AMONG THE CHÂTEAUX OF TOURAINE
ORLEANS TO TOURS, 103½ MILES
(166 KILOMETRES)
ORLEANS TO TOURS, DIRECT, 71¾ MILES
(115 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Kil. Miles.
=Orleans= to Meung-sur-Loire =18= 11¼
=Meung-sur-Loire= to Beaugency =7= 4¼
[=Beaugency= to Blois =31½= 19½]
=Beaugency= to Chambord =24= 15
=Chambord= to Bracieux =8½= 5¼
=Bracieux= to Cheverny =10½= 6½
=Cheverny= to Blois =13= 8
=Blois= to Chaumont-sur-Loire (north bank) =12= 7½
=Chaumont-sur-Loire= to Amboise =24= 15
[=Amboise= to Tours (north bank) =25= 15½]
[=Amboise= to Tours (south bank) =23= 14¼]
=Amboise= to Chenonceaux =15= 9½
=Chenonceaux= to Bléré =8= 5
=Bléré= to Tours =26= 16
NOTES FOR DRIVERS
This section is practically level throughout, and the roads are
generally good.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
=Meung.=--An old village on the Loire; church of eleventh century
with western tower joined to castle of the Bishops of Orleans.
=Beaugency.=--Keep of castle eleventh century, other portions
fifteenth century; Tour de l’Horloge, a picturesque gateway;
churches of Notre Dame, twelfth century, and St. Étienne (disused),
eleventh century or earlier; remains of town walls and a tower, and
some old houses.
=Chambord.=--The château, chiefly built by François I., is the
largest and most magnificent hunting-box in the world. Commenced in
1519.
=Bracieux.=--A little town in the marshy Sologne country with old
houses, but no other interest.
=Cheverny= has a château begun in 1634 by Philippe Hurault, a
descendant of whom now owns the place. The village has a quaint,
partially Romanesque church.
=Beauregard.=--A château built as a hunting-lodge by François I.
about 1520; almost entirely rebuilt in seventeenth century;
modernized in 1809, but lately restored to its earlier character.
(_Only to be seen with a permit from M. Lestang, notary of Blois._)
=Blois= is a large and very attractive town on the Loire, dominated
by its (1) historic Château, built at various periods from the
thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries; (2) Cathedral, chiefly
seventeenth century; (3) Church of St. Nicholas, an interesting
Transitional building; (4) St. Vincent-de-Paul Jesuit church of
seventeenth century; (5) St. Saturnin, fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries; (6) old houses of different periods, of stone and wood.
=Chaumont-sur-Loire.=--The château was built about 1473; it stands on
picturesque cliff above the village and river.
=Amboise.=--A town on the Loire, chiefly famous for its fine château,
perched on a rocky tongue that rises sheer from the level ground;
mainly built by Charles VIII.; sloping staircases in two towers;
lovely little Gothic chapel of St. Hubert; grave of Leonardo da
Vinci; in the town (1) a picturesque clock gateway; (2) Hôtel de
Ville, built 1500 to 1505; (3) Church of St. Florentin, built 1461
to 1483; (4) Church of St. Denis, a beautiful cruciform building of
the Transitional period of early Gothic.
=Chenonceaux.=--A pretty village near the famous and beautiful
château of that name, built in the River Cher in 1515; finished by
François I. and Catherine de Medici.
=Bléré.=--A small town on the Cher with a curious, partially
Romanesque church, and the Hôtel du Gouverneur, a Renaissance
building in the Rue J. J. Rousseau.
The simplest way to leave Orleans is to go to the bridge, and then turn
to the right along the north bank of the Loire, which is followed as far
as Beaugency.
For long distances the river seems so very little below the level of the
surrounding country that there seems scarcely any reason why it should
keep to the course it now follows. In wet seasons the flat, sandy shores
are often covered by the river, which spreads out into broad lagoons and
engulfs the grassy islands.
At Meung, where the road bends to the right, there is an interesting
abbey church, founded in the sixth century by St. Liphard. It was burnt
by Louis le Gros in the early part of the eleventh century, but before
its close the church had been rebuilt with the exception of the tower.
This western tower, with a pyramidal spire, is connected with a curtain
wall to a thirteenth-century fortified tower, the oldest part of the
castle of the Bishops of Orleans, which was chiefly built in the classic
period of some 400 years later. The village has some old houses, and the
Porte Amont, rebuilt in the seventeenth century.
BEAUGENCY
The first glimpse of this compact little town is very suggestive of
antiquity. It is overshadowed by a huge Norman keep, about whose
lichened parapets jackdaws circle and flutter, and across the river
stands the oldest bridge on the Loire--some of its twenty-six arches
going back to the thirteenth century.
The keep is called the Tour de César, and it is all that now remains of
the first Castle, built at the end of the eleventh century. The other
portions were constructed in 1440 by Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, who
maintained the defence of Orleans against the English until relieved by
Jeanne d’Arc. There is a most picturesque courtyard with open arcading
and a tower, and the great hall, known as the Salle de Jeanne d’Arc, has
a huge fireplace. The buildings are now a Depôt de Mendicité.
Close to the castle is the Transitional Church of the Benedictine Abbey
of Notre Dame, finished at the end of the twelfth century, and lately
restored. It was burnt by the Protestants in 1567, when they committed
terrible excesses in the town. Besides the church, there is nothing left
of the abbey buildings, except an old circular tower called the Tour du
Diable and the Abbot’s house.
Adjoining the Hôtel St. Étienne[A] there is a picturesque wooden house
with moulded beams and much carving, and along one side of the hotel
courtyard is the disused Church of St. Étienne, a very interesting and
perfect little cruciform building of the eleventh century or earlier. It
has a central tower, and the windows are small and very deeply splayed.
Being kept locked, the plain barrel vaulting of the interior can only be
dimly seen through the unglazed windows.
The Hôtel de Ville might, at first sight, owing to restoration, be
thought a modern building. It has a Renaissance façade built between
1520 and 1525, and the bas-reliefs with which it is covered show the
arms of Dunois and Longueville, the Salamander of François I., and the
fleur-de-lis. The seventeenth-century tapestries to be seen inside came
from the choir of the abbey church.
Other features of the town are the Tour de l’Horloge, used as a prison
before the sixteenth century; the Tour St. Firmin of the church
destroyed during the Revolution; and the portions of the twelfth-century
ramparts with the ruined Porte Travers.
In 1428 the English captured Beaugency, but Jeanne d’Arc recovered it in
the following year.
Crossing the bridge, with its massive old buttresses, and turning at
once to the right, one keeps near the river through the village of St.
Laurent-des-Eaux, with a statue of Jeanne d’Arc, and houses with the
mossiest of roofs and quaint little dormers. There is a quality in the
air of this part of the Loire conducive to the growth of parasitic
vegetation, for every roof and wall, and every tree, is enriched with
luxuriant moss or splashes of silvery and orange lichen.
The road continues through the same flat country, with low, scrubby
forest to the left, and touches the river again at Nouan-sur-Loire,
another old village rich in soft greens and greys. A house on the left
is conspicuous for its quaintness, and several of the cottages have
heart-shaped holes cut in the shutters of the windows.
[Illustration: No. 6 ORLEANS TO TOURS.]
Just beyond Nouan the road to the Château de Chambord goes to the left
at a fork, and in a few minutes one passes through a gate in the
seven-league stone wall that surrounds the park, and a straight avenue
through the low trees leads to the great castle.
CHÂTEAU DE CHAMBORD
There is no appearance of age in the immense pile of white stone that
gleams in the sunshine under its astonishingly overweighted roofs, and
by many who have come expecting something altogether different, the
bitterest disappointment has been expressed.
Before the year 1519 there had been only the grim and gloomy feudal
castle of Chambourg on the site, and the excellent hunting in the scrub
and swamps of the Sologne (the name given to this marshy district) was
the only reason for the visits of the Court. But in that year François
I. began the construction of the existing château in place of the old
one; and belonging to that era of magnificence when the Renaissance
influence was being felt throughout Europe, he built the largest and
most splendid hunting-box the world has ever seen. Although 1,800
workmen were employed year after year to carry out Pierre Nepveu’s
designs, when the King died, in 1547, only the central portion and the
east wing, which contained his own apartments, were completed. His
successor, Henri II., added a wing, but liked Anet better, and Charles
IX. and Catherine de Medici preferred Chenonceaux, Blois, and Chaumont.
Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. regarded it as a hunting-box, but the latter
came to the amazing conclusion, after his first visit to the place with
his Court, that it was too small, and plans were prepared for two
additional wings, which, however, were never built, although the
foundations of one were laid; on them were built, in the eighteenth
century, the barracks still to be seen. They were for the accommodation
of the regiment of Uhlan horse, with which the famous Marshal Maurice de
Saxe, of Fontenoy fame, amused himself when in retirement at Chambord.
It is, however, the figure of the magnificent François I., the King who,
at the death of his English neighbour, spoke of Henry VIII. as his old
friend, to whom one’s thoughts turn in walking through the great
Renaissance courtyard and the innumerable and vast apartments ornamented
on every side with his fiery salamander. In spite of their rich coffered
ceilings the apartments are cold and bare, and need the sumptuous
furnishings of the sixteenth century and the King himself apparelled in
his favourite pink or blue Italian velvet.
In the middle of the central pile of buildings is a remarkable double
staircase, so arranged that those ascending by one spiral cannot be seen
by those coming down the other. This no doubt had its uses and
advantages in the sixteenth century, when Court intrigue added a zest to
life.
The custodian takes visitors on to the roofs, where the extraordinary
detail of the chimneys, balustrades, turrets, and dormers can be seen
closely. The uncarved surfaces of stone are generally adorned with
slate cut into various patterns and fixed up with nails.
Nearly all the hundreds of rooms are vast, bare, and lifeless, and one
feels in the echoing spaces that the tide of social progress has left
such colossal buildings--the greatest that the final phase of feudalism
produced--far away on a half-forgotten beach of history.
The moat was filled up and the terraces taken away when Stanislas
Leczinska, the exiled King of Poland, received the castle from his
father-in-law Louis XV., and lived there contentedly for eight years.
Madame Berthier, the widow of Napoleon’s Chief of Staff, cut down all
the old trees in the twenty square miles of forest belonging to
Chambord, thus robbing its surroundings of the dignity given by great
trees, while perhaps giving the park the aspect which it bore in the
days of François I.
The long straight roads bordered with Austrian pines go straight through
the park southwards to the little town of Bracieux on the Beuvron. It
has a quaint market-house on posts and a good deal of half-timber work
with herring-bone brickwork, but otherwise the place is uninteresting,
and need not delay one on the road to Cheverny.
The Sologne, through which the route goes, is a very peculiar strip of
sandy marsh-land dotted over with innumerable lakelets and covered with
a network of rivers. It was until recent times considered a hopelessly
unprofitable waste, suitable for nothing at all but sport. Drainage and
careful cultivation have shown, however, that the vine will produce good
harvests, and strawberries and vegetables are also cultivated with such
success that the peasant of the Sologne is now prosperous and contented.
That the sporting qualities of the district have not yet been destroyed
is proved by the frequency with which one hears the sound of the horn
across the watery levels, and sees the very excited hunting folk
clattering through the village streets and along the highways and
byways.
Turning to the left in the village of Cour Cheverny, and to the right at
a fork just afterwards, one reaches the village of
CHEVERNY
Opposite the curious little church, with its Norman door and wide wooden
verandah sheltering a few mendicants, is the entrance to the Château.
_It is open to visitors from April 1 to October_, and not during the
other months of the year, as it is the home of the present owner, the
Marquis Henri Hurault de Vibraye, who is a descendant of that Philippe
Hurault de Cheverny whose son built the present château in 1634. This
Philippe Hurault had been Chancellor under Henri III. and Henri IV., and
died in 1599 in the house destroyed when the existing one was built.
The corridor and dining-room are decorated with paintings on Cordova
leather illustrating the life of Don Quixote. Jean Mosnier, of Blois,
born in 1600, was the artist who painted all the pictures in the
château. A beautifully carved stone staircase leads to the upper floor,
where one can see the Salle des Gardes--a splendid room in perfect
condition--decorated with armour, paintings, and rich tapestries, and
the Chambre du Roi, with its old bed and more tapestry.
The tomb of Chancellor Hurault is in the chapel in the château, and
others of the family are buried in the church (already mentioned)
outside the gates of the park.
Returning to Cour Cheverny, where the church has a tall and slender
spire, and an early Pointed doorway with a toothed moulding, one goes
straight on through the village and the forest of Russy (passing on the
left the Château Beauregard) to the picturesque and historic town of
BLOIS
On crossing the bridge over the Loire one looks upward at the great
castle on its inaccessible rock, the centre of a vast feudal power in
the Middle Ages, and the scene of callous intrigue and murder in the
latter part of the sixteenth century.
It is not difficult to find the way up to the Château, which is a
national monument, and is _open to the public at all reasonable hours_.
The _east wing_ and entrance-front of the château, of red brick and
stone, was built by Louis XII., probably while he was Duke of Orleans,
and finished before his death in 1501. His emblem--the porcupine--can be
seen above the little door on the right of the archway, above which is
an equestrian statue of Louis XII.--a modern work, taking the place of
the old one destroyed in the Revolution. This wing now contains the
Museum and Picture Gallery.
The _north wing_ was built by François I. between 1516-1525. François
I., while transforming the exterior, kept one of the towers of the old
fortress,
[Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 9.--BLOIS.]
whose dungeons served as prisons; the west wing, later demolished by
Gaston d’Orléans; and also the _Grande Salle de Justice_, known later as
the Salle des États, from the États généraux held there in 1576 and
1588. This hall united the new wing to the old one of Louis XII. It is a
thirteenth-century building, with its roof supported by eight
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CHÂTEAU OF BLOIS.
On the first floor are the rooms of Catherine de Medici, and above are
those of Henri III., the scene of the historic murder of Henri, Duc de
Guise.
5 V, the Council-hall, and VI the fireplace at which Guise warmed
himself. The dotted line shows the way Guise left the Council-hall for
the Cabinet Vieux, where the King (Henry III.) awaited him. XVIII, the
narrow passage in which Guise was stabbed.]
columns. The beautiful outside stone staircase is the most remarkable
feature of this wing.
On the _first floor_ are the rooms of Catherine de Medici, containing
the bedroom where she died in 1589 and the _Tour des Oubliettes_--the
ruined tower where the Cardinal de Guise (brother of Henri, Duc de
Guise) and the Archbishop of Lyons were imprisoned. The Cardinal was
assassinated the day after his brother just in the entry. The Archbishop
was sent into exile.
On the _second floor_ are the rooms of Henri III., including the King’s
bedroom, where the Duke died; the oratory, where monks were praying for
the success of the enterprise, not knowing what it was; and the Salle du
Conseil, where Guise stood and warmed himself by the fire on the morning
when he was assassinated--December 23, 1588. The Cabinet Vieux, where
Henri waited during the murder, has been pulled down.
Henri III., owing to his vacillating policy, found himself in 1588
completely dominated by his powerful subject, Henri, Duc de Guise, who
had founded the league to re-establish the Catholic religion and to
extirpate all heresy. The King had been forced to proclaim Guise
Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and to pledge himself to suppress
heresy, but, though outwardly reconciled, Henri was determined on
vengeance. Miss Edith Sichel gives the following account of the murder
in her brilliant work on Catherine de Medici.
‘The Duc de Guise and the Cardinal had been asked to attend the
Council early; but, although the rest had long been there, there
was as yet no sign of the Duke. The winter’s day was dark and
covered--it rained that Friday from morning till night--and no one
dared wake him till nearly eight. He rose and attired himself
carefully in a new grey satin suit, “too light for the season.”...
Outside the rough cobbles of the courtyard were shining and wet;
the stone passages through which he passed indoors were dank and
struck ominously chill. That very morning he had received nine more
letters bidding him beware. “This is the ninth to-day,” he had said
aloud, as he put it in his pocket.... As he neared the short flight
of steps leading down into the big hall, the Captain of the Guards
approached him, and bowing low, but with studied insolence, “in a
fashion very different from usual,” he held out the bill, as had
been arranged. Guise courteously stopped to hear him, and,
promising payment, moved on. The Captain and his train followed
him, their hats in their hands, and made it easier to blind him to
the fact that none of his own men were near him; they had been cut
off at the entrance, as had been planned. But the door of the
Council-hall once shut behind him, everything was changed. The
Guards cleared the stairs of pages and valets, and made all safe.
Crillon locked the outer doors of the Palace. As Guise seated
himself and looked round, he read dismay on all the faces about
him. The Council had got wind of what was on foot; there was doom
in the air. For the first time Guise showed signs of perturbation;
he changed colour; the eye next his scar began to water, as it did
whenever he was stirred, and he bled at the nose. He sent for a
handkerchief. “Monsieur,” he said to a gentleman near him, “will
you go to the staircase door? See if one of my pages or anyone else
is there, and ask him to bring me a handkerchief.” The gentleman
delivered his message, but was not allowed to go back to the hall.
The page meanwhile fetched the handkerchief from the Duke’s
secretary. Even at this eleventh hour there was an attempt to save
him. The secretary tied up a note in a corner of the handkerchief.
“Sauvez-vous, ou vous êtes mort,” it ran, but it did not reach
him.... Guise had seated himself in the Council. He suddenly turned
faint; his face assumed a deathly pallor. “I am cold; light the
fire!” he said; and, after a pause: “My heart is failing.” But he
quickly pulled himself together, and asked for “any trifle to
revive him--conserve of roses, or Damascus grapes from the King’s
cupboard.”... Nothing could be found but Brignoles plums. They
were brought, and he put some in the little sweetmeat-box that he
carried; it was gilt, and in the shape of a shell. The business of
the court proceeded.
‘Meanwhile, the King was waiting in his closet in the greatest
agitation. “Révol,” he said to one standing by, “go and tell
Monsieur de Guise to come and speak to me in my _vieux cabinet_.”
Révol obeyed, but was stopped by an usher in the antechamber. He
returned trembling. “_Mon Dieu_, Révol!” cried the King; “what is
the matter? How pale you are! You will spoil all--you will spoil
all for me! Rub your cheeks--rub your cheeks hard, Révol!” His
Majesty then gave orders that Révol was to be allowed to pass and
to return with Guise. When Révol entered the Council Chamber, a
député was speaking upon the _Gabelle_; Guise was eating Brignoles
plums. “Monsieur,” began Révol, “the King requests your presence;
he is in his _vieux cabinet_.”... Guise was leisurely. He put a
few plums back into his box, and threw the rest upon the ground.
“Messieurs,” he asked, “would anybody like some?” Then, rolling up
his cloak, and taking it, with his long gloves and his sweet-box,
under his left arm, he prepared to follow Révol. “Adieu,
messieurs,” he said, as he went off the stage. He knocked at the
King’s door; the usher opened it....
‘As Guise entered, one of the Guards tried to give him a last
chance, and trod upon his foot. Guise understood, but he knew
escape was impossible. The usher had come out from the King’s
closet, and had shut the door on the inside. Guise made two steps,
then took hold of his beard with his right hand, and half turned to
see who was following him. The Sieur de Montsérine, who was
standing by the mantel-piece, advanced and stabbed him swiftly in
the left breast. “Traitor, you will die of this!” he called out, as
he dealed the thrust. The Duke hit out with his sweet-box, the only
weapon in his hand. Three other men, concealed behind the tapestry,
fell on him at once. “_Eh, mes amis!_” he cried. When one among the
rest, called Periac, pierced him, his voice grew louder with a
prayer for pity. In his struggle his sword had got entangled in his
cloak, and his legs had been seized. But, with an almost superhuman
effort, he dragged himself from one end of the room to another, and
along the passage to Henri’s bedroom, leaving bloodstains in his
track. “My God, I am dead! Have mercy on me!” he groaned. The words
were his last; they were heard distinctly in the Council-hall, and
his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, was the first to catch them.
‘Before the breath was out of his body, the courtiers were
plundering it. One took the diamond heart from his ring, another
his purse full of gold coins.’
The _west wing_, dating from 1635, was built for Gaston d’Orléans by
François Mansard. It contains the public library.
The _south wing_ contains some rooms built by Louis XII. or his father,
Charles d’Orléans, and also the ornate Chapelle Saint Calais, in which
Henri IV. married Marguerite de Valois. It has been restored so much
that it has lost somewhat in interest, in spite of its profuse gilding
on walls and ceiling.
THE CHURCHES OF BLOIS
_Cathedral of St. Louis_, sixteenth century, rebuilt in seventeenth
century in the time of Louis XIV. in a debased ogee style. The upper
parts of the tower and main entrance are Renaissance, while the base of
the tower belongs to the twelfth century, when an earlier church was
standing.
_St. Nicholas_, a cruciform church situated at the foot of the château,
is the oldest in Blois, and is quite the most interesting. It formerly
belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Laumur, and was built between
1138 and 1210 in Transitional and Gothic periods. The upper parts of
the two western towers are modern. The interior is very impressive, the
style being strong and simple, with a beautiful vaulted ambulatory. Some
of the capitals are very finely carved. The altar-screen dates from
1460, and there are epitaphs and inscriptions of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.
_St. Vincent-de-Paul_, a church of the Jesuits, built 1626-1671,
contains a monument to Gaston d’Orléans (to the right of the chief
altar) erected by Mademoiselle de Montpensier, his daughter (known as La
Grande Mademoiselle).
_St. Saturnin_, in the Faubourg de Vienne, south of the river, belongs
to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It has a statue of Notre-Dame
des Aides, the object of a pilgrimage for which Anne de Bretagne (wife
of Louis XII.) had a great devotion.
Old Houses.--There are many Renaissance houses of stone, and also
numerous wooden ones of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with
curious carvings on brackets and corbels and moulded beams. Nos. 1 and
2, in the narrow old Rue St. Lubin, west of the market below the
château, are particularly good.
_Tour d’Argent_ (Rue des Trois Clefs) is the fifteenth-century octagonal
tower of the Hôtel des Monnaies, or Mint, under Charles d’Orléans and
Louis XII.
_Hôtel d’Alluye_ (8, Rue St. Honoré) is a masterly example of
Renaissance, built for Florimond Robertet, Baron d’Alluye, and Secretary
of Finances under Louis XII. and François I. He also built the Château
de Bury.
_Hôtel Sardini_ (17, Rue du Puits-Châtel) is of the time of Louis XII.
_Hôtel Denis-Dupont_ (Rue St. Honoré) is the sixteenth-century dwelling
of Denis-Dupont, the celebrated lawyer of Blois.
_The College_ (Place Louis XII.) is installed in the ancient Abbaye de
Bourg-Moyen, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, with the exception of
the fourteenth-century gable.
_Hôtel Dieu_ (between the castle and the river) occupies buildings of
the Abbey of St. Laumur; rebuilt under Louis XIV., and recently
enlarged.
_Fontaine Louis XII._, in the Place Louis XII., where markets are held,
is a picturesque fifteenth-century work.
_The Bridge_ was built between 1717-1724, from plans of Gabriel, father
of the celebrated architect, the obelisk in the middle showing the arms
of France.
_History._--The name Blois is derived from the Celtic word _bleiz_,
meaning wolf, possibly because the Celtic fort on the site of the
château was in a wolf-infested country, and perhaps the name may have
some totem significance. The Counts of Blois ruled over a vast district
during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, including Chartres, Dunois,
Vendômois, and even Champagne. Thibaut le Tricheur (or the Cheat) was
the most celebrated of the first Counts. He built a keep on the site of
the present château before his death in 978.
1135. Stephen, Count of Blois, became King of England.
1241. The Châtillons succeeded the first Counts.
1397. Louis d’Orléans, second son of Charles V., became possessor,
began rebuilding the castle but his work remained unfinished. His
illegitimate son Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, guarded the
château during the Hundred Years’ War. His own son Charles was
taken prisoner at Agincourt, and was captive in England twenty-five
years.
1440. Charles d’Orléans, on his release, returned to Blois, where
his son Louis was born; afterwards King, as Louis XII., in 1498.
From this time to the sixteenth century the history of Blois is
the history of France. Louis XII. resided there in preference to
Paris.
1514. Anne de Bretagne, his wife, died at Blois. François I. lived
there during early part of his reign, leaving it later for Chambord
and Fontainebleau.
1588. Duc de Guise assassinated on December 23.
1589. Catherine de Medici died a few days after the murder.
After these tragic events the Kings of France disliked the château, and
only one Duc d’Orléans, Gaston, brother of Louis XIII., resided there.
He formed a sort of provincial court round him, and employed Mansard to
build the west wing. After Gaston’s death in 1660 only two Princesses
used it--Marie Casimire, widow of Sobieski, King of Poland, and the
mother of Stanislas, King of Poland, who died at Blois in 1722. After
this the château was abandoned, and even partly mutilated, and the
Revolution continued the destruction.
1841. The château was classed as an historical monument, and its
restoration has been carried out since that year.
[Illustration: AMBOISE.
An exceedingly picturesque town on the Loire, with its famous château
conspicuous above the river.]
THE ROAD TO AMBOISE
There is a peculiar charm in the riparian scenery of the Loire when seen
from the raised road that follows the broad river closely all the way to
Tours. In the late afternoon the soft colours of the sunset sky
reflected in the oily and swirling surface of the river are singularly
beautiful, and looking backwards, as one leaves the town of Blois, the
buildings beneath the château, the towers, and the bridge, are all
transformed with a soft gold, which subdues all that is crude, and
heightens every charm, in just the fashion that memory gilds the past.
To the south, beyond the river, is the forest of Blois, a remnant of the
medieval forests that surrounded the town, and near at hand all the
trees are tufted with mistletoe, which shows up against the burnished
gold of the sky as the sun drops lower and lower in the west.
A suspension bridge of six spans crosses the river opposite.
CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE
The little brown-roofed village nestles by the water-side under an
orange-red cliff crowned with the picturesque castle built in 1473 by
Charles de Chaumont. He was a brother of the great Cardinal Georges
d’Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen, who was born in the castle in 1460, and
whose Cardinal’s hat can be seen in the chapel.
_Visitors are allowed to see the castle every day in the absence of the
owner (the Princesse de Broglie), and on Thursdays when the family is in
residence._ When first built, in the tenth century, the fortress
belonged to the Counts of Blois, and came afterwards to the family of
Amboise. It was burnt by Louis XI. because Pierre d’Amboise (his tomb in
Rouen Cathedral has been mentioned) had rebelled against him, and
rebuilt in quadrangular form by his son Charles. The side towards the
river was pulled down in 1739 to open up the beautiful view.
Catherine de Medici appears not to have lived at Chaumont, but she
obliged Diane de Poitiers to accept it in exchange for Chenonceaux.
The entrance gateway between machicolated towers shows the initials of
Louis XII. and Anne de Bretagne, and the arms of Charles and Georges
d’Amboise. Certain apartments are _called_ those of Catherine de Medici
and of her astrologer Ruggieri. The Salles des Gardes are hung with
Beauvais tapestry. A big cedar holds out beneficent arms in the
courtyard, and the steep ravine on the west side of the castle eminence
is clothed with trees.
Returning to the north side of the river, one passes the mossy-roofed
hamlet of Veuves, built close up to the-raised road, and in a short time
the strikingly picturesque town of Amboise appears on the south bank of
the river.
AMBOISE.
The first bridge takes one on to the Île St. Jean, where in 496 Clovis
held a conference with Alaric, King of the Visigoths, and the second
bridge brings one to the town built under the shadow of the castle
commenced by Charles VIII., continued by Louis XII., and finished by
François I. _Entrance tree every day; gratuity to custodian._
Amboise was the _Ambatia_ of the Romans, and in the fourth century
tradition reveals the presence of St. Martin of Tours causing the
destruction of a pagan temple. In the Middle Ages there was a castle on
the site of the existing one, which belonged to the Counts of Anjou, and
afterwards to those of Berri. It came to the Crown in 1434; Louis XI.
abode there before he went to Plessis-les-Tours.
Charles VIII. was born in the feudal castle which has now vanished, and
it was here he began the reconstruction, and died in the unfinished
Gothic pile in which he had taken such delight. He brought artists,
sculptors, and workmen from Italy and wherever he saw beautiful things,
and what the château might have been can be judged by the exquisite
little Chapel of St. Hubert, with its exterior _alto-relievo_
representing the conversion of the canonized huntsman. While watching a
game of tennis, however, on April 7, 1498, Charles was seized with
apoplexy and died. The excellent guide shows a low doorway, against the
lintel of which he describes how the King struck his head when going
after a tennis-ball. This picturesque story is, nevertheless, untrue.
Leonardo da Vinci, who died at Amboise in 1519, left instructions for
his burial in the Chapel of St. Florentin, formerly in the castle, but
now destroyed. In 1869 some bones were discovered on the site, and were
deposited in St. Hubert’s Chapel in the belief that they were those of
the painter, and a bust of the great Italian has been placed above the
spot where the remains were unearthed.
The interior of the castle has been so mutilated and destroyed that its
interest centres very largely in the two great cylindrical towers, which
contain spiral roadways paved with red brick, up which the Emperor
Charles V. rode on horseback when he paid a visit to François I. in
1539. The ascent is so easy that to drive up in a carriage is no great
feat, and an automobile can accomplish it with comparative ease.
The year 1560 witnessed a terrible scene in the now peaceful and
flower-scented courtyard of the castle. An abortive Huguenot conspiracy
to capture the young King François II. and remove the government from
the Guises met with a frightful retribution. A series of horrible
executions and hangings were carried out in the presence of the Court,
and Mary Stuart was forced to witness the spectacle by her fierce
mother-in-law Catherine de Medici. The dead bodies were hung from the
galleries.
In 1872 the National Assembly gave back the castle to the Comte de
Paris, and at the present time the Duc d’Orléans uses it as a _maison de
retraite_ for old servants.
The view from the ramparts over the blue river with its sandy banks is
very beautiful. Down below are the old roofs of the town, standing
where, at one time, the river washed the base of the castle rock.
A picturesque _gateway_ in the town, with a pointed arch, a clock, and a
lantern turret above its high-pitched roof, is passed through on the way
to the fine cruciform _Church of St. Denis_. It is a Transitional
building with a Romanesque north door, richly sculptured capitals, an
interesting St. Sépulchre, and a massive central tower.
The Hôtel de Ville near the bridge (built 1500-1505 by Pierre Morin,
Treasurer of France) has been carefully over-restored, and can be
entered without any charge beyond a small gratuity. Near by is the
Church of St. Florentin, built by order of Louis XI. (1461-1483).
To reach Tours from Amboise one only has to follow the road westward on
either bank of the river, but by doing so one misses the fascinating
castle of Chenonceaux, which lies a few miles to the south-east.
The best road to take is the one going due south through the forest of
Amboise towards Bléré, and at the first important cross-road (see map)
one goes to the left parallel with the River Cher.
Just before reaching the village of Chenonceaux a turning to the right
leads across the railway to the entrance-gates of the château of
CHENONCEAUX
_Admission is given every day except when the family is in residence,
when the public can enter on Sundays and Thursdays only between 2 and
4. The charge is 1 franc for each person._
An avenue leads down to a formal garden enclosed by low walls and
brilliant with flowers, which make a fitting foreground to this castle
of pleasant memories, for there are no records or traditions of any
treachery or murder here; instead, one finds accounts of brilliant fêtes
and receptions, when the picturesque little château must have been a
pageant of colour and beauty.
An isolated tower on the right of the garden belongs to an earlier
castle than that which exists now, and its walls have the mellowed tones
which restoration has stolen from the beautiful building just beyond.
The approach is by a bridge, for the whole of the castle stands in the
River Cher on the site of a mill owned by the predecessors of the
builder. Although erected in the sixteenth century, there are two
drawbridges which isolate the castle from the banks, but its peaceful
story does not suggest that they were ever needed.
The elaborately ornamented roofs, the circular corner turrets, and the
galleried bridge reflected in patches in the eddying water, make a most
attractive picture, and one feels surprise that no one has imitated
such an idea.
It was in 1515 that Thomas Bohier is supposed to have begun the castle.
He was Chancellor of the Exchequer of Normandy, and spent large sums of
money on the building. The style was not altogether of the Renaissance,
as one may see from the Gothic chapel he built. In 1524 he died in
Italy, the country from whence he had drawn his ideas for his exquisite
house in the Cher, which was still unfinished. Antoine, his eldest son,
found himself in such a predicament through his father’s methods of
finance that in 1535 he sold Chenonceaux to François I.
Although the King seems to have only twice visited the castle, he went
on with the buildings, and his high opinion of the place is on record.
In 1546 he held a great hunting-party at the castle, and with him were
Diane de Poitiers and the future Henri II., in whose affections the
King’s mistress soon had the highest place. In 1547 Henri II. succeeded
his father, and at once gave Chenonceaux to his lovely Diane, and it was
she who built the bridge connecting the castle with the south bank of
the river.
[Illustration: THE CHATEAU OF CHENONCEAUX.
One of the most attractive of the castles of Touraine. It is built in
the River Cher, and was never the scene of any fighting.]
Twelve years later Henri received a mortal wound in the lists when
tilting with Montgomery, Captain of the Scottish Guards, and his
embittered widow, Catherine de Medici, at once forced Diane de Poitiers
to exchange Chenonceaux for Chaumont. In 1559 Catherine received the
boy-King, François II., with his Queen, Mary Stuart, at the château in
the river. Mary came there from Amboise with the bloody scenes of the
castle courtyard fresh in her memory.
While she had Chenonceaux, Catherine built upon the bridge erected by
her rival Diane the gallery with a long banqueting-hall above, which
makes so attractive a feature from the water-side. She died in 1601, and
left the castle to her niece, the beautiful Françoise de Lorraine,
Duchesse de Mercœur.
Having been a possession of the Bourbons, Chenonceaux was sold, in 1733,
to Fermier Général Dupin, whose widow, Madame Dupin, entertained there
most sumptuously for many years, and even survived the Revolution, dying
in 1799, at the age of ninety-three. The Revolutionaries did no damage
to the buildings, but required Madame Dupin to bring out all her
securities, and the priceless pictures and portraits which had been
accumulating in the château for three centuries, and all were burnt in
a great bonfire.
The castle is now owned by M. Terry, a Cuban gentleman, who has spent
large sums of money on its restoration.
Much of the beautiful furniture has always been in the castle, and the
decorations bear the monogram of Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers. The
blue-and-orange enamelled tiles on the floors of some of the rooms add
to the feast of colour and detail.
BLÉRÉ,
to which one returns after seeing the castle, is an old but
disappointing little town, for the bridge built by Henry II. of England
in 1160, and in use until quite lately, has been replaced by a modern
stone structure of no interest. The Church of St. Croix has a Romanesque
apse with grotesque corbels. There are three parallel naves; the central
one is fifteenth-century work, those north and south of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.
From Bléré to Tours the road keeps near the Cher, and the scenery is
pretty.
ALTERNATIVE ROUTE DIRECT TO THE RHONE AND THE RIVIERA--ORLEANS TO
BRIARE, 43½ MILES
(70 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
(Along the north bank of the Loire)
Kil. Miles.
=Orleans= to Chécy =9= 5½
=Chécy= to Châteauneuf-sur-Loire =15= 9½
=Châteauneuf= to Ouzouer-sur-Loire =22= 13½
=Ouzouer= to Gien =15= 9½
=Gien= to Briare =9= 5½
For the route from Briare to Cannes, see Sections XXIII., XXII., XXI.,
XX., XIX., and XVII.
CHARTRES TO TOURS DIRECT, 87½ MILES
(141 KILOMETRES)
Kil. Miles.
=Chartres= to Bonneval =31= 19¼
=Bonneval= to Châteaudun =14= 8¾
=Châteaudun= to Cloyes =12= 7½
=Cloyes= to Vendôme =28= 17½
=Vendôme= to Château-Renault =26= 16
=Château-Renault= to Tours =30= 18½
By this road, which is on the whole level, one can shorten the distance
to Biarritz by 61 miles, but it means omitting the fascinating Château
Country.