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May 27, Monday: Birgitte, Sharon, Christie and I head off to the chateau in town. We are going to rent bicycles and ride out to the chateau at Chambord about 20 kms away from Blois. The Chateau de Blois is pretty amazing: it has quite a lot of furniture, great ceilings and fireplaces with ermine, salamander and porcupine motifs carved in! These are the family symbols, the salamander said to be King Francois I's symbol of bravery. This chateau is more of a "town house" than the larger ones set in the countryside. It certainly was decorated like a palace. The States Chamber was amazing with a lovely aquamarine ceiling, somewhat like the one in the chapel at Hampton Court in England. The tour guide told us stories about the antics of the former occupants and their guests which included kings and queens of France and their "playmates."
After visiting the chateau, we stopped to look around the church in town and the garden nearby. Then we rented our bikes from M. LeBlond, whose shop was much farther from town than we expected, then bought a picnic lunch including some wine. At 12:30 pm we set off toward Chambord.
Sharon said it would take about 40 minutes to get there. Not true. It seemed like decades to me, though it was only 1:50 when we arrived. There was so much traffic on the road we had taken that I was in constant fear of either being run over or being slammed against the cement wall at the edge of the road. Since we were riding along the river, there were thousands of little bugs (mosquitoes?) that kept flying into my eyes and mouth. Yuck! This did not turn out to be the leisurely jaunt I had expected. Luckily it was a lovely spring day, bright and sunny.
We decided to have lunch before visiting the chateau. We sat near a pond, facing the building and admiring the scenery. Unfortunately, although we DID have a corkscrew, we had neglected to bring glasses for the wine, and ended up passing the bottle around and swigging out of it. Some of the other picnickers seemed rather amused at our antics.
The chateau of Chambord supposedly symbolizes the height of the French Renaissance. It looks better in real life than it does in the photographs, and it looks pretty spectacular in the photographs, so all the effort and unpleasantness was worth it! Inside was also very impressive, though quite a bit of it had been remodeled over the centuries, compared to Blois, which was pretty much as it had been when it was built. Chambord is the largest and most extravagant chateau in the Loire Valley, with over 400 rooms and 365 fireplaces. Not all of the rooms were accessible and the furniture was sparse compared to the luxury of Blois. I suppose it's pretty difficult to furnish 400 rooms. The ceramic fireplaces in some rooms are also impressive, some are as tall as a person. There were also a lot of stuffed animals heads on the walls. One of the best parts was being able to climb out to the walkways around the towers at either end of the building. There is a great view of the valley from there.
Behind the chateau is a lovely French-style garden with immaculately trimmed bushes and a large expanse of green lawn. Farther back are the stables. On that day there was a special exhibition with riders and horses dressed in period costumes. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but with the long ride ahead of us, we could not spend more time there.
The ride back to Blois was much easier, no headwind and a good bit of it was downhill. I had a minor mishap when a bug flew into my face so I could not see and I crashed! I put my sunglasses on and it seemed to help but the bugs still kept flying into my mouth. Back in town we returned the bikes, then Birgitte and I sat in a cafe before dinner. We tried a drink called "Monaco" which is made of beer, grenadine and lime and seemed to be very popular there. For dinner, the four of us met up and had salads, which, after our exertions during the day were delicious and well-deserved!
Next: Chenonceau to Champagne
Books about visiting the Loire Valley