Chenonceau
is breathtaking. Right from the approach, a stroll down a wide path
lined with trees with the majestic castle ahead getting ever closer.
Chenonceau is the castle that straddles the Loire River. the reason it
was built across the river was to make it easier for the king to access
both sides whenever he felt like hunting. The castle has been extremely
well maintained. I wandered from room to room taking it all in with
wonderment and awe, often with a big smile and sometimes with an audible
gasp of pleasure. There was so much beautiful stonework and woodwork
and opulent fabric and rich colours. The castle dates to 15th/16th
century and is a resplendent example of the renaissance appreciation of
life and good things. The philosopher, Rousseau spent time at Chenonceau
and it was here he had an epiphany about bonheur and bien-être or
happiness and well being (I, of course prefer the alliteration of the
French version of the epiphany). Rousseau reflected and wrote about the
importance of being IN and appreciating the moment. He was ahead of his
time in renouncing fancy dishes and imported delicacies and rich
sauces. He proposed eating locally and seasonally and savouring flavours
for their own properties rather than hiding their light under the
bushel of sauces. He also had a lot of sensible things to say about
education and the need to cultivate a thirst for learning in the
student; to facilitate an understanding of WHY he or she should learn
about the world rather than just providing the content to be learned.
Even
the scent of Chenonceau was captivating, a not too sweet woody
fragrance floated in the rooms with the entrancing ability of
transporting me back to the time when Diane of Poitiers and Catherine of
Medici would have swished across the floors. Both these women, rivals
in Henri II's affections lived at Chenonceau and exerted their influence
at different times.
From Chenonceau, the
drive to Azay-le-Rideau should have taken 40 minutes, but riding
on misguided GPS-less intuition and a very lacking in detail map from the hotel, I
enjoyed a 2 hour drive through the Touraine countryside. And just when
I'd almost got there, I ran into army training and had to do a big
detour.
The village of Azay-le-Rideau had its
own charm, little cobbled streets and half-timbered houses. The castle,
another of 'the' castles to see, was beautiful from the outside and had
some stunning features but perhaps the 2 hours it had taken to get
there, dulled my appreciation. Or maybe seeing Chenonceau first was
always going to make it hard for the other castles. It had also got
pretty cold by then.
So, fortified by a salted
caramel cake in the form of a crown and a pot of tea, I set off for
Ussé, the sleeping beauty castle. Another stunning exterior and
beautiful gardens. The most expensive of the castles to visit, and the
most poorly maintained of the three. The fact that they were riding on
the sleeping beauty connection, a tenuous connection, in fact, given
that it is only supposition that Charles Perrault based his fairytale on
this castle. There was a lot of brainwashing going on to this effect
with the Disney soundtrack to Sleeping Beauty being piped throughout the
castle and rooms set up with costumed mannequins recounting the story.
Sigh.
