On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
A lovely chateau, green gardens, and a floofy kitty, sleeping. What more could we ask of today’s example of joy and beauty around us? ~WaterGirl
Auntie Anne
I fell in love with the chateaux de la Loire when I was 14; my French teacher had a series of posters of the chateaux in her classroom. The most romantic of them all in my mind will always be Chenonceau.
In 2017, I fulfilled one of my bucket list items by visiting France, and particularly, the Loire region.
Just as historical context, Henry II gave Chenonceau to Diane de Poitiers in 1547. She had the gallery over the river Cher built, and added extensive gardens. After Henry’s death, his queen, Catherine de’Medici, took over. Catherine added gardens as well.
The approach to the chateau
My favorite picture – and one that serves as the background on most of my devices.
The gallery over the river Cher
One of Catherine’s gardens
Floofy kitty in the gift shop. Quite unfazed by all the people!
Mohagan
Evocative pictures. My husband and I had been planning for over a year to take a trip to the Loire Valley in July, which includes attending a concert in the gallery at Chenonceau. Although the tour/music festival hasn’t been officially canceled yet, and July is still more than 2 months away, I seriously doubt we will be going. Sigh. Oh well, very small stuff compared to what lots of other people are going through (to say the least), but still quite disappointing.
p.a.
Very nice. Thanks!
JPL
@Mohagan: Hope springs eternal.
JPL
I want to go to the gift shop.
debbie
Thanks for these! I especially love that interior.
satby
I don’t remember ever seeing pictures of Chenonceau before. Beautiful!
Auntie Anne
@Mohagan: oh, no! I have a gaming friend who was going to an outdoor concert at Chambord this summer, which has been cancelled. France has been hit hard by COVID; another gaming friend and his wife both had “mild” cases, and it’s taken them weeks to recover.
MelissaM
Beautiful! Thanks for the tour, and also for adding a region to my wish list. If I get there, I hope the cat, or a cat, is still unconcerned in the gift shop.
Mike in Oly
So enchanting!
Sab
What timimg. I just finished my second reading of the Lymond Chronicles. Lymond spent significant time in the Loire chateaux. What fun to see some pictures.
WaterGirl
I looked at the pictures a second time to decide on my favorite, and noticed that my favorite had your note under it that read “my favorite…”. Seems I made an excellent choice!
Add my name to the gift shop people. Maybe when all this is over, we can hold a meetup in the gift shop. But only if flooffy kitty promises to attend.
stinger
How lovely! I can see why you wanted to go there — and now I do too!
The idea of a gallery across a river is brilliant. I’m imagining a barge with musicians piping, a flotilla of swans, a gentleman poling a skiff for his lady love as she trails her fingers through the water, all floating between the arches and out again on the other side of the gallery. Or, you know, Pooh Sticks.
Thank you, Auntie Anne!
Dave Larson
Wonderful pictures! I, too, had a middle school French teacher with a poster of Chenonceau; was lucky enough to see it nearly 30 years ago.
Odd bit of historical trivia: the boundary between Nazi-occupied and Vichy France ran down the middle of the Cher in those parts, and during the war there were occasional exchanges of prisoners and other sensitive persons carried out at the gallery over the river.
Origuy
Beautiful pictures. I just watched a documentary about Chambord, Francis I’s palace, on Curiosity Stream. It was designed by Leonardo da Vinci.
TomatoQueen
Oh lovely. And floofy. Want.
Betty
Ah, my favorite chateau also. Would love to visit again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mohagan: Just FYI: I read this morning that France is planning reopening on May 11, but museums and large sports/cultural venues will be closed until September
PJ
Big ups for the proper spelling of “unfazed”. If only journalists could do the same, and If they could understand that “nonplussed” is not a synonym for “unfazed”.
opiejeanne
@Mohagan: I’m so sorry. That sounds wonderful.
Our flight to Paris would have left yesterday afternoon. When you do go, there is another chateau in the Loire Valley that I would recommend, just for the astonishing knot gardens. Chateau Villandry. We were accompanied by a cat through most of the gardens but she left us when we walked up a path to view the gardens from a higher vantage point.
Faithful Lurker
I didn’t look up the history of the chateau but I do know that Henry ll died in 1189. So, unless it was his ghost, he didn’t give the chateau to anyone. He was the king who petulantly asked his couriers if no one would rid him of that troublesome priest.
Annie
I went on a tour of several of the Loire chateaux some years ago and liked Chenonceau the best of all,of them. It really looked like a place a king would give to his mistress — not to his wife, to his mistress.
Annie
Henry II of France, not England, gave Chenonceau to Diane de Poitiers
sempronia
I visited Chenonceau last fall and it was my favorite of the Loire Valley chateaus too. Supposedly the section of the building over the river was originally a bridge. The river was a border between occupied and free France, and according to the display panels at the chateau, the castle steward would hide Jews in the cellar and let them out across the river at night, thereby saving at least 400 people. The grand ballroom (pictured here) is on the bridge at a level just above the water and was used as a hospital during the world wars.
Faithful Lurker
@Annie: Of course. My brain is still asleep or so full of pollen that I didn’t think.
J R in WV
Beautiful palace, great photos.
We visited a French castle occupied by King Richard, but it was more medieval and built for war, while this chateau was built for parties.
Thanks, all !
ETA: I was left with the impression that Richard was one number ( I ) as king of England, and another number ( III ?) as king of France, but that may be an error… not going to spend more time on it, don’t care enough !
Sab
@Faithful Lurker: You are talking about Henry II of England. Henri II of France overlapped with English Henry VIII, Bloody Mary and Elizabeth I. Mary Queen of Scots married Henri II’s son when she was a teenager.
Mohagan
@Auntie Anne: My husband and I are 68 and 69, so I am even warier about long distance traveling to France. Since we live in N CA, the plane flight is 10+ hours. And yeah, reading about “mild” versions of the virus are scary. “Mild” for some seems to mean you don’t have to be hospitalized.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sigh. After the festival, we were to be in Paris for a week and I was going to fulfill my dream of being in France on 14 Juillet. Oh, well, I’m guessing the parade will be canceled too (the one Trump was so jealous of).
@opiejeanne: We were signed up for a French music festival from Martin Randall which had us staying in Tours and going to different chateaus for concerts, including Villandry. Up until March, my only worry was that perhaps the weather would be too hot (Loire Valley in July). We love cats and to be toured around by one, or even to see one in the gift shop, would be a definite plus! Sorry for your lost trip as well.