We woke at 8.00am on Friday morning after a fairish night's sleep , no road noise or loud chatter/ car door slamming after 11.30pm. We set off for Bourges ( roughly half way to S of France ) , but were tempted off the road after 2 hours of toll roads to visit our first Loire Chateau, reputedly the biggest and grandest in the Valley. All that's left of the original mediaeval castle at Chenonceau is one fortified tower and a large moat. The classical gardens, laid out according to the instructions of the successive women who occupied Chenonceau , were indeed very attractively laid out and extensive, but the chateau itself was simply a large 15 century country house, decorated in Flanders tapestries and gifted to a succession of French kings ' mistresses, wives, illegitimate daughters to keep 'em sweet . It was plainer than I had imagined it would be , although the Sun King furniture was pretty ornate (my mate Sandra would love this picture frame of Louis XIV , his painting and frame gifted to the occupants after he stayed there one summer) Fantastic kitchens with lots of gleaming copperware Info boards ( in English and French ) on all the women who lived there ...for example , Louise Dupin, illegitimate daughter of Louis IV 's banker, was gifted the Chateau and based there from 1733-82. She was famed for her beauty, made an astute marriage , got feminism big time early on ( see photo for a more detailed description of her efforts ) and spent 5 years, with the support of Rousseau (a French philosopher I've always admired) undertaking research to support her argument that men and women were equal in every way, comparing men and women's lives in every walk of life - fascinating! The architecture of the chateau reminded me a lot of Blair Athol castle in the very north of Scotland (owned by our very own copycat the late Queen Mother 🙄). White walls, dark grey slate roof, lots of turrets. Interestingly, the chateau was later elongated so that it came to straddle the large river Cher which flowed underneath. The upstairs gallery ( used as a ball room) therefore seems very long , very white and impressively elegant in its simplicity .
This unique siting of the Chateau meant that the upstairs gallery was , in WWII , on occupied territory at one end of it and in 'free' Vichy France on the other end, meaning that Jewish refugees and resistance movement workers could be successfully smuggled out of the chateau by using the river underneath to get away, undetected by regular river German patrol boats. I thought this was pretty neat. It was crowded there this Friday afternoon, lots of coach parties but everyone very subdued and respectful .€14 each ( ouch !) We found a very basic Aire half an hours drive on in St Aignan to stay for the night and for Andy to enjoy some evening sunshine and a break from all the driving.Maybe a walk into the town later to locate some slightly weaker beer for Andy to sample than last night's brew.
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| St Aignan at sunset, enhanced by Google! |
Fascinating...💝
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