Loire Valley & Chateau de Chenonceau

The Loire Valley - the Châteaux of the Loire with a Short Video

The Loire Valley and the Château de Chenonceau

Situated to the south-west of Paris, the Loire Valley (La Vallée de la Loire in French) is without doubt one of the most strikingly beautiful regions of France. It is popular with those wishing to visit a part of France other than Paris or the Atlantic or Mediterranean coastal resorts such as Biarritz or Cannes.

Le Château de Chenonceau

The Loire Valley is known as "le Jardin de la France" (the Garden of France) and "le Berceau de la Langue Francaise" (the Cradle of the French Language). The most celebrated and visually striking element of the Loire Valley is its architectural heritage, which is visible in its magnificent historic towns such as Angers, Amboise, Chinon, Blois, Saumur, Orléans, and Tours, but also of course in its famous "châteaux" often referred to in English as castles, but in fact "palaces" or "stately homes" would be a more accurate description.

A short video about the Chateau de Chenonceau.

The most well-known and most popular with visitors are the Château de Chambord, Château d'Ussé, Château d'Amboise, Château de Cheverny, Château de Villandry and Château de Chenonceau.

At the turn of the century, in the year 2000, UNESCO named the part of the Loire valley situated between Maine and Sully-sur-Loire, as a World Heritage Site (Site du Patrimoine Mondial). In the words of the committee this part of the Loire Valley is: "an exceptional cultural landscape, of great beauty, comprising historic cities and villages, great architectural monuments - the Châteaux - and lands that have been cultivated and shaped by centuries of interaction between local populations and their physical environment, in particular the Loire itself."

There are, in fact, more than 300 châteaux in the Loire Valley, some of which were built many hundreds of years ago. This proliferation of châteaux in the same region was due to the fact that the French kings decided to construct their châteaux in this area, and the nobility, who were keen, or even desperate, to remain close to the seat of French power, decided to do likewise, which in turn attracted the very best landscape designers and resulted in the magnificent châteaux that we see today.

But royals are nothing if not fickle, and in the middle of the 16th century King Francois I decided to leave the Loire Valley and move the seat of French power back to the ancient capital of Paris. The great architects followed behind of course, but the Loire Valley continued to be the place where most of French nobles preferred to spend the majority of their time.


Francois I 1494 - 1547

In the 17th century, however, King Louis XIV made Paris the permanent site for the royal family by building the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris. The nobility and the wealthy still continued, nevertheless, to renovate their existing châteaux or to build new ones which they used as summer residences in the Loire valley.

The Château de Chenonceau

The Château de Chenonceau is situated in the commune of Chenonceau. It is a private château that is the most visited “Monument Historique privé” in France. It is furnished and decorated with many beautiful rare tapestries and paintings, is surrounded by a number of gardens and has itsd own wine domain.

There has been a fortified castle and a mill on the site since 1230, as the strategic location was useful for controlling the passage from one bank of the river to the other. The old castle, which belonged to the Marques Family was destroyed and then rebuilt, but poor management, followed by serious financial problems, forced the Marques family to put it up for sale and after a fierce legal battle the Marques Family saw its castle confiscated and Thomas Bohier took possession of it.

Thomas Bohier was the King’s lawyer and secretary, he was also a very important figure and very shrewd. He and his wife carried out numerous changes to the castle. He demolished the old one and built the new one on the pillars of the old mill, retaining only the Tour des Marques (the tower) and the well. The construction works took over ten years and were supervised by Thomas Bohier’s wife while he himself was away.

When Thomas Bohier died, it was discovered he had been guilty of embezzlement, and King Francois I imposed a hefty fine on his inheritance and confiscated the estate ! The château thus became a Royal Domain.

Diane de Poitiers, the ‘favorite’ of King Henri II, received it as a present from the King in 1547. It was she who had the bridge built to link the castle to the left bank, but not the galleries on top which were the creation of Catherine de Medici.

After the death of Henri II, Catherine of Medici forced Diane to return the domain to the Crown. It is Catherine of Medici who gave the château the form it has today. She built the two galleries on top of the Pont de Diane thus creating a reception space within the château that was and is still unique in the world.

Chenonceau is also known as the “château des Dames”, due to the fact that it has been owned by so many women and so many changes to it were instigated by them.

In 1864 Marguerite Pelouze, a rich heiress, entrusted the restoration of the château to Felix Roguet, in particular the original façade modified by Catherine of Medici. The works were so costly however that the Chateau was seized by the creditors and in 1891 was sold to a rich American, Mr Terry. It was later sold by his descendants at auction in 1913 to Henri Menier and when he died soon thereafter it was inherited by his brother Gaston Menier.

During the First World War, Gaston Menier allowed the chateau to be used as a military hospital. More than two thousand injured soldiers were cared for within its walls. The Menier family still own the Chateau de Chenonceau today.

During the Second World War the chateau was actually on the demarcation line part of it being in the Occupied Zone and part in the Free Zone.

In 1988, the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana visited the castle which was closed to the public for the occasion.