Adventures Part 10: The Loire Valley

I still had eight days of my holiday remaining when I dropped DSL off at Charles de Gaulle (that was an adventure unto itself, that early morning drive from Chartres across Paris). I had already planned to spend the last four days of my trip in Paris and had booked a hotel months before. When it became clear that the hovel was not worth returning to, I made a quick decision to spend four days in the Loire Valley. 

Between my guidebook and the internet and the bad weather threatening to continue for days, I decided to stay in east end of the valley so that I was no more than a couple of hours from Paris. (However, the day I returned to Paris was the day the really monstrous snow storm hit so it took me over 6 hours to return the car and another 5 hours to get from the airport to my downtown hotel. The best laid plans blah blah blah.)

I chose a highly recommended BandB in Cour Cheverny, Le Beguinage. This place lived up to my expectations and more. The owners, Brice and Patricia Deloison, were charming and politely patient with my French (Brice pretty much refused to speak English with me so I had to work hard with him but Patricia and I chatted in a gnarly Franglish mess--as I had only two marginally functional verb tenses, it got a bit silly at times.)

Le Beguinage. Looking up towards the buildings from the rear of the garden.

 Le Beguinage is charming, quiet, clean, and my room was large and warm (two radiators in the room and one in the bathroom--decadence!). And it turns out that the village of Cour Cheverny was the perfect base for touring the chateaus in the valley.

Fixer-upper in Cour Cheverny. I do plan to buy property in France. I don't intend to buy anything like this!

Vin produced by the local Cour Cheverny cooperative. It reminded me too much of the plonk we make here so I didn't buy any.

Always seeking to challenge and expand my vocabulary, I bought a wonderful guide book in French titled "Les Chateaux de la Loire." Full of short write-ups and fabulous photos plus web addresses for each site, I was easily able to shortlist the places I wanted to see and make sure they were open. Then I checked with Patricia or Brice each morning to see what they recommended. I visited more places than I'll mention here. These are just the standouts.

I started off easy with Chateau de Cheverny, a 20-minute walk down the road from Le Beguinage. Despite the icy roads and falling sleet, it was an agreeable trek. This chateau has been restored and is full of beautiful furniture and other decorations from its heyday in the 17th century. It was even heated, sort of. My photos in no way do it justice so I recommend that you check out the website.

Not a view of Chateau de Cheverny that is usually included in guide books: grounds covered with snow.

The bed is only about 4 feet long. Surely they couldn't have been that short 400 years ago? It turns out that rich people (who had beds) slept sitting upright. Thus the bed only needed to be that long.

One neat thing I discovered at Cheverny was the fox hound kennels. Annual, formal hunts are held on the grounds and in the surrounding forest.

Foxhounds at Chateau de Cheverny.

I also visited Chateau de Chenonceau. This castle, build in the earliest 16th century, spans the River Cher. It was pouring down rain all day with temps near freezing so unfortunately I spent no time in the gardens, which are magnificent even by chateau standards.

Chateau de Chenonceau.

View of the River Cher and the rest of the chateau out of a window. It was raining heavily the entire time I was there.

This chateau has been structurally restored but it doesn't have as many furnishings as Cheverny and it was most decidedly not heated. Despite the horrible weather, I still had to wade through busloads of Japanese tourists. Bizarre.

Kitchen in Chenonceau. There are electric spot lights in the ceiling--the place would have never been this well-lit.

I also visted L'Abbaye de Fontevraud, a monastery that had some buildings in place as early as 1101. Many of the rooms had large vaulted openings directly to the outside and were terribly cold and drafty--I could easily imagine myself back in the 12th century as it was another day of continuous freezing rain. The kitchen gardens are supposed to be a real showpiece--but I only gave them a quick glance on my way to the toilet.

Main chapel in Fontevraud. All of the light is natural. On a sunny day, I imagine the white stone is blinding.

For centuries, the Bourbons shuffled spinster aunts and extra daughters off to the convent at Fontevraud. Each of the nuns in the paintings represents one of these women; their portraits were gradually added over time to the original paintings.

I spent four cold, wet days driving up and down the valley looking at piles of stone and ornate furniture.

A moldering pile of stones, a former chateau, above the village of Montrichard.

A view of Chateau de Chinon. This drive-by was as close as I got. I was worn out with the weather and driving and looking at chateaus.

The famous Chateau de Chambord. Another drive-by.

I saw more than a dozen of these signs in the forest around Chambord on the day that I passed through. A hunt was taking place and I saw the hunters. I don't know if they were using dogs or even what they were hunting. Boar is a good guess but it could be any number of animals.

 Despite that somewhat grim experience, I plan to return to the Loire Valley in a more friendly time of year. It is gorgeous countryside and there are plenty of sights that I wasn't able to see.