Chenonceau

Chateau de Chenonceau

The gallery bridge that spans the Cher River at Chenonceau was not built for the same woman who designed the garden below it. Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry II, received the chateau as a gift and built the bridge piers into the river between 1556 and 1559. She never got to build the gallery across them. When Henry died, his widow Catherine de Medici forced Diane to exchange Chenonceau for the less impressive Chateau Chaumont, then built the gallery itself – the five-arched stone bridge room that makes every photograph of the chateau – and filled the interior with entertainments and political machinations. Two very different women’s agendas produced a single coherent building by accident. This is, arguably, the most interesting architectural narrative in the Loire Valley.

Chenonceau is the second most visited chateau in France after Versailles, and on popular summer days it feels like it. The practical advice: arrive when it opens. The gardens and the chateau interior both reward slow looking, and slow looking is impossible if you’re fighting crowds through the main rooms.

The Chateau

The interior reflects the French Renaissance at its most accomplished: elaborate stone vaulting, Flemish tapestries, four-poster beds, and painted ceilings in rooms where Catherine de Medici actually entertained the court. The Gallery, the long room spanning the river on the bridge, is the best single space: you look out through the windows to the Cher flowing below on both sides simultaneously. On the night of a flood or a storm, the experience of standing in that room must be significant; on a dry summer morning, it is beautiful.

The kitchens in the basement are often overlooked: a working kitchen environment with enormous fireplaces, copper pans, and the practical infrastructure of Renaissance domestic scale.

The Gardens

Two gardens separated by the chateau reflect its divided ownership history. Diane de Poitiers’ garden on the western side is geometric and formal. Catherine de Medici’s on the eastern side is more elaborate. Both are well maintained and both are best in spring (April to May) when the formal plantings are in flower and the overall effect is the most photogenic.

Getting There

The village of Chenonceau (one ‘o’, unlike the chateau which uses two) is about 34 kilometres east of Tours. TER trains from Tours run several times daily; the station is a 10-minute walk from the chateau. By car from Paris, the A10 autoroute to Tours then the D40 eastward takes about 2 to 2.5 hours. Combining Chenonceau with Amboise (15 kilometres west) makes a logical full-day Loire Valley circuit; Amboise has Chateau d’Amboise and the Clos Luce manor where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final three years.

Loire Valley Wine

The wine context matters here. The appellation surrounding Chenonceau produces Touraine blanc and Touraine rouge; Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) and Bourgueil (Cabernet Franc) are 30 to 40 minutes away. If you are driving and interested in wine, several small domaines in the Montlouis-sur-Loire appellation directly across the river offer tastings without appointment in the afternoon. The local rillettes (potted pork spread) and sainte-maure de touraine (soft ash-coated goat cheese) are the right food companions.