Day 41: Huisseau sur Cosson to Beaugency, France

June 29, 2012

Despite the sunny day yesterday and seemingly clear night, a thunderstorm hit around 7 a.m. That caught us literally napping. Darn. Now our fly gets to be packed away soaking wet (again). We are working hard to keep our tent from molding away to nothing in sunny France.

Pierre woke up and volunteered to go get some bread. Morning and night, it's a ritual to go get fresh bread. He was back in a jiffy - since a boulangerie is never far away. Next Pierre and Sophie produced a heavy looking jar of real strawberry jam. How do they do it?

We said our "final" goodbyes again and set off. We were heading for Chambord, said to be the most stunning of the Loire chateaux. It was very close, but we did get to ride a bit more through the vines and some bits of village. I am not sure that I have recorded this phenomenon of riding through the vines, so here is one photo. Our maps are quite purple with little grape symbols, reflecting that if it is not wheat or sunflowers, it's grapes!

The first thing about Chambord is that it is a national park. This automatically elevates its status, if you are from Canada or the US. Chambord started out as a hunting preserve for Francois I, the same guy who had Leonardo staying at Clos Lucy. In the end, 32 km of stone wall enclosed the forest. Only thing, about the lodge, this was no shack in the woods. Francois had just returned from reconquering Milan in Italy, and he must have been taken with Italian Renaissance stuff. The chateau at Chambord looks very Italian Renaissance to us.

Our main ambition for the day is Chambord

There are many pathways through Chambord, and many rent bicycles to explore the park.

Our first view of the Chateau. The towers look like a class of school kids each had a crack at designing one, but actually the structure is totally symmetrical. (This photo is not of a town, eh, it's one house!)

Who should turn up from behind us again but Pierre et Sophie!

Leonardo died before construction was started on Chambord, and I think the actual architects are unknown. However there seems to be a lot of Leonardo in the design. There is a tricky main spiral staircase (and Leonardo loved tricky spirals) and other spiral staircases in the corners. In addition, the construction is modular, in the sense that symmetrical bits of building (whether square or round in outline) are installed on a grid of perfect squares. A film shown with multiple language subtitles and with computer animated explanation of how the parts are laid out really gives a good account of the remarkable design.

Oh no, wall to wall school kids again. It's the end of term and they all get to go on excursions.

The white tufa stone is very soft and needs constant restoration.

Francois I built it as a hunting lodge, so there are gruesome paintings of dogs ripping apart animals.

The symmetrical design as explained by an excellent film.

Unlike some other stately homes we have seen or looked at descriptions of, Chambord lacks the gilt edged painted ceiling velvet curtain type decoration. Rather it is spartan and quite empty. This is not just that maybe the curators have not found enough 15-19th century antiques to put inside, but also almost none of the royal or near royal owners have actually spent much time trying to live here. For one thing, despite drainage works, there are quite a few mosquitoes in the forest. For another, the place is darn hard to heat (there are 282 fireplaces). It is after all just a rough hunting lodge (of 426 rooms). Louis XIV, for example, basically much preferred Versailles. Not sure how many rooms he had there.

Woodstove installed by 17th or 18th century softies who were too chilly with the 15th century fireplaces.

Top floor ceilings are inlaid with the salamander emblem of Francois I, plus his stylized "F"

Chambord seems to host various musical and art exhibitions through the year. Maybe that is why on the top floor two (what looked like permanent) installations of various art works occupy the well lighted chambers. Unfortunately the art is some kind of modern art, featuring grotesque (and sometimes offensive) images. Feh!

Beautiful top floor chambers are marred by two exhibitions of some kind of avant guard art.

However the top floors also afford some good views of the towers:

But on the top floors the towers are more visible

There are more spiral staircases in the corners of the outer annexes

What I called a crazy turkey Dodie says is a griffon.

One of the residents was the Compte de Chambord. In 1871 it looked like a restoration of the monarchy in France was in the works, and this fellow was to be the king. It fell through, because he refused to reign under the tricolor flag of the revolution (demanding the royal white flag, or somesuch). Meanwhile, someone in royal procurement had rushed off and ordered a bunch of royal coaches from the #1 coachbuilder of the time, Binder. So when the deal fell though, someone was stuck with eight or so new Binders. Five ended up on display at Chambord. There are three Berlins, a Calash, and a Coupe.

The kids are entertained by costumed staff

The enormity of the architectual elements is hard to grasp when they are way up on the huge towers. But there was a room where some deteriorated bits had been stashed, and there one could see the scale of them:

Architectual elements removed during restoration work

This king's salamander has deteriorated a lot

Finally there is the boutique/gift shop. Mostly these are a blend of tourist trinkets and good stuff, mostly books. At Chambord you could find it all, but the extensive collection of books was very impressive.

Chambord BBQ apron. I got the mouse pad instead!

Manners for little princes and princesses.

The bits of advice in the above photo is stuff like "I sit straight at the table" and "I eat with my mouth closed".

Inside a kid's book is more info than a Grampie can absorb about Francois I

When just walking through a place like this, there is more information just in the two page pamphlet than one can readily absorb. On the other hand, it is probably possible to study a lifetime on the architecture, culture, lineages, and so much else. Seeing that kind of information in real books rather than pamphlets makes us wish we had time to really get into it.

On the other hand, the big book about UNESCO world heritage sites made it immediately clear that this place is just a drop in the bucket, compared to what the world has to offer. Thank goodness Italy is not on our agenda (this time) or our little minds would just explode!

Big books about UNESCO heritage sites and about Chambord

There are really a lot of good books on offer

Pierre and Sophie left before us. On our bikes, their farewell. We know this really is "au revoir" because they are taking a train out today.

Final goodbye to the castle in the forest!

We pedalled out of Chambord and almost immediately into another bit of history, a town that claims to be the source of many of the pioneers that founded Quebec:

St Dye Sur Loire - again a town with some narrow streets and stone buildings

It turns out this is where many Quebec pioneers came from.

Near Muides Sur Loire we run into this. It seems out of place in this world heritage site, but I guess there needs to be power in the plugs somehow if I am to send out this blog!

Yesterday, after blowing most of the day noodling around Clos Luce, we biked through a very hot day, just to feel we got somewhere. Today, after using up an equivalent big amount of time at Chambord we decided to quit at Beaugency rather than cycle another 30 km to arrive around Orleans maybe at 8:30 p.m.

Boy, are we glad we stopped. The Camping had free wifi, a cabin with lights and a table, a restaurant, showers of course, and a hassle free attitude. We are so happy here!

They even have a little bit of groceries on offer, but that includes eggs! Wow, we can cook eggs for breakfast. That is almost like being back in England or Canada. None of this goofy croissant and coffee for us tomorrow! (Actually, that's a fib - since this is France, even the snack bar brings in fresh baguette, croissants, etc. for distribution in the morning. We plan to supplement our eggs with brioche, baguette, and all sorts of yummy stuff like that!)

The "activity" cabin at Camping Val de Flux at Beaugency. This has all we need for luxury blogging comfort. In the rain, this would also be great for cooking, but in any event there is a good restaurant on site!

Bedtime! (but better get the fly on the tent, it has rained sometime most every day.)

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 1,413 km (877 miles)

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