Châteaux de Chenonceaux

(2 photos)
The Châteaux de Chenonceaux (one that we have visited a couple of times) is reached by walking a quarter mile down a broad avenue lined with huge plane trees. The Châteaux has a steeply pitched roof, and was built as a bridge over the River Cher, from 1513 to 1521.

Inside, the great two-storied gallery is 197 feet long and extends, completely across the Cher River. Parts of the kitchen look rather modern, so perhaps it has been rebuilt since the 1500s. The rotisserie in the great fireplace in the kitchen has a small windmill that is extended inside the fireplace, and rising hot air in the chimney turns the rotisserie that is used for cooking game and poultry. (As invented by Leonardo da Vinci.)
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This “Catherine de Medici’s Garden” (on the right as we approach the Châteaux) is named after Henri II’s wife, “The Magnificent.”

On the left of the Châteaux we found a very large precision-planted flower garden called the “Diane de Poitiers Garden.” After Henri II died, Catherine threw Diane de Poitiers, Henri II’s mistress, out of the Châteaux and lived there herself. Poor Diane had to move 12 miles away to Chaumont, a more modest medieval fortress. She had been called “the ever beautiful” and is said to have been “as beautiful at seventy as she had been at thirty.” Since a reference says she died at age sixty-seven, that’s a little hard to believe.

Chenonceaux is called “The Châteaux of Six Women.” In addition to the “Magnificent” and the “Ever Beautiful” mentioned above, Catherine Briçonnet “the Builder”; Louise of Lorraine “the Inconsolable”; Madame Dupin, “Lover of Letters”; and Madame Pelouze, “Lover of Antiquity”; all lived there at one time or another, ranging from the 1500s to the late-1800s.

Henri III, the husband of Louise, held a sylvan festival at the Châteaux where, “… the most beautiful and virtuous ladies of the court appeared half naked, and waited on the guests.” We understand this is not a current public event!!