Once upon a time...

Note: I had decided not to try and catch up before posting recent ramblings...  And I had this post all written when some gremlin didn't save it.  I'll try to redo it, but it's a week later as I type this and I may not remember all the witty things I wrote before.

I have seen how the other half lived, and let's just say it's good to be king.  Until an unruly mob drags you from your bed...

Yesterday, I took a bus trip to the Loire Valley with Paris Vision. Well, a minivan trip: it turns out only six people registered.  Four of us were in the van when the guide said "We are just waiting for two more."  We looked at each other in some dismay; it would be kind of squishy with two more people in the van.  I said: "I hate to seem uncharitable, but I hope they don't show up on time."  Fortunately, they didn't and we were very comfortable.  So comfortable, in fact, that about 15 minutes after we left, almost everyone was asleep.  It was very early.

Quick history lesson: the Loire is a very long river, and there are many chateaux because, originally, they were defense fortresses (the medieval kind with a keep and so forth).  In the renaissance, after Francis 1er came back from campaigning in Italy, he decided to rebuild a bunch of them in the new-fangled Renaissance style he'd fallen in love with.  And as the king goes, so do the courtiers, so all the fortresses (built for defence) got turned into renaissance-style chateaux (built for la belle vie). /lesson

We drove for just over two hours to Chenonceau.

This is called the Chateau des dames because of all the ladies who had something to do with how it looks today: Diane de Poitiers (who was Henri II's* mistress -- she had been his nanny when he was young and he loved her all his life) built the bridge and did major work. Catherine de Medici (Henri's wife)kicked Diane out when Henri died and built the gallery on top of the bridge. Another lady, Louise Dupin, managed to save the chateau from the mob of the revolution.

We had lunch at the cafeteria, where I came across this:

As Aged P says, it's a civilized country. Naturally I had a carafe, although as I have mentioned, I'm not much of a drinker, and that was two full glasses of wine. I couldn't let it go to waste. Naturally. I may have been a bit tipsy afterward.

After lunch, we drove off to Cheverny, which is still inhabited by the family. That's the marquis's job: to run the castle and the shops (well, I imagine he oversees the running of the shops) and to organize hunts.

It was probably my favourite of the three chateaux we visited. It looks like Debbie Travis was let loose inside, what with all the painted ceilings and walls and so forth. But it was very pretty. Hergé used Cheverny as a model for a castle in Tintin.

We heard that there was a kennel (because the marquis loves to hunt) and so we went to look at the dogs. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it certainly is wan't this:

There must have been at least a hundred dogs, all piled up asleep. Some of them woke up and came over and were very friendly. Hoping for food, I expect.

Our last stop of the day was Chambord. This was the chateau built by Francis I as a simple hunting lodge to mimic the new-fangled renaissance style he'd fallen in love with in Italy.

Yeah. Hunting Lodge. Sure. Those things on top? Are chimneys, for heaven's sake! The grounds cover the same area as inner Paris! It has a double-helix staircase that was said to have been designed by da Vinci. There were a lot of people there, too, but somehow it didn't feel crowded.

My friend Laurent from Belgium was taking his family to Chambord the same day and was hoping to see me there, but who could meet anyone unexpectedly in such a crowd? Or such space? I think you could probably go for a day without seeing the same person twice.

We climbed the stairs (much wider than Chartres, but still a little freaky) to the roof to gaze on the expanse. It went on and on. Yeah, it was good to be king.

I actually bought something at the gift shop there: a jazz cd called "Americans Love Paris." Because nothing says huge renaissance castle more than Louis Armstrong singing "C'est Si Bon."

But, really, I hadn't seen 'nothing yet. Today, I went to Versailles. Yowza.

Edited: I have finally uploaded the rest of the photos for the Loire Valley visit. See them here (click on the title below the pic).

Loire Valley 2010

*Henri II was the hero of the Drew Barrymore film Ever After, where he does not marry Catherine de Medici but a peasant named Danielle. And it never gets around to mentioning the babysitter part...