Day 28,  Monday, September 25, 2023

Our first view of Chambord Chateau, which dates to 1539 and King Francois I.   It is the largest chateau in the Loire Valley with 440 rooms!

The plan of the chateau is symmetrical, four towers in the corners of the keep, and at its centre a grand staircase.  The rooms that frame the staircase form a Greek cross.  It looks simple on the plan but it was a bit confusing to actually make our way around the chateau.

This view shows part of the wall around the keep.

There are several furnished rooms, The governor’s bed chamber, the main kitchen, the games room and the Queen’s bed chamber.

The ceilings of the main floor are decorated with the letter F and salamanders which were the emblems of Francois I.  The salamanders at first appear to be identical but they are all slightly different from one another.

This huge boar is in one of the rooms with information about the hunts that took place here.  Chambord was primarily a hunting lodge.  It was only occupied for short visits of 4 or 5 days at time, except for a couple of periods when it was a residence for 7 or 8 years.  It was abandoned for most of its 500 year history.

Just a few of the many Hunting trophies on display.  Not my thing but….We climb the double helix staircase inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s design.  People climb up and down the two staircases and can see each other through the interior windows but never actually meet on the stairs.  Here we are looking across the staircase at each other as we simultaneously climb to the terraces.

The magnificent Lantern Tower tops the central staircase.

We make our way around the terraces… …with views of the gardens…

…including the French Gardens which have been restored in 2016-2017 to reproduce the exact layout of the lost 18th century gardens.

This chateau has a moat but only on the north side.

The view on the south side of the chateau is entirely different.

Gardens stretch for as far as the eye can see, beyond the Chateaus exterior wall.   They remind us of the gardens at Versailles, lots of grass, walkways and trees.  The chateau is surrounded by 5,440 hectares and is enclosed by a 32 kilometre long stone wall!

We take another selfie, but it is hard ot get much of the background in…my arms must be too short!

There is so much to see up here on the terraces.  The roofs, towers and spires in each corner of the keep are replicated in all the other corners, so there are four of these dark towers.  Four of everything!

Looking up from the base of the Lantern Tower with huge leaded glass window…

…and looking out through that same window onto the terrace.

The gardens have man made lakes…

…and paths and walkways. Golf carts are available for rent to explore the gardens…they are so big that it would take forever to walk the paths…and more energy than I have!

Sadly people over the years have felt the need to scratch their names into the stone walls.

Looking down into the courtyard…

Making our way down to the ground floor there is another walkway with a view on the second floor (which would be the third floor back home). Here the first floor is the ground floor.

I stepped into the centre of the double spiral staircase to look upwards and spot a little face looking down.  I take my picture and wave, and this young boy smiles and waves back.  These openings are the ones that allow people to view each other as they climb the two intertwined staircases.

Back on the ground I just need to take a few more photos…including this one of the beautiful external staircase leading to the King’s quarters…

…of the ornate rooftops…

..over the massive corner towers.  

We find a nice shady bench to have a picnic lunch and then I sketch for about an hour.  I find buildings much harder to draw than people. Proportions are difficult, and I keep drawing the bits and pieces too large.  Much more practice is needed, although I have to admit drawing buildings does not interest me as much as drawing  people.  This is my second attempt, the first was a bit of disaster.  I was much happier with this one.

While I was drawing Bob went wandering and took this fantastic photo of the chateau.

On the drive home we see ten colourful hot air balloons.  We went on a hot air balloon ride for our tenth anniversary, it was quite the experience.  The ones offered here vary from $300 to $400 CAD a person.