A castle out of a fairy tale: Chenonceau
Le mardi 12 juin
Today we rose bright and early for our tour. We would be visiting two castles in the Loire Valley - one that inspired the castle from La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), and one that inspired countless other contes de fées (fairy tales). We boarded the bus outside of the Denfert-Rochereau metro station. Claire and I had grabbed two pains au chocolat at our boulangerie-patisserie across the street from our apartment and ate those on the tour bus as we waited for departure.
Quite tired from the night before, having only four or so hours of sleep after the cabaret, we leaned back and unintentionally dozed off to the drone of our tour guides’ voices. We had booked our tour through TripAdvisor, just as I had done with the Claude Monet house and gardens tour. For the TripAdvisor tours, the guide will give an intro to the history of the destination you are going to visit and then will generally allow you to tour the monument on your own. I enjoyed listening to all of the tour guides on my excursions and found them engaging.
It took a couple hours to arrive at our destination, Château de Chambord. This castle was built by François le 1er and is said to be the inspiration for the beast’s castle in Beauty and the Beast. I was immediately struck by the moat, the stone gargoyles, and the letter ‘F’ engraved in the stone details on the walls to celebrate King François himself. Here are some pics of Claire and me at Chambord. (One of the advantages of having a travel buddy is that you don’t have to take selfies with every monument):
Following Chambord, we were taken to a winery on a farm to eat a rustic homemade lunch with our fellow tour passengers. We were served cheese and bread, salad, potatoes, chicken, and an apple pie dessert. Our company was splendid, and we exchanged our favorite Paris to-dos with a couple of Aussies from Sydney. Being that it was a winery, we also sampled champagne, a red wine, and a white wine along with our meals. The winery was selling bottles of its red and white for only 6 euros! I expected the wine bottles to be 3 inches high but no, they were regular size. Quel bon achat! We bought two bottles of the sauvignon blanc - one for our apartment, and one for our sister who is a sauvignon blanc connoisseur. The winery’s hosts were friendly and accommodating as they rung up our purchases.
As if the tour and luncheon weren’t enough, we still had one more castle to see, followed by another tasting! We took a scenic ride through the Loire Valley to the next chateau. This castle was called le Chateau de Chenonceau, and I was drawn into its history and the picture our tour guides painted. The most notable people to live in the Chenonceau castle were King Henri II, his mistress and long-time lover Diane de Poitiers, and his wife and queen Catherine Medici. As our tour guides put it, they were history’s first known ménage-à-trois, as the three lived together and Poitiers and Medici even consulted one other to ensure that Medici bore Henri’s children. After Henri II’s death, Medici required Poitiers to move to Chateau Chaumont.
What enamored me to this castle were the whimsical, feminine touches in the architecture and gardens. You really do feel as though you are in a fairy tale. Medici even had her own gallery. Having one’s own art gallery sounds like #goals to me!
After touring Chenonceau, our group met in front of a white building on the outskirts of the castle and descended into an underground wine-tasting room. There, amongst barrels of aged wine, we would taste three different varieties before heading drowsily back to the bus.
I hurried ahead of the group to catch the gift shop before it closed. The two chateaux had inspired some ideas in my head for castle projects. I purchased workbooks with castle descriptions and coloring pages for children in French. I am excited to incorporate some château history into our lessons this year with some of the authentic materials I bought.
Back in Paris, Claire and I decided to make it another late night of live music and dancing in the Latin Quarter at Caveau de la Huchette (a swing place featured in LaLaLand) and Chez Georges. We closed the place down and still went for a bite of croque monsieur at an outdoor café near a pont over the Seine.
We would need to be awake in only a few hours to catch our train to Nice, but we didn’t mind. We wanted to leave no stone unturned on our last night in Paris.
Alana
Today we rose bright and early for our tour. We would be visiting two castles in the Loire Valley - one that inspired the castle from La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), and one that inspired countless other contes de fées (fairy tales). We boarded the bus outside of the Denfert-Rochereau metro station. Claire and I had grabbed two pains au chocolat at our boulangerie-patisserie across the street from our apartment and ate those on the tour bus as we waited for departure.
Quite tired from the night before, having only four or so hours of sleep after the cabaret, we leaned back and unintentionally dozed off to the drone of our tour guides’ voices. We had booked our tour through TripAdvisor, just as I had done with the Claude Monet house and gardens tour. For the TripAdvisor tours, the guide will give an intro to the history of the destination you are going to visit and then will generally allow you to tour the monument on your own. I enjoyed listening to all of the tour guides on my excursions and found them engaging.
It took a couple hours to arrive at our destination, Château de Chambord. This castle was built by François le 1er and is said to be the inspiration for the beast’s castle in Beauty and the Beast. I was immediately struck by the moat, the stone gargoyles, and the letter ‘F’ engraved in the stone details on the walls to celebrate King François himself. Here are some pics of Claire and me at Chambord. (One of the advantages of having a travel buddy is that you don’t have to take selfies with every monument):
Following Chambord, we were taken to a winery on a farm to eat a rustic homemade lunch with our fellow tour passengers. We were served cheese and bread, salad, potatoes, chicken, and an apple pie dessert. Our company was splendid, and we exchanged our favorite Paris to-dos with a couple of Aussies from Sydney. Being that it was a winery, we also sampled champagne, a red wine, and a white wine along with our meals. The winery was selling bottles of its red and white for only 6 euros! I expected the wine bottles to be 3 inches high but no, they were regular size. Quel bon achat! We bought two bottles of the sauvignon blanc - one for our apartment, and one for our sister who is a sauvignon blanc connoisseur. The winery’s hosts were friendly and accommodating as they rung up our purchases.
As if the tour and luncheon weren’t enough, we still had one more castle to see, followed by another tasting! We took a scenic ride through the Loire Valley to the next chateau. This castle was called le Chateau de Chenonceau, and I was drawn into its history and the picture our tour guides painted. The most notable people to live in the Chenonceau castle were King Henri II, his mistress and long-time lover Diane de Poitiers, and his wife and queen Catherine Medici. As our tour guides put it, they were history’s first known ménage-à-trois, as the three lived together and Poitiers and Medici even consulted one other to ensure that Medici bore Henri’s children. After Henri II’s death, Medici required Poitiers to move to Chateau Chaumont.
What enamored me to this castle were the whimsical, feminine touches in the architecture and gardens. You really do feel as though you are in a fairy tale. Medici even had her own gallery. Having one’s own art gallery sounds like #goals to me!
After touring Chenonceau, our group met in front of a white building on the outskirts of the castle and descended into an underground wine-tasting room. There, amongst barrels of aged wine, we would taste three different varieties before heading drowsily back to the bus.
I hurried ahead of the group to catch the gift shop before it closed. The two chateaux had inspired some ideas in my head for castle projects. I purchased workbooks with castle descriptions and coloring pages for children in French. I am excited to incorporate some château history into our lessons this year with some of the authentic materials I bought.
Back in Paris, Claire and I decided to make it another late night of live music and dancing in the Latin Quarter at Caveau de la Huchette (a swing place featured in LaLaLand) and Chez Georges. We closed the place down and still went for a bite of croque monsieur at an outdoor café near a pont over the Seine.
We would need to be awake in only a few hours to catch our train to Nice, but we didn’t mind. We wanted to leave no stone unturned on our last night in Paris.
Alana
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