More Castles!

31 mai

Today was a marathon castle day.  We went to 3 castles!  They were all different and unique in their own way.  The first castle was Angèrs.  

This castle was built during the time of Francois I.  His symbol was a fire-breathing salamander like on the fireplace below.  Not exactly my idea of powerful and fierce..but to each his own.

This castle is built right on a little lake.  I made sure and did some pelousing behind the beautiful castle and read Jane Eyre for a while.  All this consistent sun is very refreshing after a few weeks of a cold and rainy Paris.

I love the reflection in the water in this one -->

The next castle we went to was my favorite of the week. It is called Cheonceau and is built on a bridge over the Loire river.  I loved this castle mostly because of all the gardens around it.  There were lots of trees, flowers, and even a labyrinth hedge maze.  

So this castle was given to Diane de Poitiers by Henri II during the 16th century.  Diane was Henri's mistress as Henri was married to Catherine de Medici.  When Henri died, Catherine took this castle away from Diane and gave her a smaller, less elaborate castle.  The insignia below is an H and two C's together for Henri and Catherine.  But the sneaky part is that the C's also make D's for Henri and Diane.

A smiling razorback in the kitchen. These bells above reminded me of Cinderella's home when the sisters ring the bells that go down to the kitchen.

To the right is a painting of Diane de Poitiers

More of Francois I's royal salamanders.  Diane was his mistress first.

I'm up on that balcony in the picture above! You can't see me very well, but I'm there.  Close up down below.

This picture on the right shows all of the swallow tail bird nests that were under the turrets!  There were hundreds of nests and hundreds of birds flying around! So cool.

It was a perfect warm day to eat my passion fruit ice cream in a beautiful setting.

The last castle of the day was Amboise. This is the castle where Charles VIII died as he was walking down a corridor and bumped his head on the top of the door way.  He had a brain hemorrhage and died within hours.  No joke.

Francois I brought Da Vinci to live in this area at the end of his life so that he could help design castles and other things.  Da Vinci died in Amboise in that red brick house in the picture above.

Great views from the top.

Emily's marzipan


We ended the day in Blois where ate dinner at a cafe just outside the Blois castle that we visit tomorrow.  Isn't that the best word, Blois? You say it like blwah.