Welcome to Chenonceaux, the castle of the women. Craig decided that we should visit the Loire Valley to see some castles (although the castle part was my idea). Thanks to his trusty Baedeker and their two star designations we found this wonderful little castle hiding in the country side of France. Thanks to the GPS installed in the car, we actually got there :) This picture is the drive way that leads up to the castle proper. As Craig said, I could live with a drive way like this.
This is the castle itself. The part on the left that looks strange is there because they're doing remodeling on that part of the castle which is really sad because that's the part that has all the flying buttresses coming off it. It's the chapel.
And as we walked up to the castle a balloon came overhead to greet us. Well, he wasn't there to greet us per se, but it was pretty to see it over the river so I took a picture.
Now, while this fire place may look ordinary I want you to take a good close look. See anything... different? That's right, it has a fire inside! Every other historical location I've been to has also had many many fireplaces, but this is the first one I've ever seen that actually has a fire inside it. I've always wondered what these huge fire places would look like with an actual fire in them, but now I know. It actually did a great job of heating the room too.
This is a picture of the ceiling of one of the rooms. I tried to get a close-up of it, but it was just too blurry due to the fact that we weren't allowed to use flash photography. First of all, I thought it looked interesting, but secondly it has the initials CM, Catherine de Medici, the queen of France somewhere in the 1400s. That's why this castle is called the castle of women, because of the two women behind it. First it was built for Henri's wife Catherine, but then Henri decided to give it to his mistress Diana. When Henri died Catherine demanded to have the castle back, trading it for some estate somewhere else in France. She worked the castle so that it actually turned a profit and basically ruled France from her little drawing room here. (Geoff-brother, please correct any history I may be messing up here). Interesting stuff. Who says women weren't powerful in the middle ages? Make sure you read about Anne de Bretagne too (it's in another post, the one about Nantes).
Like all rulers back then, Catherine needed a personal chapel to do her worshiping in. It's actually small compared to other chapels I've seen (like Versailles), but it was very pretty. The windows were especially nice, but currently the chapel is filled to the brim with white Christmas trees so I didn't take a picture of the ground floor. Catherine didn't actually come down to the ground floor for worship anyway (that was for servants). She used her own private door to her balcony which is above and behind us compared to this picture.
The part of the castle you don't really get a good feel for from the front is that not only is it built on a river, but it spans the entire river. Think castle-bridge!
And this is what it looks like on the inside of the castle-bridge. It was used to host balls and parties for important people. The Christmas trees weren't there back then, they were just added due to the fact that it's December. They usually put fresh flowers from the gardens in each room, but I figure that since it's winter, there are no flowers to be had. Catherine was actually going to continue the castle on the other side of the river, but either she died or she ran out of money, I can't remember which. One interesting historical fact is that during WWII from where I'm taking this picture I was in free France, where as at the opposite end of this hall you would have been in Nazi occupied France.
This is the entrance hall (the door you come in is in the picture).
And this is a picture of the kitchens. If you notice the arch in the top right corner, that's underneath the bridge part of the castle. They built it this was because it allowed easy access from the river below. They actually brought fresh food down the river and were able to bring it into the kitchen through the windows via a winch.
Just a pretty image of a sitting room used here at Chenonceaux to entertain guests I guess.
A picture out of the front door (I was worried it was going to get too dark before we finished with the rest of the castle).
Here's a picture of the stairwell. Apparently it was the first straight stairwell ever built in France (in the Italian style). Before this all stairwells were circular (I guess).
This is a picture of the castle itself. It gives a much better view of the bridge portion of it.
This is Catherine's garden, which is much smaller than Diana's which is behind us (which I didn't get a picture of actually). But this one has a nice water way all the way around and a much more interesting shape than the Diana's square garden.
And this is the only portion of the castle that was originally here. It turns out that before Chenonceaux there was another castle here, of which this tower was a part. It's now been converted into a bookstore/gift-shop :(
