Tours - Deux

Decided to do some more touring around Tours this weekend so saddled up Betsy and off we went in the rain.  Well, actually a light drizzle mostly.  It's supposed to clear up and be a little chilly, but that's okay; this time I brought the rain gear.  And my new helmet complete with full-face shield.

The helmet's very nice, and ought to be for what I paid for it, but it's going to need a little help.  It's one of those where the entire chin guard, visor and all will pull up and over the top making it like my old open faced helmet.  I basically wanted the visor now that they've sort of figured out how to keep them smog-free.  This after that morning ride in the soup in northern Spain just across the border from Biarritz.  That was a little scary so I decided to see if one of the new helmets would do the trick.  I think this'll do find, but I have a fit problem to work on.  Helmets should be snug, and I bought this one in the right size, it's just when the entire face guard and shield are brought down the swivel mechanism bulges inward slightly and, after an hour of so, start hurting my cheeks (no...the other ones).  I think I can work the padding to fix the problem.  I'm going to have to...there's no way I can take the big ride in August with this as it is.

In any event, it stopped raining near Tours and I continued on A10 to Blois where I found a room, dumped my stuff, and took off for Chambord, the largest, and one of the most recognizable of the French Castles.  Built as a hunting lodge by François I its primary purpose was to enable him to be near his mistress, the Comtesse de Thoury, Claude Rohan,  (There's hunting...and then there's hunting.)

I was on a deer lease in Marble Falls, Texas for a couple of years in the late 70s.  We had an old run-down, tin-roofed shack with a couple of wood heaters.  Wasn't quite on this scale.

Château de Chambord

His idea of a hunting lodge is 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, and 84 staircases.  Yeah, you read that correctly, a fireplace for every day of the year.  Bet you hard cash those 75 rooms without a fireplace belonged to servants.

A closer look at the middle section of the above.

Around the side.

The famous spiral staircase to which some attribute the idea to Leonardo di Vinci who visited with François at an earlier château.

Some say its design was so that the Queen wouldn't have to see the mistress when she left the royal suite.

There are brief "windows" allowing one to see what is on the other side of the stairway.
















"Inside" looking up.  I think that's Louis XIVth at the top.

Exiting the staircase on the third floor and walking through a room you are greeted with a marvelously busy exterior.

And some rather expansive grounds.
The estate covers 5440 hectares, the same area as Inner Paris.
 


(That's about 13,400 acres...probably about on a par with Ted Turner's holdings.)

Lots of people here this weekend for some special festivities.  There was some sort of equestrian event (you can see the churned up ground).  I'm thinking there is a huge shooting site to the right of this area.  It sounded like WWII over there for the entire length of my visit.

Pigeons seem to lack the artistic aesthetic.








This one is not as "complete" as the Château de Chaumont-Sur-Loir visited last time.  There are some furnishing, but not as many as in that masterpiece.  Understandable, if you know the price of antiques these days and how bloody big this place is.  (Of course, charging .4€ to allow a poor ol' Texas boy go to the bathroom they might be getting a leg up on the problem in the near future.)

One of the main rooms off the spiral staircase.

Ceiling looking back to the staircase

The Salamander, symbol of François I.
(Now there has to be a better symbol than that ugly creature...but then, get a load of some of the decendents.)

Now, I have a oft-stated theory that if you follow an ugly kid home, you'll almost always see an ugly parent answer the door.  The reverse isn't always true...but I'll pretty much stake my power of observation on this one.

So, okay.  The defense rests.

If you offer millions of acres of land, tons of treasure, and thousands of tax-paying serfs you can probably marry off any of your ugly daughters.

I don't want to belabor the point too much, but as an old friend of mine used to say, "She'd make a freight train take a dirt road."

The King's bedchamber

The Queen's bedchamber
 (Am I the only one noticing the jutxapostion of the pink and blue?)

 This was neat.  It's a ceramic stove.  You fill it with wood, start a fire, and close it off.  After it absorbs all the heat the fire has to offer it "gently" gives it off for hours afterward.

 Some detail

 Some furnishings for the stain-remover, sand-paper king, Sir Roger of Riley.

 Looking back on exiting the grounds of the château.

On my way back to the hotel in Blios I spotted some more of those poppies I like so much.


Hopefully, weather permitting, I'll get a look at the estate Catherine di Medici forced Diane de Poitiers to trade her for Château De Chaumont-Sur-Loire.



Day 2 - Chenonceau
 Managed to force myself to sleep late this morning, rising at the un-Godly hour of 8:30.  That may be a record for a motorcycle trip for me.  But, of course, this is really a local "day" ride given the distances.  Managed to pull out of the hotel by 9:30 headed west back toward Tours and home.

In order to give you some perspective I'm going to show some pictures I didn't take.  This is where we are:

The estate manager's house is the small building left of the garden corner. 

In the early 1500s Thomas Bohier and his wife, Katherine Briçonnet, demolished the fortified castle and mill belonging to the Marques family that had stood on the site since the 1200s and constructed Chenonceau, keeping (ironically) only the "Keep."  (The tall, pointed building at the corner of the square adjacent to the Château.)  Old Thomas was "General of finances" for the kingdom in 1513, and, I know I'm a cynic, but I can't help but believe some ill-booten gotty was involved here.

 The Château spans the River Cher

The driveway to Château Chenonceau

At the gateway to the estate are two, I guess, Egyptian-styled statuary guardians.
The house on the background is the estate manager's house (even in Catherine's time those "manager" fellows did pretty good).

The fees to get into these sites range between $10 and $12.50 and are used for maintaining them.  That's a good thing, and I am happy to be able to contribute to such things.  The downside, of course, is when the maintenance is going on during "your " visit.

The Keep













On entering there is a big hallway that was absolutely full of people.  No picture opportunity.  A room or two later I took a picture of what I now feared was going to be the scene wherever I looked:

A mass of humanity, all speaking different languages, and, seemingly, all pushing me hither and yon, something that always tries my legendary and revered patience.  (That was satire for those who don't know me.)  The fact that most wouldn't understand you when you yell out "Will you ill-mannered, pushy s.o.b.s stop jumping in front of each other, pushing me to hurry into a room, standing like a damn stone in the middle of a doorway, and start moving in a controlled and gentile pace through this damned place?  And...while we're at it...all but you good looking women can stop squeezing by me RIGHT F**&%^G now!"  But, I didn't do that.  First, they wouldn't understand me.  Secondly, some of those Japanese tourist ladies look like they could go bear hunting with a small stick.

I finally managed to maneuver my way through, past, and beyond the masses (generally recognizable by having some yo-yo talking to them in various languages I didn't understand).   When I did I found Catherine de Medici's small chapel off her bedroom. 

The stained glass windows were installed in 1954, the original having been damaged by bombs in 1944.  (I hope they weren't "ours.")

The lighting was poor here, but this little piece of furniture is a prayer stool.  Catherine, or the "resident du moment," could thank God immediately upon waking for their good fortune in life.

 Cesar of Vendôme's bedroom

 (A son of Henry IV of France)

All these castles have great tapestries throughout.








 A some, some amazing furniture.

 

 View from the stairs of the third floor entrance.

 The view back.

 Catherine de Medici.

Catherine ruled France as regent, or primary adviser, for three of her sons, Francis II (1544–1560), Charles IX (1550–1574), and Henry III (1551–1589).  Additionally, five Queens of France lived at Chenonceau through their relationship to her:

Two daughters, Margot (wife of Henri IV), Elisabeth of France (wife of Philippe II of Spain), and those married to her sons, Mary Stuart, Elisabeth of Austria, and Louise of Lorraine, respectively.

And, yes, for those of you familiar with your English history, Mary Stuart was Mary, Queen of Scots, chief rival and later, loser (of both position and head) to Elisabeth I of England.

 The hall of the third floor (I think).  Man, check out that ceiling.

 This is the great gallery that spans the River Cher.  The river was a line of demarcation between occupied and Vichy France during WWII.  Quite often members of the French Resistance would enter on the occupied side and exit free on the other bank.

(By the way, a note mentions that a German artillery unit was kept at the ready to destroy Chenonceau throughout the war.  So, maybe those blasts that damaged the stained glass windows in the chapel weren't ours.)



One of the culprits suspected of unspecified damage to some figures over a window at Chambord.

This place has a different moat from the others I've seen: fast flowing water.  And where there's fast flowing water in France, you will find someone taking advantage of it.

 And out.

 Looking back at the estate manager's house from the moat.

Catherine's smaller garden to the east of the Keep.

.

Diane de Poitier's larger garden east of the castle

(end)