Stephanie and Nick: France Day 8

Chenonceau!

We started out early this day and were on the bus by 9. I was especially excited about the day's excursion, as I have read so much about Diane de Poitiers:

And Catherine de Medici:

A summary of their story: Diane was King Henri II's mistress (although she was 20 years his senior) and he gave her Chenonceau, which his wife, Catherine de Medici (a woman notorious in many ways-the French called her Madame Serpent), desperately wanted. There's way more to it than that, but that's the beginning of the gist. When Henri was pierced through the eye with a large splinter in a jousting tournament (at the Place de Vosages, which we saw in Paris), it became clear that he would die. Despite his calling for Diane, the woman he seemed to truly love, Catherine gave orders that Diane was not to be allowed to see the king. Once he died, Catherine took Chenonceau and Diane was given the chateau Chaumont, where she lived briefly before moving back to Anet, her country home. She died there at the age of 66. For a very comprehensive take on the story of Catherine, Henri, and Diane check out the historical fiction novel Courtesan by Diane Haeger. I'm reading it for the second time right now and love it all over again!

Back to Chenonceau: Once Henri was dead, Catherine set about removing any trace of Diane from Chenonceau. She replaced the portrait over the fireplace in Diane's bedroom with her own, but took another bedroom for herself in the chateau. She put her symbol next to Henri's all over the house and created her own garden to rival Diane's, which she left intact. Her exhaustive efforts to make Chenonceau her own only served to scream, "jilted wife." It was as if she was trying to force herself and others to believe that Henri loved her more. Insert petulant foot stamp. One of the wonderful things she did add to Chenonceau was a three-story ballroom and gallery built on the bridge connecting the chateau to the opposite side of the Loire River (the bridge was built for Diane). Catherine made Chenonceau the place to see and be seen.
The ballroom:

We spent almost three hours at the chateau and I took a ton of pictures. It was a surreal feeling see this breathtaking residence, which was almost destroyed in World War II. The tree-lined entrance to the chateau is breathtaking:

And then you get your first glimpse of the place as you round a corner:

And you're stunned. It was just so amazingly beautiful. You begin to understand why Catherine wanted this chateau so badly.

The gardens are stunning as well. Diane's was my favorite:

But Catherine's was beautiful too:

Upon entering the chateau, we walked immediately into Diane's bedroom and it was . . . well, there are no words to explain how it feels to be standing in the bedroom of such a well-known historical figure. Diane is someone whose story touches you and then you find yourself standing in her bedroom and it feels so surreal. That's the best way I can describe it.

Here is the fireplace in Diane's bedroom, with the portrait of Catherine over the fireplace, in all its sad, mocking glory:

We saw the area where she entered the river every day to swim. (She took daily baths and swam frequently, something unheard of in this time when water meant illness to the paranoid masses-and that included the royalty.) The kitchen was huge and very interesting. Here's the massive stove:

This is Catherine's beautiful and ornate bedroom:

And the room of the widow, Louise de Lorraine, which is done in all black with skulls and darkness, just in case she forgot that she was a widow and needed to be reminded to mourn.

Some other interesting and lovely aspects of the chateau included:

The portrait of Diane de Poitiers as the goddess Diana the Huntress

The ornate coffered ceiling in Diane's study

And the abundance of symbols in the chateau. Here are Catherine's interlocking Cs and Henri's H:

And this is the combined symbol of Henri and Diane, which both used to sign state documents. She had a lot of power as his beloved.

The most beautiful part of Chenonceau was, again, the chateau itself. Its location on the river, the grounds, the gardens and maze-it was all so wonderful. I was in awe the whole time we were there and got some really wonderful pictures.

Here are a few pictures of the working gardens in the servants quarters at the entrance to the chateau:

We also spent some time in the maze:

Finally, we took our Rick Steves tour group photo in front of the chateau:

And then, all too soon, it was time to go. On the way back to the hotel, I started to feel really carsick, so by the time we were back in Amboise, I was ready to lie down. There was a market going on, but we went back to the room and slept for two hours. At 2:30 we got up and went to the laundromat. It was close to 5 when we got back to the hotel from that experience. It was 9 Euros for the two washers and 6 Euros for the big dryer. It was ridiculously expensive! Hopefully that will be the last time we have to do laundry while we are here. As we were waiting for the clothes to dry, we saw the cutest little Yorkshire terrier that was literally skipping and springing down the sidewalk. It reminded me of Phoebe's springing deer trick!

At 5 we had a wine tasting at the hotel. Even though I still wasn't feeling great, we decided that we needed to start our education about wine, so boozed up we got. We tried six wines from the Loire region, along with two cheeses, a pâté, bread, and chocolate. Oh, and a hard sausage that Nick really enjoyed. We learned about the legs of the wine, swirling, the age, the mouth swish, and by the end of it all, I was giggly and, I'm not going to lie, drunk. It was a lot of fun! We sat by John and Nancy from Fairwood, Washington and they're always a kick. By the end of the tasting, we were all laughing and talking so loudly that our teacher had to shout to be heard. Ah, to be on the other side of it!

Here was our list of wines:
1. Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray (Chenin Blanc)-one of our favorites
2. Antoine Simoneau Sauvignon Black 2008
3. Antoine Simoneau Domaine de la Rabelais-Rose (Gamay) 2009
4. Antoine Simoneau Gamay 2008
5. Domaine de la Chevalerie-Chevalerie 2001 (Cabernet Franc)
6. Jean-Claude et Didier Aubert Vouvray Moelleux 2008 (Chenin Blanc)-a dessert wine, another favorite

After our tasting, we took another nap. It was pretty clear at this point that I had a pretty yucky head cold. The next day we had a 5-hour bus ride to Mont St. Michel, so I was hopeful about my chance to get some more sleep. Being sick on vacation is really awful. I'm so disappointed that we didn't get to do much sightseeing in Amboise because I didn't feel well. Leonardo da Vinci lived, died, and was buried here and we missed seeing some of those poignant sites. We will just have to come back I guess. (That made me smile through my sniffles!)

These are two of the handful of photos we took while in Amboise. The first is the view of the Loire River from our hotel room at the Hotel Bellevue: