France: Château Hopping in the Loire Valley
Even though I skipped ahead in the chronology of our honeymoon to spread the gospel of Basque food, Scott and I began our honeymoon with a short leg in the Loire Valley. The Loire Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Loire River feeds the vineyards and farms that give this region the nickname the “Garden of France.”
While Jen and I have been known to visit a vineyard or two in our time, these days I can handle even less day drinking than I could before, so the wines of the Val de Loire were not our biggest draw. Rather, we came to go château hopping!
The Loire Valley is home to over 300 châteaux, but with only a couple nights there, we opted to see the major ones. Pro tip: If you’re thinking of ever visiting the Loire Valley, buy yourself a château-hopping pass in any combo you wish and save yourself some money.
Amboise
Our first stop in the Loire Valley was also our home base, Amboise. Amboise is basically the most perfect little French town you’ve ever seen and we loved our hotel, Au Charme de Rabelaisien, which had a view of the château, Clos Lucé. Built during the Middle Ages, the castle has remained nearly the same since its last update during the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci spent time here, and died here! His crypt is at Clos Lucé, but unfortunately, that part of the castle was being restored during our visit and we could only look in on it through a gate (and a little tablet that showed us what it would look like if it were open).
Chenonceau
Château de Chenonceau is a short drive from Amboise, and was my favorite of the châteaux we visited. Its architecture has Gothic and Renaissance elements, and it is seated directly on the river, making for some beautiful views from inside. It’s known as the Château des Dames (Château of the Ladies) because it was primarily woman-owned for many years, including by some bad bitches who go by the names of Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de’ Medici, Louise de Lorraine, and Marguerite Pelouze. We won’t get into the “Real Housewives”-style feuds that went on between Diane and Catherine though. Suffice to say, it’s a gorgeous castle with beautiful, peaceful gardens and I 10/10 recommend.
Chambord
I’m not proud to say it took me a mere two châteaux before having a meltdown. Not a full-on meltdown, but I got really hungry and pissy. I’m pretty sure that long ago when this blog was a mere infant, I instituted the rule that one should not attempt three museums in one day, and châteaux count too because even though they aren’t “museums,” these châteaux are in fact museums. (Also stay tuned because I broke this rule AGAIN in Paris AGAIN with the Louvre!)
Anyway, Chambord is massive and kind of purposely confusing? Scholars theorize that Leonardo da Vinci is the architect here, which seems likely given the winding double-helix staircase in the center, the perfectly symmetrical, radial design of the rooms on each floor, and the distinctly Italian facades. Unfortunately, when we visited, some of those facades were covered up for restoration.
Blois
After a quick break at our hotel to shower and change, we headed back out, this time to the town of Blois for a Michelin-starred dinner at the château’s l’Orangerie across the street and a sound and light show in the château courtyard. Dinner took too long for us to make it in time to tour the inside of the Château de Blois, which we figured was fine because there’s only so many rooms with tiny, ornate furniture for the tiny royals of yesteryear you can see in one day before they start to blur together into one forgettable blob of crimson and gold.
Because the sun sets so late in July in France, the light show, Son et Lumiere, was not scheduled to begin until 10:30 p.m. We wandered around the cute corners around the château then sat down in the courtyard waiting for the show to start. Over the next hour or so, we watched light projections on the castle walls tell the medieval history of Blois and its importance in French history. It was, as you may have guessed, in French, so I more or less only caught some names and the bits and bobs Scott was able to translate for me, but it was still enjoyable. (We passed by the English translation headphones on the way out that we somehow missed on the way in. Oops.)
Villandry
The next day was our last in the Loire Valley, so after breakfast in Amboise, we packed up for the road trip to Biarritz. However, we had one last château to visit on the way—Villandry. The guidebooks all told us the château itself wasn’t worth visiting, but the Villandry gardens were not to be missed. We spent about an hour seeing the manicured gardens, hiking through the nearby hills for the view, wandering through the vineyard, and then winding our way through the working herb gardens. It was a beautiful last château before saying au revoir to the Loire Valley.
Have you been to the Loire Valley? Which châteaux were your favorites?
-Staci
