Chateaus

The advantage of Margie and me being our own group:  we not only go at our own pace (slow) but we can (re)set the itinerary.  On Thursday we were scheduled to ride to Blois for a half hour visit, ride on to a long lunch, and then ride to our hotel, arriving in the early afternoon so we would have time to go to the spa.  We told Leon that we wanted to visit the chateau in Blois, so we skipped the big lunch and grabbed a sandwich.  Then Leon chilled while we walked around  Blois, first visiting its very impressive cathedral, and then on to the chateau which was well worth the visit.  It is a square with a courtyard interior, and each of the four sides was built at a different time in the architecture of its time.  There is a small remaining Gothic section; the other three sides are Renaissance, Classic French, and Flamboyant, which I had never heard of as a style of architecture.  After the (semi)agreed upon two hours, we texted Leon that we were still in the chateau and would be another hour.

 After a great afternoon in Blois, we rode on to Chambord, the biggest and one of the most spectacular chateaus.  The approach is also spectacular, and our hotel was right next to it with a great view from our rooms.  So on Thursday we had seen the inside of a cathedral, another church, and a chateau, but not the spa.  A good rerouting of the Backroads itinerary.

 

And then … Chambord in the morning after one last short ride. Chambord is HUGE. Something like fifty apartments and hundreds of rooms. Apparently, the king moved around a lot, staying at different castles or hunting lodges for weeks or months at a time. But a king does not travel alone. He brings along an entourage of 2,000 people, and the more important ones get assigned an apartment in the chateau for their whole family who also travel with them.. Also, the chateau is empty. The entire company moves with the clothes in trunks and all of their furniture. What a way to live. You have to have a lot of servants. 

The most unusual feature of Chambord is a double helix staircase designed not by Michelangelo but inspired by one of his other designs. There was also a fascinating exhibit about the French “rescue” of artwork from Paris during World War II. By the early 1930’s, the government expected war with Germany and developed a plan to “evacuate” the Louvre and other important museums. The plan was implemented in 1938 after the Anschluss, and went into high gear after the German-Soviet Non-Aggresion Pact of 1939. Since Chambord is so large, the artwork was shipped to Chambord and then moved on further south to various locations. Eventually Chambord was occupied by the Germans, but by then all of the artwork had been moved. So for a short while, Chambord was home to the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. 

 After lunch, Leon drove us back to Tours to pick up our rental car and Margie and I began part deux of our Loire Valley adventure.