Les Chateaux

This weekend I visited the Loire valley with my DePaul group. The Loire valley is about three hours outside of Paris. It is famous for its chateaux, or castles. We saw six chateaux during our two days in the Loire. You might think if you’ve seen one chateau then you’ve seen all six, but you’d be wrong. However, that doesn’t make going to six chateaux in two (extremly rainy) days any more enjoyable. I always feel guilty when I’m not incredibly enamored with these sight-seeing type things. I did find them interesting, and I did have fun. But, in all honesty, two or three would have been plenty. The chateaux were quite different in exterior architecture. The first one we went to had sections that were built in three different centuries. The history behind the chateaux is quite interesting as well. Francois I, Catherine and Marie de Medicis, Henri II, Henri III, Louis XII and Louis XIII either lived at, spent the night at, built part of, or had a never used room in basically each chateau. But keeping all of these kings straight is impossible. One of them used a fire eating salamander as his icon, another used a type of mink as his identifying symbol. Henri II used two Hs connected with two Ds. This was either in reference to the fact that he was Henri Deux or a reference to his best loved mistress. Some of the chateaux had practically no original interiors. These were restored beautifully, and had beautiful “fake” furniture. But when I found out, I couldn’t help but feel a little deceived.

My favorite chateau was Chenonceau. It is a beautiful castle built across the river Cher. It looks as though it is floating on top of the water. You can see the reflection of the castle in the water. The inside was beautiful and the majority of the interior was original. We were allowed to roam free in this chateau. Instead of being lead by a charming guide with a terribly difficult to understand accent, we listened to an audio tour. I chose the children’s version and it was as entertaining as it was informative. The gardens of this chateau were also incredibly beautiful. However, it was raining the entire time we were there so enjoying them was difficult. I did sort of feel like I was in a Jane Austen novel, strolling around the grounds with my umbrella. But, the rain kept us from exploring the hedge maze. I almost got to stay at Chenoceau forever, because I was told the incorrect meeting place. However, deductive reasoning helped me figure out quite quickly that something wasn’t right. I made sure to thank God for my cell phone.

My second favorite chateau was called Cheverny. It’s not as beautiful as Chenoceau, but I love the history behind it. It is the home that inspired the mansion in the Tintin books. Tintin is a very famous French comic book. I’ve read it in my French class, and I love it. You can get them in English too… I highly recommend it. They are historical detective type stories. Fun for all ages. Or you could wait for the movie version... apparently Spielberg is doing one. There was an exhibit on Tintin at Chenoceau, but we didn’t get to see it. Also, I found it interesting and also a little weird that people still live in Cheverny. Their quarters were (obviously) not open to tour. Although, that may have been more interesting than what we saw. But, they did have pictures of themselves throughout the castle. Creepy. Cheverny is also used today for its hunting grounds. There are over 75 hunting dogs living on the property. Apparently their daily feeding is something to be seen. We didn’t see it.

We also visited Leonardo DaVinci’s final home. It was packed with tourists. There really wasn’t anything of DaVinci’s in the house. If I’m going to be honest, I must admit that I think DaVinci is overly commercialized. If he knew that tourists were paying 15 dollars to traipse through his home, he’d probably roll over in his grave, which sadly also had a line of tourists in front of it.

Les Photos

Unfortunately because of rain and the forbiding of flash I don't have very many good pictures... but here's a few.

This is Chenonceau, my favorite. I didn't take any pictures of the outside because of the torrential downpour, so I swiped this one from the internet.

This is Cheverny. From the left: Milou, Captain Haddock and Tintin.
When Herge (the author) saw Cheverny there were trees covering part of the chateau, so he only drew what he could see at the time. The parts that are "transparent" are the parts not included in the mansion in the books.

Check out the awesome beams in the ceiling. They were painted beautifully in almost all the chateaux.


This porcupine was the symbol of Louis XII. Before the majority of the population was literate, illustrations were used to educate the masses.

On the left you see a fire-eating salamander. This symbol was adopted by Francois I. On the right is the hermine, which I believe is a type of mink. I cannot remeber which king had this as his symbol, but I bet he had a lot of nice coats.

Horses! Just because I saw them, and I love them!