Chenonceau and Villandry

(FYI: there are two new posts, this one and the previous about Bayeux)

Tuesday began with a visit to Chenonceau, one of the many castles of the Loire valley which is southwest of Paris. This castle had a bit of a unique history. It was one of the first castles that was bulit just for pleasure instead of fortification.

Much of what we saw reminded me of the song "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better." It was originally inhabited by Diane de Poitiers, who had one of the castle's most distinctive features built: its arched bridge over the river. However, once her husband died, Catherine de Medici waltzed in and unceremoniously kicked Diane out.

Catherine subsequently built her own garden opposite Diane's, put a ballroom on top of Diane's bridge with excellent river views, and put her office on the floor above Diane's and used the same layout, but added a ceiling painting that rivaled those of Versailles and the Louvre.

Mom liked Chenonceau better than Versialles, an observation that I also agree with. Although Versailles was grand, it seemed a little bit too over the top and cold at times. Chenonceau, on the other hand, felt much more liveable and had a better setting on the river.

After driving around in a circle for a while (or so it seemed) we found Villandry, another château. However, it is known more for its gardens than castle, so that's all we saw. They had a number of different gardens including a very impressive vegetable garden that had all the vegetables arrainged geometrically. There were also over 1200 lime trees, but I didn't see any limes.

After meandering through the gardens, we headed to Vichy to stay the night since tomorrow would have a good amount of driving to reach our final destination (Provence), about half a day.