France Trip Day 5: Collecting Castles!

Prepare yourself for much viewing of pictures, because today was castle day! Yesterday we entered the Loire River Valley, playground of the rich and famous circa 400 years ago (and still quite lovely today!) Along the banks of this smooth, broad river and it equally civilized tributaries lie castles. More than three hundred of them! They range in architectural style from early Medieval to Empire, and some mixes of everything in between. We spent most of our time in the chateau of the Renaissance, characterized by light and lovely chateaux with graceful lines and refined elements, rather than ponderous defensive structures (like Carcassonne).

First, and our hands-down favorite, was the Chateau d'Usse, one of the less well known but most family friendly of the castles. We stumbled across it in someone's blog and I'm so glad we did- it was fabulous!

It bills itself as the Sleeping Beauty castle, as it is reportedly the castle Charles Perrault had in mind when he first penned the fairy tale. And was reportedly one the artists at Disney studied to design the palaces for Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. All sorts of history happened here as well, including a group of Royalists who as early as 1813 started plotting to get the Bourbons back on the throne.

It has charming corners everywhere, mannequins in all eras of period dressed placed strategically through the rooms to create atmosphere, and acts out the story of Sleeping Beauty up in its higher turrets (again with mannequins). My poor photos can't do it justice, so if you want more info here's its website:

http://www.chateaudusse.fr/

All chateaux of a certain size were required to have in perpetual availability a room for the king. This is the king's room in Usse. The dresses are all real, and you can get close enough to see the hand stitching on many of them. Fabulous!

Thank you Jeeves, we're ready for the first course. Dessert, anyone? Yes please!
The passage way leading to cellars, and to the secret tunnels leading out of the castle in case of invasion or romantic persecution.
Maleficent curses, and Prince Charming kisses.



One of the many reasons why I loved this castle was that it let you go places I always wanted to go in other castles, like the attic (above) and the nursery (below). We climbed to the very top of several turrets and examined the interior woodwork reinforcing the tower structure, then to the bottom of the dungeons where inscriptions of the condemned can still be traced on the walls.

This tunnel was so cool - it opened in the wall in the lower gardens and we don't know where it ends up - we went in fairly far, before my claustrophobia kicked in, and even with the light of our camera flashes and ipod, we couldn't see the end.
Our "engagement" picture. :-)
Loved the carriage house - little signs gave the history and specific use for each carriage. Very informative. I wanted to pull a Jane Austen and just climb up inside one of them for a little jaunt!
I love the gardens - yes those are bamboo trees on the left. They also had a number of massive cedars of Lebanon hundreds of years old.

Evidently the owner lives in the other side of this wing, the part that they are renovating. Lucky, lucky guy! I wonder if he has a grandchild I can marry off one of my kids to someday.

This whole area is punctuated with limestone cliffs, which residents for generations have carved to make houses, garages, stables, and even hotels. The chateau had an impressive array of its own caves, but they were also to be found as part of every dwelling along the autoroute as we were leaving town!

Our other goal for the day was to make it to Chambord, so in spite of the temptation of numerous other turrets and crenellations beckoning to us from sundry artistic corners of the landscape, we only stopped for photo ops at a few of the most important while making our way northeast towards the massive Chambord. Along the way we passed Azay le Rideau,
Amboise (I want to spend a month here someday),

an unknown but imposing castle on the other bank,
and then Sophie threw up but we were prepared with a bag so we just threw it away when we got to...

(da da da dum) Chambord.
Huge, isn't it? It is officially the largest castle of the Loire valley. The great Renaissance king, Francis I built it to be close to his lady love and put the nose of his rival, Charles V of Spain, out of joint. It has a mere 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, and 84 staircases - just a summer cottage, really. As it was the end of the day, we were somewhat pressed for time and only caught fleeting glimpses of most of these as we raced up and down the da Vinci-designed double helix stairway to see as much as we could before closing time.

Our favorite part was the roof, with it's black and white stone work and innumerable turrets, and the nutella and mint chocolate chip ice cream crepe we got afterwards because we were starving and all the restaurants nearby were all too $$$ and swanky for our plebian tastes. We later got dinner at the grocery store, as usual, on our way to our Chartres Formula 1 hotel.