It's very well organised lots of parking including plenty for campervans but the place was absolutely heaving.
The tour starts with the obligatory chapel.. compact but beautiful. Then into the main body of the building. For the first half hour it just felt like we were on a conveyorbelt... it's a very beautiful Chateau though and once the crowd started to thin out and we'd managed to get through the cellars
which were the kitchens it became a very pleasant visit.
There was a dove nesting under the bridge...
It's incredibly grand with some amazingly beautiful plaster work particularly the fireplaces
the cornices are all extremely ornate - as are the ceilings - in fact, actually the whole building is just like a fairy tale castle both outside and inside.
Evenethe drain pipes were funky...
It is famous for being one of the most beautiful chateau's in the Loire and when you get here you can see why. I did come many years ago I think baby girl was maybe 15 months old so I don't have much memory of it (thats prob 37 years ago).
We wandered around the rooms enjoying the opulence.
Everywhere you looked there was fascinating detail, beautiful woodwork,
immensely decorative fireplaces, amazing bedlinen and the walls were all covered with very decorative woven hessian presumably copied from original designs.
It was easy to imagine the French elite wandering around in all pompadour hairdos and over the top finery.. ignoring bread and only eating cake. What's interesting about this particular Chateau is that it was built, fashioned, and sustained very much by women.
A long line of very different but very strong women
using it first for a place to live and hold court and entertain royalty, right through to it being a military hospital and pivotal for the French resistance moving people over the river.
The formal Gardens are very pretty as well obviously a lot of time and effort has gone into keeping this place beautiful.
When you move away from the formal Gardens there are kitchen vegetable and flower Gardens further away - it's very evident that the flowers for the beautiful flower arrangements in every room in the chateau are locally grown.
They were interesting displays of scientific instruments I've been made by an earlier occupant of the Chateau and there was a really beautiful apothecary which had cupboards and cupboards of beautiful ornate jars.
The house and formal Gardens are surrounded by a huge forested estate - allegedly a lot of Mulberry trees. Historically there was quite a lot of silk farming going on around there. There's also a real life labyrinth, in reality, a small yew hedged Maze. We didn't have to find any strange artefacts as we wented our way through it -
there were the caryatids at the other end - I need to look up why they were there they just seem to be plonked in the middle of the forest.
It was a rather splendid day out...splendor being real name of the game in this particular world. Back at the van we had tuna sandwiches for late lunch and then headed off to do yet another supermarket shop. This time we plenty of tonic but no gin and then we headed off to find a campsite. We really want to stop somewhere for three or four nights just completely slow down and not after think about where to go next or at least think about it slowly.
We ended up at a small camping in Cormery... yes I've no idea where.. Camping Saules. Small clean quiet.... just what we needed.
Chateau looks amazing! I hope you have a relaxing few days. xC
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