Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Playing princess for a day

Visiting the Loire Valley was one of the things I really wanted to do during my stay in France, and during the last vacation, I was able to spend 4 days there, visiting 8 castles and the city Tours. The trip was a whirlwind and very exhausting, but completely worth it!!! It would really be impossible to share the entire experience through writing, so I'm going to mostly pictures instead.

The Loire Valley has a very rich history, which contributes to the excessive number of castles in the region. During the 14th and 15th, and even into the 16th centuries, the Loire Valley was one of, if not the, central of power in France. It's only about an hour by train west of Paris, and just south of the Brittany region. The royal families, specifically Francois I, preferred spending most of their time in the Loire Valley. This led to the building of multiple royal castles, but also led the nobility to build multiple castles to be close to the royal family. During this time, France was often at war with England and Brittany was not yet a part of France, so the Loire River was an important natural frontier. And being the longest river in France (it actually starts in the south of France near where I live), the Loire was also extremely important for trade. All of these reasons led the Loire Valley's importance and thus, abundance of castles. Even after the central power shifted to Paris, the castles in the Loire Valley were still lived in and often renovated to match the latest fashion.

Here are just a few things about all of the visits.

1. The rooms in the castles that are open for visits are almost always furnished. Each castle does this to varying degrees. Some places felt like a museum, with paintings and tapestries on every wall and furniture filling the room. Others attempted to recreate the room as it would have been during a certain era. Many of the castles were in use from their construction well into the 1800s, so some castles show 3 different centuries worth of furniture. 

2. Most of the castles are made out of limestone and are actually constructed on the foundations of medieval fortresses. Even though the temperature was in the 50s when I visited, the limestone made the castles very cold. In order to help combat this, some of the larger castles actually had fires burning in the giant fireplaces. It was really nice to be able to warm up during the visit, and it really contributed to the atmosphere of the visit. In addition, I got to see firsthand how incredibly inefficient it was at heating the place and how incredibly important and practical tapestries were. 


The first castle I visited was Azay-le-Rideau. It was constructed in the early 1500s by Francois I's notary, Gilles Berthelot. It's built on a small island in the middle the Indre river. It changed ownership multiple times and like most of these castles, has been continually updated and changed since its original construction.


The fireplace in the kitchen

The royal bedroom was the reserved for the king,
should he choose to visit. Louis XIII stayed here in 1619.
















The salamander was the symbol of Francois I.  Most of the castles during this time of a carving of it somewhere.



The next castle I visited was Villandry. This castle was built in 1536 by the Minister of Finance for Francois I. While a medieval castle was razed to make room for Villandry, the keep is still there. While it was built at the same time as Azay-le-Rideau, it was inspired by Italian architecture The castle was redesigned in the 18th century by the new owners. Another family bought the castle in 1906, and for 4 generations has been trying to restore it to its original state. Most importantly, they have recreated a large 16th century garden that is meticulously maintained and is really why the castle is so well known. The day we visited, they had just started planting the spring rotation of flowers and vegetables, but it was still beautiful.

The entrance and main courtyard of Villandry
Looking at the castle from across the gardens.
From here, you can see the old medieval keep.
The ceiling in the oriental drawing room.
It was made by Moorish craftsmen.






A view of the gardens. In front is the ornamental gardens and behind that is the vegetable and flower gardens. You can't see the water garden off the left, or the woods behind me, or the sun garden in the distance, or the labyrinth  The gardens are huge!




The next castle was Ussé. This castle has not been as well kept as some of the others (I also didn't like that they used mannequins in the rooms. With the wigs and eyes, they just creep me out!). BUT, it was still beautiful and it is still notable because it inspired the writing of Sleeping BeautyThe castle is one of the most remote that I visited, sitting just on the edge of the Chinon Forest. This castle is the perfect example of additions and changes made over the years. As it stands today, it was constructed over a period of 3 centuries and both the interior and exterior reflect the changing styles. Some really neat features of this castle included the small, but beautiful, chapel built on the grounds, the tour leading through the ramparts and attic, and the passage from the oldest room in the castle to the middle of the Chinon Forest. It's blocked now but still neat to have the entrance and staircase open.

The castle from the gardens on the lower terrace. The left side of the castle was built first in the 1400s, then going right, additions were made until 1690. 

The main courtyard



Detailing around the windows and on the roof

The other side of the oldest wing

The other 5 castles are coming soon!

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