part of the time, at least) with his family. They also have a large collection of hunting dogs, which Simon hated (he does not like the way they smell and prefers cats - typical Frenchman). These were fun to see, although the scent was quite strong, I must confess.

Cheverny parlor

Touring Cheverny we still discussed the history of the region, kings, their ministers, and their mistresses, all of which play into the history of Cheverny. Despite, we spent a lot of time just seeing the family home. We also had a bit of an issue where the guy in the couple that was also on the tour seemed to have left his camera. Simon left us to tour the chateau after giving his general tour and instructed us to head over to the wine tasting at the appointed time before heading back to get the camera. I was very impressed by the duke's daughters and wanted to meet the younger one (the older one had wedding photos). She was gorgeous and looked about my age. I could do with marrying the daughter of a French duke! But it was neat to see the way a historical residence has been maintained while still being a livable space. Below are a few more pictures related to Cheverny. When we were done we headed to a fascinating wine-tasting location that employed some fancy technology! Then, off to Chambord for the end of my time with Simon.

This was designed to be "easily moved..."

Some kind of beautiful mistress, etc. from the time.
Simon found her very attractive

The wine place that we visited was not a winery but a shop that sold only wines by local producers. Wikipedia describes Loire Valley wine:

"While the majority of production is white wine from the Chenin blanc, Sauvignon blanc and Melon de Bourgogne grapes, there are red wines made (especially around the Chinon region) from Cabernet franc. In addition to still wines, rosé, sparkling and dessert wines are also produced. With Crémant production throughout the Loire, it is the second largest sparkling wine producer in France after Champagne.[1] Among these different wine styles, Loire wines tend to exhibit characteristic fruitiness with fresh, crisp flavors-especially in their youth."

This was the first place where I actually enjoyed any of the wines that I tried. Some of the less dry whites appealed to me. I still couldn't find a red that I liked, though. The system was really quite fascinating. Each cup had a chip attached to it with the number of tastings, prepaid, already programed into it. When the cup was placed under a spigot for the kind of wine (divided on the three pedestals in the shop), the chip activated the spigot, spitting out just enough for tasting. When the number of tastings (five, for us) had been used, the chip shut down. It was revolutionary!

While perhaps not the most beautiful of the Loire valley chateaus I visited, Chambord was the most physically imposing and, in that way, perhaps the most impressive. It is still pretty and beautifully constructed, especially when seen from the long stretch of open ground cut away in front of it. More on that later. It was a lot of fun to tour through the chateau and then finally to go to the roof of it and to see out over the Loire Valley. It was easy to understand why it was such an impressive palace for a seat of power and why it made such a statement.

One of Chambord's largest "attractions" is the double helix staircase in the center of the main part of the palace. Quite large, Chambord has a wing for guests as well as a permanent wing for the king. The middle section is more of a general space, which is why this double helix staircase was placed there. Francois I was a large proponent of Leonardo da Vinci, who was already quite old when the king brought him to France and put him up in Clos Lucé. Da Vinci was the designer for this impressive staircase, which has two sets of stairs that wrap around, never meeting and prohibiting travelers, once in one staircase, from seeing travelers on the other staircase. It's an impressive feat of mathematics and engineering, especially for the time period. It was exactly that sort of thing that was valued at the time as distinguishing members of the intelligent upper classes by discerning taste. 

When we were on the roof Simon told us a lot of stories about Francois I and the architecture of the palace. For instance, usually the spire of a cathedral or chapel is the highest part of a building, keeping it closest to God. At Chambord, however, the central spire, bearing the emblem of Francois I, was taller than that of the chapel. The staircase does extend to the top of the spire, but in order to get there we had to go through a door marked with the initials of Francois I, which Simon jokingly pointed out wasn't okay because it was reserved for the king (it was blocked off to tourists). The other story that Simon told us was of Francois I bringing Emperor Charles V, an archnemesis, to see Chambord when it was nearing completion. He had Charles look at the chateau from the end of the long clearing, pictured below, and Charles was forced to concede that, though he might have an impressive fleet of ships and by no means was France definitively the more powerful nation, that Francois had him beat as far as culture and refined architecture went. I can definitely understand why he would have conceded defeat openly, without even trying to save face!

A portrait in Chambord of Francois I, who made it all possible

Day 3: Chenonceau, Clos Lucé, et Château Royal d'Amboise

My final tour was with a brand new group of people, all amenable but not, of course, the same atmosphere as a group of three. The tour guide was Charlotte; fun, knowledgeable, but not quite as much of a personality as Simon. Our first stop was the inimitable Chenonceau. It was, to some extent, the reason I went to the Loire Valley, although I loved every other second of it, too!

Our visit started off going through the gardens of the chateau before we arrived at the chateau itself. This meant first going through wooded areas and the gardens that were a bit removed from the chateau. Then we were into the more structured gardens that sit on either side of the land section of the chateau itself. The orphaned structure that sits on that side, too, is the only remaining portion of an older fortification predating the current non-functional chateau. The way the gardens are entirely in front of the chateau as it goes out over the river is really quite beautiful.

Once we were actually inside of the chateau it was largely a reiteration of the history of Francois I, Gilles Berthelot, and company,  (and Louis XIV, of course!) with whom I had become familiar in the preceding two days. Hence, it was more of a visual experience. Some rooms, though, like the room for mourning, were especially interesting. One thing that was fascinating was descending, Downton Abbey style, to the kitchen, which has its own access to the river below so that groceries could be brought in directly, without having to come in through the chateau's front door (since unlike most chateaus there are only two points of access, both intended to be upscale). Of course being inside the long gallery responsible for the famous façade across the river. The interior of the gallery is pretty nice too; I could imagine springtime parties going on in there, especially, with the light airy atmosphere. A historical detail about the gallery is that for a long time the Germans, when occupying France in World War II, made sure to control or destroy bridges across the river but forgot, for a while, that Chenonceau was effectively a bridge, as well. Fortunately, they chose to control it and not destroy it! 

I've added this portrait of Louis XIV (who had connections to Chenonceau), which is by Hyacinthe Rigaud. I was pleased to see it because I love the 1701 portrait of Louis XIV, and missed it at Versailles or the Louvre because it's held by the Getty. This is still a well-known depiction and impressive to see.

The lawn of Clos Lucé

Clos Lucé is the house, not chateau, in which Leonardo da Vinci lived during the last years of his life while he was contracted by Francois I. During this time he was supposed to come up with great ideas but he had few specific assignments and the pace of his work was not set by the king. It was not unlike the way that Beethoven was "kept" by his patrons in later life simply for the prestige of having him around and the hope he would produce a great work. Contained within Clos Lucé today are models and replicas of designs that Leonardo devised.

Tank

Paddleboat

Bicycle and car

After Clos Lucé it was time for "lunch" at Les caves Duhard, a set of Troglodyte caves where wine is aged. These caves were mines to generate the stone for structures such as the chateaus in the Loire Valley. Subsequently, many of them have been turned into homes cut into the cliffs. This one has become a repository for aging wines. The Loire Valley's varietals of wine are particularly suited to long aging (especially being white wines, mostly), so this is an important function. Here we had the opportunity to test wines in tandem with cheeses.  Once again I found that the whites were somewhat enjoyable, especially as they got older (and more expensive, of course). I did not enjoy the three reds, which we had later on with our actual "lunch," which was a rather sparse affair.

A rare year

My final chateau for my tour of the Loire valley was Amboise. Amboise is impressive from the river valley it commands, surpassed in that regard only by Chinon. We were generally too close for that view, but this was another place, like Chambord, where we got a bit of a history lesson inside before going up to see spectacular views from the roof. It was a final opportunity to to look back on an era in which kings and their attendants created some of the most impressive and beautiful buildings in architectural history.

As I mentioned, our final stop was on the roof, looking out over a rather dark and gloomy but still impressive Loire Valley. It was a fitting (almost) end to the tour.

The final stop on the tour was also the final resting place of Leonardo da Vinci. Contained within this small chapel up within the confines of Amboise. There was another tour group inside so it was quite busy, but it was still awe-inspiring to be so close to the body of the great master, perhaps unmatched in his polymathic stature. Charlotte informed us that, within the chapel itself, much of the stonework and ornamenting detail contains references to Leonardo's work and his interests. I honestly had a hard time seeing the things, but part of their cleverness was just how intricate they were given their tiny size within the larger framework of the stone. Maybe with a ladder I would've had more luck. Our group made good time for the day so we had a little bit of time to look around Amboise after leaving the chateau. I stopped into a chocolate shop and had some delectable little treats before getting back in the bus to head back to Tours. This final picture is one I took as the sun was setting in Amboise.

Tours

It would be somewhat unjust to write an entire post on the Loire Valley working with Loire Valley Tours and based out of a hotel in Tours without mentioning Tours at all. It's true that Amboise seemed a bit more quaint and that was an option, as well. It's also true that I wanted to come to the Loire before I ever knew anything about Tours. Still, seeing the Hotel de Ville lit up at night was impressive and Tours seemed to be a wonderful, thriving place. It was a bit tough to find food at night, but when I did it was excellent each time, even at venues that were more pub-like and lacking in typically "French" cuisine. I also found, after my first morning, a wonderful patisserie that supplied me with pain aux chocolat and Pago juice (Mango), a drink I grew to love during my time in Vienna.

Overall this trip to the Loire Valley was everything I wanted. I knew that for my first trip to France I really wanted to cover Paris and make sure I got everything done there and could really check it off the list. I am determined to return to Paris in the future, but at least I feel like I saw everything I wanted to there. I was also determined, though, to make it "somewhere else in France" and I've long had an interest in the nebulous concept of the "French countryside." Loire fit that niche and seeing the chateaus was really impressive. There's such a wealth of locations to visit in France, but the Loire is definitely among the top of the list for a reason!