Assorted floor tiles of the great chateaux in the Loire Valley

Financial question: If Ron needs to iron his Hawaiian Airlines credit card because it spent two hours in the crazy French dryer and curled itself into a circle, should he use the dry heat setting or the moist heat setting?

We’re just packing up to leave Amboise in the morning and take the train down to Bordeaux for a 6 night stay. We spent our last day with Pascal of Acco Dispo Tours. We booked a small group tour for up to 8 people but when Pascal arrived it was just us so we had a private 8 hour tour for 60 Euros each.

The tour we booked was for three chateaux: Chenonceau, Cheverny, and Chambord but Pascal felt that Chambord was really not worth the trek and wondered, since it was just the two of us, would we like him to drive around the countryside a bit and make our third chateau stop one that’s really unusual? Answer: Always yes!

So off we went with Pascal, stopping first at Chenonceau, built in 1513:

Chenonceau is a very popular stop – especially since it’s an engineering marvel, built right over the water. Here’s what that over-water bridge looks like from the inside. Look at that gorgeous floor!

And one more floor shot for you. This is a Delft tile floor:

There’s a lot of fancy rooms here but I was most struck by the meat storage room. Look at all of those meat hooks up there!

And then, to avoid a lot of complaints via email, here’s a picture of one of the rooms for you, in case meat hooks and floors are not enough. To be fair, though, you should know that I have MORE floor pictures than this and I’m keeping them to myself so as not to overwhelm you. Below pic was someone’s bedroom:

The coolest thing about Chenonceau is that it sits on the River Cher. During World War II, the River Cher was the dividing line between free France and German-controlled France. The entrance to the castle was in the occupied zone but the bridge that you see in the picture above took you over to the free zone. The Germans patrolled the river but homeowner Simone Meunier got hundreds of people across to freedom on his bridge.

Next we went to Cheverny (1620 – 1640). This one still functions as a family home. The Marquis and Marchionesse of Vibraye still live there with their children, occupying about 10% of the 13,000 square foot house.

I liked the decor in the dining room – like maybe someone put Grace and I in charge of setting the table and we both decided to use all of our stuffed animals as dining companions. Even better, Cheverny has 120 hound dogs that live in a big dog enclosure on the property, and details like the dining room and the pups made it seem like a real home. In non-COVID times, they feed all 120 dogs together and it is quite a popular spectacle.

Our last stop was Chateau de Chaumont. The castle was originally from 1000AD but ordered burned and destroyed by an angry King Louis XI (Wikipedia, not actual knowledge of mine). Rebuilt in 15th century to its current look:

Chateau de Chaumont functions as both a touring site and an art museum so we saw some blended concepts that really appealed to me. Below is the chapel with stained glass panels, all temporarily surrounded by what looks to be a $5000 purchase from Artco Crafts. Right below that is another random art offering: an entire wall covered with the twist ties from bread bags. It all follows my rule for art: If it must be art, at least let it be large.

I’ll talk to you all from Bordeaux and leave you with one more picture. These are the entrances to old troglodyte dwellings around Amboise. Pascal said he lived in one for 5 years at some point. Some are in much better shape than these but it was hard to get a picture from the van: