Loire Valley, Part II

Back to Loire Valley!  A break between touring chateaus...

On our chateau touring day, we also visted Villandry...

Villandry was completed circa 1536 and was the last of the large chateaus built in Loire Valley during the Renaissance.  It was built for Jean Le Breton, France's Controller-General for War and Ambassador to Italy under François I.  Le Breton studied Italian Renaissance gardens while in Italy and was influenced by this in developing the gardens at Villandry.

The chateau remained in the Le Breton family for more than 200 years then suffered through neglect under its two subsequent ownerships and the garden was almost completely destroyed. It was rescued in 1906 by Dr. Joachim Carvallo, born in Spain, and his American wife, Ann Coleman.  Dr. Carvallo is the great-grandfather of the present owners and there are pictures of the family generations inside the chateau. Abandoning a brilliant scientific career (he worked with 1913 Nobel Prize winner Charles Richet), Dr. Carvallo devoted himself entirely to the restoration of Villandry.  He and his wife poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing the chateau and recreating the beautiful gardens in the Renaissance spirit.

One of the things I loved most about the French chateaus in general was the incredible design of the ceilings and floors.  In the Oriental Drawing Room there is a fantastic ceiling. It was once part of the 15th century ducal palace in Maqueda, a municipality in the Province of Toledo, Spain. Dismantled in 1905, this palace had a drawing room at each of its four corners. Each room had a coffered dome of polychrome wood and gilding. This is the only ceiling of the four in private hands; the other three are in museums around the world. Moorish craftsmen created the work in the Mudejar style, including such design elements as floral patterns, scallop shells, and royal coats-of-arms. In all, a total of 3,600 pieces of wood took one year to reassemble when Dr. Carvallo brought the ceiling to Villandry.  (I am lying on the floor here, I'm sure I don't look crazy):

Another beautifully painted ceiling:

This floor is actually from the previous chateau, Chateau de Chenonceau, and I forgot to post the picture.  These painted tiles remain around the edges of this room with most of the tiles completely worn off from the years of foot traffic.  You could feel the grit under your feet as you walked around.  

Back to Villandry, Stephen inside the chateau looking out to the gardens:

Spread out over 12.5 acres there are three different gardens planted on three different levels.  On the first level is the potager, a kitchen garden, in neat geometric shapes with clipped boxwood.  Next comes the Jardin d'Amour, the Love Garden, with symbolism in how the hedges are arranged.  On the third level is the water garden.  

Eight gardeners work full time аt Villandry under the supervision of Henri Carvallo (the great-grandson of Joachim), tending to the 45,000 annuals and 60,000 vegetables that are planted in a color-coordinated array every year and maintaining thousands of espaliered, pollarded, pleached and sheared trees and shrubs.

The Love Garden (see the pink hearts?):

Looking out over the valley:

Driving back into Amboise:

Cheers after a great day:

I love French macarons, they are one of my favorite sweets!  They are two light-as-air, fluffy, chewy "cookies" with a filling of jam, ganache, or buttercream in between and come in an endless variety of flavors - the traditional ones like lemon, chocolate and strawberry are always accounted for (when in season), but they also come in flavors like jasmin, pastachio cherry, olive oil and vanilla, cafe, rose, and caramel fleur de sel (my favorite).  

Yummy...

I may like them as much as Jelly Belly's and THAT my friends is saying something.

Our last day we rented bikes from this little shop in town that both rented bikes and sold wine, naturally.  The man who worked there didn't speak English, and being that we don't speak French he gave us instructions on the bikes and how to get out of town into the countryside using a series of whistles and finger pointing and a map.  And with that, we were off!  

This is Nigel Pierre Primavera, world traveller.  He belongs to Lindsey and Dallas (remember them?  engaged couple we met up with in Barcelona?)  This little guy has had quite the year of traveling, in fact his name comes from three of his visited countries this year - England, France, and Italy.  Here he is enjoying a brief brake from pedaling:  

I think biking through the countryside is similar to skiing down mountains, it's the best possible way to experience what's around you.  Otherwise, you just don't see everything you're supposed to see: 

Mark made a friend:  

We made our way down to the valley bottom along side the River Cher where Chateau de Chenonceau is:

The other side of that shot:

Stephen had some trouble with the chain on his bike, and when we got back to the bike shop he proceeded to describe to the French owner what happened by using the patented whistling and pointing language.  The guy understood!  I love what people can come up with who don't speak each other's languages.  

The last chateau we visited was Clos Lucé where da Vinci spent the end of his life and died in 1519. It was built in the mid-15th century and is connected to the Chateau d'Amboise 500 meters away by an underground tunnel.

In the bottom floor of the chateau are 40 models created by IBM of various da Vinci inventions - military, naval, hydraulic, mechanical, aeronautical, everything.  It's a pretty interesting glimpse into a truly genius mind.  

There was also a sculpture garden of some of the models:

Inside the manor:

We drove back to Paris the next day and dropped Mark and Lauren off at their hotel and then Stephen and I flew home to London.  While we were gone the London riots had erupted, we missed most of it because we were in France, and the first night we were home was the night the police force on the street was quadrupled.  We never personally saw or heard any rioting, I'm glad we avoided it.  Scary stuff.  

This is the last picture I took of Amboise, driving in to pick up Mark and Lauren for dinner our last night.  All in all it was a fabulous trip!  Vive le français!