Loire Valley - Chateau de Cheverny

Loire Valley - the Château de Cheverny

The Château de Cheverny is situated in the small village of Cheverny in the Loir-et-Cher in the Loire Valley Region of France. If you intend visiting it and you don’t have a car the nearest train station is Blois and there is a shuttle service from the station that takes you straight to the Château de Cheverny.

Chateau de Cheverny and Tintin
Apart from being a beautiful château and a listed historical monument Cheverny is also famous as being the inspiration for the Château de Moulinsart (Marlinspike Hall) in Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin. It first appeared in "Le Secret de la Licorne" ("The Secret of the Unicorn" ) and also in "Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge" (Red Rackham’s Treasure), encouraged by this special relationship the Cheverny estate and the Hergé Foundation have jointly created a permanent exhibition called Les Secrets de Moulinsart (The Secrets of Marlinspike Hall). Despite this connection with Tintin, dogs are not allowed.

The current owner of the Château de Cheverny, the Marquis de Vibraye, is the descendant of the first Lord of the Manor, the Comte de Cheverny Lieutenant Général et Tresorier of King Louis XI. Some remains of the old castle can still be seen in the outbuildings.

The château as it stands now, was built between 1624 and 1630. The château was lost to the Crown for reasons of fraud and then offered by Henri II as a gift to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who preferred the Chateau de Chenonceau (also a gift from Henri) and so sold Cheverny back to the former owner’s son Philippe Hurault.
The interiors of the chateau were finished by 1650 by the daughter of Henri Hurault and Marguerite, marquise de Montglas. Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, known as the Grande Mademoiselle, and the grand-daughter of King Henri IV said it was like an “enchanted palace”.

The château was opened up to the public by the owner in 1922. It is one of the most visited of the Loire Valley Châteaux with its magnificent objets d’art, tapestries and decorations. The family still lives there.

The château was built using stone from the region that hardens and gets whiter over time, giving the castle its white south façade. The roofs of the wings, in the form of square domes, have an open bell tower, while the main body of the castle’s roof is high and constructed in a typical French style.

The Grand Staircase in stone is classical in style and dates back to the period of Louis XIII. It is decorated with garlands and fruit mixed with war motifs, all of which are sculpted in stone. On the landing of the staircase there is an exhibit of magnificent 6,000 year old prehistoric antlers of an ancient ancestor of the elk. They were unearthed 200 years ago in the ice in Siberia and in the nineteenth century they were given as a gift to the then Marquis de Vilbraye who was a collector.

The dining room with its splendid fireplace gilded with gold leaves is decorated with wood panel depicting the story of Don Quixote. The fireplace is surmounted by a bust of King Henri IV. The furniture in the room is engraved with the coat of arms of the Hurault de Cheverny family, as are the Cordoue leather coverings of the walls.

The ceiling of the ground-floor drawing room was restored in the nineteenth century. On the walls, you can admire numerous portraits of the Cheverny Family, one of which has been attributed to Titian, while another one is by Pierre Mignard. There are also portraits of Louis XIII, his brother, and Queen Anne of Austria.

The King’s bedroom is the most magnificently decorated room of the château. It is said the King Henri IV himself slept in this room. The walls are covered with elaborate tapestries created around 1640. The four-poster bed is covered with examples of Persian embroidery.

The park around the château is one hundred hectares and includes a jardin à la française, a landscaped garden, a watercourse, and a kitchen garden. The drive leading up to the château is six kilometres long.

The British Queen Mother came to visit the castle in 1963.

The Grounds

The grounds of the Château de Cheverny are truly magnificent and are home to some remarkable trees such as the Family lindens, giant redwoods and cedar trees from the Atlas Mountains, Lebanon and the Himalayas. Cheverny has a tradition of hunting with hounds and visitors are welcome to view the kennels and watch the dogs being fed every day at 5pm between 1st April and 15th September

Opening times of the Château de Cheverny

from 1st January to 31st March:
from 9.45am to 5.00pm
from 1st April to 30th June:
from 9.15am to 6.15pm
from 1st July to 31st August:
from 9.15am to 6.45pm
from 1st September to 30th September:
from 9.15am to 6.15pm
from 1st October to 31st October:
from 9.45am to 5.30pm
from 1st November to 31st December:
from 9.45am to 5.00pm
(Open every day of the year)
Entrance costs between 5 euros and 16.90 euros for adults, children under seven admission is free, other children 3.20 euros (only a rough guide – please check all times and rates with the official site- see links).