In Which The Reason for the French Revolution Becomes Clear

It’s Wednesday morning – hard to believe the trip ends Saturday. Today is the longest drive day, as we are heading from the Loire Valley to Chamonix in the French Alps. Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924. I’m ready to get back to the Alps – I enjoy the mountains so, and we have a pretty active schedule planned the next two days, provided I haven’t messed it up!

I’m blogging in the bathroom (no, I’m at a small dressing table for those of you who think the worst of me) of our hotel, the Chateau d’Artigny. It is a little fancy for our tastes, although quite nice. I’m glad we stayed here, although I’m glad it was just one night! Ironically, I can look out the window and see across the valley to the other hotel, Domaine de la Tortiniere, which we stayed in the previous two nights! We are also perched high above the River Indre.

My opinion of the Loire Valley changed from Monday to Tuesday. It became much better.

Monday (which was Carol’s birthday), we went to the top two chateaus in the valley – first Chenonceau and then Chambord.

The extra special directions we got from the nice folks at Tortiniere proved to be poorly translated and had the added bonus of being wrong. We figured it out and got there eventually. Chenonceau, besides being hard to type, is a beautiful chateau built right over the water. We got the audio guides for the tour, and started off.

Fighting our way through the crowds from room-to-room, we wandered as little sheep through the castle following the audio guide tour. Each explanation was about one minute or more too long, and was spoken by a Frenchman with great English skills, but at too slow a pace. Finally, I just would listen to the first couple of minutes and then move on to the next one. The audio guides were iPods, so they were very easy to use.

My personal favorite parts of the chateau were the kitchen and the views up and down the river, and of the garden. The stairs were neat too – they are believed to be the first in France that were not spiral. The biggest hassle was the place was packed and the rooms were kind of on the hot side. All in all, it was quite a pretty setting, and the gardens were impressive.

So we set off for Chambord. After a long drive through the countryside and a stop for lunch, we got to the chateau.

(As an aside, in France, Garmin GPS prefers back roads to the highways, which are pretty, but also quite a lot of work. Besides picking one lane roads with two-way traffic – I’m stunned the side view mirror has not been clipped off yet, Garmin also has a tendency in cities to have no idea where to go. Given that it was just downloaded and thus are the newest maps/directions, it doesn’t speak well of Garmin!)

Chambord is massive. There are over 400 rooms and 365 fireplaces (it was mainly used by King Francois I – the Salamander King, I kid you not – for hunting and to impress key dignitaries, so it was mostly used in the winter). It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci played a role in the design. The nearby Cosson river was diverted to flow in front of the chateau.

The roof is the most amazing part – the turrets and lantern tower look like they were designed by a predecessor to Gaudi, and were quite gaudy themselves! Inside, the Grand Staircase – an innovative double-helix was the highlight of Chambord.

It’s far to massive to even go into all of the 80 rooms open to the public, and we didn’t even try. We used the audio guides for a period of time, and then just gave up and gawked. The chateau was hot inside, so the relief came when we reached the terrace level on the fourth floor, and could walk around outside with decent breezes and good views.

In the view of Carol and I, Chambord was a bit too much (okay, that’s an understatement). It was neat to go to, and Maddy was particularly a fan. Perhaps on a less hot (it wasn’t Virginia hot/humid, but it was warm) and crowded day it would have been more memorable. It’s just big. Really big. I suppose you have to go though.  The only wonder about the French Revolution after seeing these is what took so long?

The Garmin tried to take us back via the country side, so I yanked the cord out and used the iPad map to get us back to the highway and to the hotel.

I did not think the Loire Valley countryside to the east of Tours was all that beautiful. The chateaus were overcrowded (I know, it is August), and was a little worried about Tuesday (fears unfounded).

We had a great birthday dinner for Carol back at the hotel, and then enjoyed a Cote d’Rhone as we watched the sun set from our private deck high atop the rolling hills of the Valley.