Chateau de Chenonceau

Our last chateau in the Loire Valley was Chateau de Chenonceau.  It was built in the 15th century in Renaissance style and was built to be arched over the Cher River. This chateau has been maintained perfectly. It was just picture perfect. It is actually known as "the chateaux of the ladies" since it houses numerous famous women over its many centuries.

You approach the chateau down a beautiful tree lined path, then cross over three moats and two bridges to enter. The Marques tower in the front was original from the early 15th century and when the chateau was built in the 16th century, they kept the tower and built the rest of the palace in the same style.

 The chapel survived the vandalism of the French Revolution because the lady of the palace filled it with firewood and when the rioters came all they saw was wood - nothing royal or religious. The windows were blown out during World War II and are replacements done in the 1950s.

 If you looked in the corners you could see the detailed tile floors that used to be all over the chateau.

 There were fresh flowers all over the palace. They were in every room and were absolutely beautiful. This is Diane de Poitiers' bedroom, King Henri II's favorite lady. The four poster bed is from the Renaissance period.

 This is the green study - Catherine de'Medici's study in the 16th century.

 

 The whole palace was impeccably maintained and the kitchen was decorated as it would be in the grand days of the chateau. This was the dining room for employees only.

 A 16th century Italian cabinent.

 The Five Queens Bedroom - given this name in memory of Catherine de' Medici's two daughers and three daughters-in-laws. 

This is a Renaissance fireplace  and the tapestries are part of the 16th century tapestry that illustrates The Life of Samson.

 The river actually marked the border between free and Nazi France during World War II.

 Catherine de' Medici's Garden 

 Diane de Poitiers' Garden

 Second Floor Hall

 That is the old fortified castle and mill that was left when Chenonceau was built.

 There is also a vegetable and flower garden that was fun to walk through and take pictures of the beautiful and unique flowers.

 We couldn't figure out what these were...

Chateau de Chenonceau did not disappoint! We were very impressed by it as we were told we would be. This is one not to miss in the Loire Valley! 

Versailles

Hello again! Yes, it has been a while. Blogger told me I had too many pictures and I could not upload anymore. How horrible right?! What is a blog post without pictures. Well, I finally figured it out (just uploaded to my google + account) and we are moving forward. I know this blog has turned into Emily and Eric's trip to Europe, but I determined to get our whole trip documented on here! If anyone reading it is ready for some new content, I am sorry! I am trying to get caught up. I don't want to just skip things. Life has been busy... I hope to one day be posting normally again!

If you remember where we left off, we spent three nights in Paris and on the fourth day, we got our rental car and headed out of Paris. Our rental as supposed to be an automatic, but they gave us a manual. Eric does know how to drive one, but was a little rusty. Let's just say getting out of Paris that morning was a little bit stressful. I really wasn't sure we were going to recover from that one! But we did! We arrived at Versailles (about 45 minutes outside of Paris) around 10 am. Luckily the line was not bad to get tickets and enter, which is what I was worried about. Versailles was huge!

 

 The Hall of Mirrors - where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Honestly, we did not enjoy the inside of the palace very much. It was overcrowded with tour groups who really made the experience very unenjoyable. They would just stop and block your way and made it very stressful. We hurried through the palace and moved on to touring the grounds, which was much better.

 The gardens surrounding Versailles are massive. 

 The Grand Trianon - a small palace that was built so the royalty would have somewhere to retreat when the main palace became too busy.

 Marie Antoinette's Domain - she built this little hamlet as a personal retreat during her years of reign at Versailles.

 We really enjoyed this area. The little houses were so cute.

Of course we had to take a picture of the cows.

Overall, we enjoyed Versailles, but as you will see in upcoming posts, we saw some smaller, but much more interesting, less crowded, and equally or more beautiful chateaus. Versailles is massive, it wins in that category, but the chateaux of the Loire Valley certainly do rival it.

The Left Bank

After our morning self guided walk of historic Paris, we headed back over the Siene to the right bank and headed to the Pantheon. Don't forget it is raining and my feet are killing me! My fashion Pumas were so uncomfortable. I had thought they would be perfect! I will admit I was a bit of a complainer and poor Eric had to put up with me. We stopped for lunch along our walk to the Pantheon at Rick Steves' recommended place called Le Pre Verre. His review boasted a great lunch menu including a starter, main course, glass of wine and coffee for 14 euros. This was honestly one of our best meals. The starter was a cold vegetable soup (not my fave but was good) and the main course was pork cheek in a star anise sauce on fresh pasta. It was so good! We both really enjoyed it! And it came with a glass of wine! Win win! I got to rest my feet and recuperate a bit and we headed on.

 This is the Pantheon. This state-capital style Neoclassical monument celebrates France's history and people. The building is hugeand inside there are monuments tracing the celebrated struggles of the French people.

 The building is 360' by 280' by 270'.

 This is Foucault's pendulum tht swings at the end of a 200 foot cable suspending from the dome. It was here in 1851 that the scientist first demonstrated the rotation of the earth. You can watch the pendulum's arc shift as you and the earth rotate beneath it.

 Rainy Day!

 We next headed over towards the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is Paris' most beautiful, interesting, and enjoyable park/garden/recreational area.  

 Another umbrella shot!

 Luxembourg Palace where the French Senate meets.

 Panoramic View

 After the gardens, we headed to the Rodin Museum. It is filled with works by the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) sculpted human bodies on an epic scale. Here is one of his most famous works, Thinker.

 The Gates of Hell was a monumental work by Rodin depicting a a scene from "The Inferno", the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

 The museum is actually the house Rodin lived in with Henri Matisse, Rainer Maria Rilke, and dancer Isadora Duncan. I believe this is a Matisse above.

 Funny thing while we were there - Land Rover was having some event. Tons of guys in suits came in and went to this tent in the gardens.

 From the Mussee Rodin, we walked over to the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb. The Hotel des Inavlides, a former veterans' hospital, is topped with a golden dome and houses Napoleon's over the top tomb as well as Europe's greatest military museum.

 Napoleon's Tomb

 Part of the military museum - I can tell you Eric enjoyed it much more than I.

 An artsy view of the Eiffel Tower.

 The building was huge and surrounded by a large moat.

Can you believe that we are only on day two and I am still not done?! Stay tuned for the Champs-Elysees and The Arc de Triomphe.  I can tell you by the end of day two we were exhausted, but we are having a great trip!