On to the Chateau we go!

My dinner memories got mixed up, artichokes featured on the second night's menu with baguette and cheese. All extra delicious in France it seems to me.

 

Out of the practically endless possibilities for places to go and things to do, we chose visiting Chateau Chenonceau as one of our first trips. So that Tuesday we took the train up to Tours. Here's the city hall in Tours (l'Hotel de Ville.) 

 

We had a bit of time to walk around the city and then it was back on a quick train ride to Chenonceau. 

I loved the area from the first step off the train, right down to the simple sign pointing to the chateau, below.

The land around the chateau was simply b-e-a-utiful on that afternoon, and struck me as just quintessentially French.

The chateau was a gift from King Henry II to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. She had the bridge built over the river Cher in 1555. The chateau has a really fascinating past and went through many different hands over the years, including Catherine de Medici and George Sand's grandmother (who saved it and even the chapel during the French Revolution with her cunning and intelligence)... just up to today's owners, the famous chocolate family Menier.

The painted tile floors fascinated me.

Here is the chapel that Madame Louise Dupin saved by saying it was for storage (was it wine storage Suzanne?) And the chateau she said was indispensable for crossing the river, so thus she saved the chateau too! 

 A classy way to cross the river : )

One fact I've taken away from the novel about the French revolutionaries I'm reading: there wouldn't have been a French Revolution if the price of the baguette hadn't kept rising. This country is serious about bread. Below, a baker's oven in the chateau's kitchen.

Besides the fading painted tile floors, I was slightly obsessed with the windows. And taken pictures through them.

A moment's hesitation crossing this hallways hanging from the bridge. 

Tiles! 

Windows! 

And tied for third with tiles + windows: the stairways! I think Zan and I both agreed these were our favorite "rooms." But that said, it was really neat that the chateau is furnished true to its days of former glory, and soirées. 

This kid loves the stairways too! ^^

Phew lots of pictures, thanks for hanging in there! :)