A few weekends ago I went on an overnight trip to the Loire Valley with my program.
The Loire Valley is known for having over one hundred châteaux. We saw three châteaux and then did a wine tasting. The Valley is only a couple of hours outside of Paris so it makes for a great day or overnight trip if you want to travel outside the city but not stray too far.
We left Paris around 8:00 am and arrived at Château de Chambord around 10:00 am. This extravagant hunting lodge was the inspiration for the castle in Beauty and the Beast. Since this was a hunting lodge, the château was only furnished during the king's visits. It currently sits empty with a faded tapestry on the wall every now and then. These tapestries were used as "wall decor" when the château was being occupied.
The main attraction at this château is the double helix staircase designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. He intertwined two stair cases so two people can ascend and descend at the same time, yet never meet.
Our next stop was my favorite, the Château de Chenonceau. I instantly fell in love with this place because of the gardens and lush forest surrounding the château. Frannie, Moriah, Ellie, Lizzie, and I promenaded through the two formal gardens before making our way inside. The interiors were just as impressive! I am pretty sure my jaw dropped when I walked around the corner and entered the checkered hall that was built over the river. Talk about good use of symmetry and repetition!
Back outside, we found a maze in the forest. Don't worry we didn't get lost!
Our last stop for the weekend was the Château de Amboise which is home to Leonardo de Vinci's grave. Our tour guide, Roberto, who we had when visiting Château de Chambord was also our tour guide for Château de Amboise.
We learned from Roberto that a lot of châteaux museums will place furniture in rooms so visitors can get a sense of how the room was used back in the day. Some of the furniture placed in these rooms was not from the actual time period. Throughout the tour, the room descriptions would say what certain rooms were used for when in reality that's not at all what they could have been used for. Some sections were redesigned so visitors could see how the interiors changed from century to century.
