Loire Valley
Not sure if I’ve mentioned the weather in Paris this spring yet but it has been awful. I can probably count the number of times I’ve seen the sun since January on one hand! Okay that is a bit of an exaggeration but it has been unusually cold and wet all spring so we decided we should escape the city for a few days in search of sunshine and fresh air. We jumped on the TGV, fast train, from Paris and within a little over an hour, we were in the Loire Valley.
I honestly can’t remember if or when I’ve visited the Loire in the past but I am so glad we decided to explore this region again or anew. It was much warmer and the skies were blue with a few gorgeous clouds drifting in and out. The Loire is known for wine, Chateau’s and of course the Loire River. It’s the longest river in France (629 miles) and has a history reaching back to the Gauls in 52 BC. That’s a long time ago!! The earliest chateau dates back to the Merovingian period (5C-10C). There are hundreds of Chateau’s scattered all over this area so we had to narrow down our search as to where to stay and how many to visit within our 4 day visit. We knew we wanted to rent bikes so we settled on the village of Amboise because of it’s central location and easy access to the bike path. The Valley has a 650km cycle route from the Atlantic Ocean to the city of Nevers. Maybe we got lucky but there were very few people on the route when we were biking and we found everything to be very clearly marked so it was easy to get from point A to point B.
The first two photos below are of the Chateau Amboise. The history of the castle is incredibly rich and would fill up too many pages for this tiny blog snipit. Louis XI and Charles VIII both lived here - Charles had a fascination with Italy, so in 1496 he employed Italian architects and artisans to design the gardens and the interiors. There is a manor next to the castle that Charles acquired in 1490. It was Francois I who invited Leonardo DaVinci to move into the manor house in 1516. Leonardo lived there until his death in 1519 at the age of 67. The third photo below was taken from his studio in what is now the DaVinci museum. The photo in the middle is a detail of the castle that I thought was so intriguing. I love the stone work and this looks like maybe a cannon hit the wall to make that hole. One can imagine…
The first day on our bikes we rode outside of Amboise and stumbled upon this old church. I don’t think it’s anything of great significance but it was just gorgeous - especially with the blue sky above. I have many more photos but my other half advised me to narrow them down.
After we exhausted the small village church, we continued on to our destination which was Chateau de Chenonceau.The first photo below is from the bike path, along the River Cher. The castle stretches straight across the river making a huge impression. It’s hard to be brief with the history but I’m trying - this is known as the “Ladies Chateau”. Katherine Briconnet (1494-1526), Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) Simone Menier (1881-1972) to name a few of the famous women who lived here. The interior is stunning. It’s full of gorgeous furniture, art - paintings, sculptures and tapestries.
We were amazed by the beauty inside the Chateau’s and also outside. The gardens are exquisite and must need hundreds of people to tend to the upkeep. I noticed the many birds all over the valley but especially the swallows. I love the constant commotion of going in and out of their nests.
Our second day had a dramatic change in weather. We woke up to rain so I was not looking forward to getting back on a bike but rather I was thinking how can I persuade my husband we should rent a car today instead? Lucky for me, the rain didn’t last long and I happily got back on my bike for another adventure down the river. This day we rode to Domain of Chaumont where there is the Chateau Chaumont. I will admit, I was beginning to feel a bit of “chateau overload” and wasn’t sure how long I would last touring this one. I hadn’t done my homework so I didn’t know about the “park” before arriving. Chaumont consists of beautifully landscaped gardens, the Chateau and stables. This estate is actually a cultural center dedicated to exploring nature, culture, artistic and landscape creation. It was awesome! The castle houses the typical amazing things like period pieces of furniture and tapestries but it also has contemporary art interspersed inside and outside as well as in the stables. It was absolutely amazing. Below, you can see some charcoal drawings made by the artist Christian Lapie, a ceramic sculpture of small vessels that almost look like finely made barnacles by the artist Gregoire Scalabre. In one of the huge stone stairwells was an installation of woven spheres, very colorful and textural. These were created by Sheila Hicks. The juxtaposition of such an old building (973!) showcasing contemporary art was very exciting to me. And throw in the impeccable gardens, I was not feeling “Chateau overload” one bit.
We could have lingered at Chaumont all day but we had an agenda and the next destination was Blois. The ride continued to be gorgeous - we rode along the river, through the woods, through open fields dotted with farm animals and all the while on a bike path. Both days we stopped in small villages on our route and found local bakeries where we bought sandwiches for lunch. Once we arrived in Blois, we grabbed a coffee before walking around. This is much more of a city and I didn’t get that same quaint feeling I had in previous parts of trip. There is a Chateau (Chateau de Blois) which again has a rich history and is quite an imposing feature in the middle of the city. At this point we rode about 30 miles and we were ready to return to Amboise via the train. There are two types of local trains - one that is bike friendly and allows you to easily get into the train because the car is even with the platform and then the other type which is not bike friendly. We apparently chose the latter choice and must have been quite the nuisance for fellow travelers as we struggled to lift our bikes up four steep steps to enter the train car only to find there was no room to store our bikes. Fortunately it was a short ride of 15 or 20 minutes but not something I want to repeat.
I think because I wasn’t wow’d by Blois or maybe I was tired, I only have a few pictures to share.
Back in Amboise, I found a sculpture I immediately recognized as a Calder. I was really curious though because Amboise seems like such a random place to have a Calder. Anyway, it was delightful to pass everyday but next visit I will find someone to give me more history here. I took the final photograph with my phone - it captures the beauty and freshness of the Loire Valley perfectly. We already booked a return visit in October. Stay tuned ;)
