We had an early start to the day so we could get to the Amboise train station and pick up Zach, Carolyn, and a late addition of Chris. We were a bit late (I went back for an extra Nutella crepe at breakfast), but managed to get all three of them and their bags into our car!
We were off. It was a day of châteaux - first, Chambord!
This grandiose castle was never fully completed to original plan, but that didn't stop it from having 440 rooms and over 360 fireplaces.
Even with all those fireplaces, the stone building was cold. The keep was a square built onto the back wall of an outer square with more rooms, containing a gravel courtyard.
Hints were being consistently dropped about how, while da Vinci died slightly before construction first started, his drawings look very similar to the double helix staircase that was at the center of the keep. Given that the stair led straight to the roof, without any doors, the fireplace they had lit on the first floor didn't do much.
We circled up the paired staircases to the first floor. The royal apartments were tucked back into the "wall" part of the structure. François I stayed at this hunting lodge a few times, but the majority of the royalty that inherited it (the video we watched said they kept rediscovering it as it would fall into ruins time and time again) stayed just a couple times.
It is definitely not a year-round place. There are mosquitos in the summer, since they had to make essentially a moat - but only because they needed to drain the swamp. There's tons of land around the castle, so they would send out the boys to flush game inward while the ladies stood on the roof and watched.
The roof was probably my favorite part. The sun was peeking out behind fluffy clouds, though the stone ground was still a little slick from the rain earlier. We could see the delicate stone carvings from up close - François' symbol of the salamander everywhere, but also the fleur-de-lis crowning the tallest dome, and the curly Qs decorating the rest. The roof of the stone building was intricate and the prettiest part of the outside.
We circled down to an exhibit about the Infant Duke of Bordeaux, who took the title Comte of Chambord. He was in line for the throne during a time when people didn't much care for royalty, so was in exile most of his life. He only lived in Chambord as a child, but was fond of it (potentially because it also meant he'd be back in good graces.)
We finished up the exhibit, peeked into the carriage house and the original stone work that was on the roof (made of "tuff" which isn't so tough), then grabbed lunch at the first cafe in the corner. Soups and sandwiches and salads, and we were off to Cheverny!
Oh Cheverny. You are such a tease. Also built as a hunting lodge (though now occupied full-time by the original family Hurault), it has kennels and stables, and does a public dog feeding most days. We wanted to get there by three so we could see it.
We park, and as we're buying the tickets, I asked. And they had moved the time to 11:30! Their website was still wrong!
It was a sour note to start on, but we saw the dogs anyway, petting them through the bars of their kennel. We walked behind to the garden, and past that saw horses exercising in what looked like a giant revolving door.
All of this was in the well-balanced shadow of the house. Not the monstrosity of Chambord, Cheverny was an enormous mansion - much more liveable in its decor and temperature. We all decided to learn the harp that was in the music room once we moved in.
I was very impressed with their family tree. A few floors above, they were a good little castle and had a light-filled chapel. The nursery was a bit creepy with its vintage decor, which always means horror movies to me.
We went back out into the frigid sun and hiked toward the maze, finding a frame that we had to pose in. As we were examining the map to figure out which direction it was in, we found a few circles labeled "arbor remarkable" - remarkable trees!
We then spent ten minutes at least attempting to get us and the house and at least one remarkable tree in the frame. Zach has the best panorama attempt I've ever seen, first in execution, secondly as a guest appearance.
We had a slightly awkward amount of time before our meeting in Tours with our AirBnB host. With a bit more time, we would've swung by another château. With slightly less time, we would've coughed up the dough to take the expressway. As it was, we didn't pay the tolls, and we drove through more church-filled small towns to get to Tours.
The address led us to a parking garage and an apartment building, but we were forced to park behind it on the street. Mark attempted texting the host, but we instead sent Zach and Carolyn to try and find her while Chris continued his napping.
Carolyn returned half an hour after we'd parked, so we put in the 90 cents to finish up the evening and stay overnight, then lugged our bags up to a tiny elevator and shoved Carolyn in with them.
The apartment was great. Our host had talked Zach's ear off about the area, how AirBnB works in France, how the amazing view to the Loire was even more amazing in the summer as restaurants and cars popped up to serve and play music.
Well, with a toast to our host and a bottle or two of our own, we burned the time before it was an appropriate French dinner with the remaining Chinon.
We walked the few blocks to the host's recommendation and were seated immediately by a young twenties waitress with her hair pulled back. After the aperitifs Mark and I had had the previous evening, I wanted to try the liquor-based drinks again. Chris and I got peach, Mark got a berry-flavor with Carolyn, and Zach got a red martini. It came with a balancing plastic dragonfly, which we teased him mercilessly for before attempting to drink our drinks with it on.
Duck, chicken, other meats... I honestly can't remember what I ate (fish, maybe?) except that Chris was the only one to order dessert, and it was good.
We dodged the dog poop, waved to the chapel, and climbed the five flights up to our apartment. Zach and Chris made sure to savor the view a bit more, but Mark and I had to be in driving shape by 7am.
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