Day Eleven - Chillin' and Checking Out Château de Chenonceau

The Gardener's Cottage

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This impressive servants' quarters sits to the left of the actual chateau. The history of this estate can be traced primarily through the stories of three women who lived here: Catherine Briconnet, the builder; Diane de Poitiers who took control when Henry II gave it to his lover, and then Catherine de'Medici, a great patron of the arts who decorated the interior and held lavish affairs including a reception for Mary Queen of Scots. Diane made the mistake of letting Catherine come to a party at her fancy crib and eventually Catherine used her status as the wife of the king to force Diane to hand it over in exchange for a much less gorgeous house. Women.....Later history of Chenonceau is also directed by the stories of other female owners. I guess all these lady owners explains why the gardens dwarf the rather tiny main building itself.

It Looks Like It Could Use a Lick of Paint

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Originally the tall, round keep was part of a castle on this site and the spot where today's chateau stands was a grist mill.

View to Our Right Approaching the Chateau

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This building now serves as a restaurant and wax museum. We were not interested. However, the extremely clean and vacant bathrooms came in very handy after we toured the chateau.

Gardens of Diane de Poitiers

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This enormous garden still looked beautiful even in the bleakness of winter. Imagine how it must dazzle in the spring and summer. Reluctantly I agreed to walk around the entire lot. It looks exactly the same viewing it from the other side. It's a formal garden!

The View from the Corner of the Garden

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This garden was an obsessive compulsive's dream. Everything was in perfect geometric alignment. You could close your eyes and walk through knowing exactly where you were no matter how drunk you might be after a soiree in the chateau.

Chenonceau's Moat

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For one of the first times ever I actually saw a real moat around a castle. Most of the times it's just a grass-filled ditch in front of the castle walls. This moat had fast flowing flood waters from the Cher River tearing through it.

The Main Building and the Original Keep

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When Catherine Briconnet took over the running of the castle she cleared the land around it and demolished the old fortifications. She only kept the original castle keep - to the right. She came from a family of money so she started construction of most of the ground floor of what we see today. She and her husband died owing a great fortune in debt. The recently constructed building then passed on to the French kings who made it a hunting lodge. Diane of Poitiers gets credit for hiring a builder who extended the building to the opposite bank of the river. He created the arched bridge.

Panorama of Chenonceau Chateau

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I just discovered the easy-to-use Panorama setting on my camera and this became the first of far too many gigantic photos. This one I actually liked.

The Poster View

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Guidebooks usually use this view as their primary photo for Chenonceau. Check out the muddy waters.

Still Playing with the Camera

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Giving the same shot the Instagram effect.

Side View of the Gardeners' Cottage

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In some ways I was more impressed with this building than the actual chateau. This looked very comfortable and peaceful. Living in that Chateau up above the constantly flooding river would've freaked me out. I bet it was freezing cold inside during the winter if the river froze.

Side View of the Old Castle Keep

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I don't know what the interior looked like or what this isolated building is used for today. It was off-limits to tourists.

My Travelling Companions

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It wasn't as cold as my fellow tourists may lead you to believe. Once again temperatures were in a fairly comfortable upper 40s range.

My Favorite View

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Despite the ugly, muddy river Chenonceau Chateau was still a very impressive site. One of the highlights of the trip. On our tour we learned that the section of the building to the far left was part of Vichy France in World War II. The other half sat in German-controlled territory. On more than one occasion Resistance and downed Ally pilots escaped to freedom heading across the River Cher. The building also served as a hospital during the war.

Looking Upriver

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Strangely enough it looked sunny upriver and remained dismal where we were.

No Need to Shut Down This Fountain

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Usually when we travel through Europe during the winter we find all the fountains shut down for the season and often covered by wooden boxes or glass domes to protect them from cracking due to sub-zero temperatures. In this milder climate not only were the fountains uncovered and operating, there were even blooming flowers in the gardens.

Get Me Out of These Stupid Gardens

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The girls just "had" to walk through the silly gardens and I was forced to go along with them. Now I know how Cassie feels. I just wanted to tour the actual chateau itself and then get on the road to see more scenery.

The Entrance to Chenonceau

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To get from the keep top the chateau we had to walk over a drawbridge over the moat. Evidence of the winter flooding lay piled up against the bridge supports. A whole uprooted tree was wedged there with all kinds of branches and limbs joining the blockage. Interspersed among the natural detritus were empty plastic bottles, cans and shopping bags. A little rowboat moored to a metal ring probably serves as the means of getting the groundskeepers over to the area where all the garbage congregates.

The de' Medici Gardens

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Not to be outdone by Diane of Poitiers, Catherine de'Medici had more formal gardens created on the opposite side of the path leading to the chateau's entrance. Although it was a much smaller area her gardens had more statues and a bigger fountain. To be honest, by this point I had had more than enough of the gardens.