10/24/2014
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| Chateau de Chenonceau |
Chateau de Chenonceau is the second-most visited castle in France, after Versailles. It's a 40 minute drive from our hotel, though the signs aren't very good once you're in the village. We drove around the small village in a big loop, circling and turning back around, desperately looking for any sign pointing to the castle. The GPS coordinates on Chenonceau's website (everywhere in France uses gps coordinates instead of address) took us to the outskirts of their vast forest/park...blocked by tall 3-story hedgerows, of course. We finally saw a tiny sign next to a tiny road, and decided to try it. There was a tour bus driving behind me, so I pulled over and let them go first, and followed them into Chenonceau's parking lot. Oiy. That put us back 1/2 hour.
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| The entrance of Chenonceau |
Chenonceau's history correlates with the rise and fall of financiers. It was first built in the 11th century. One of the first documented owners was a merchant banker, Jean Marques, who fell into royal disfavor and had his other properties confiscated, his forests burned (a very lucrative source of income at the time). His son inherited his debts, and Thomas Bohier, a king's favored vassal, inherited the marks. Thomas Bohier and his wife, Katherine Briconnet, pressured the son to pay the debts at regular intervals...with the ultimate goal of possessing Chenonceau for their own. The son couldn't pay up, so long story short, Chenonceau became Bohier's property.
The Bohiers were on the rise up, especially having the king's favor. Thomas accompanied the king on many visits (battles) to Italy, where he developed a love for Renaissance art. He brought back many pieces of art and furniture, and encouraged his wife to renovate Chenonceau that it was a fitting status symbol. Their initials can still be found throughout the castle: TBH. They carved a motto on the front door: "If I manage to build Chenonceau, I will be remembered."
So true!
As we're going through a headache remodel, I can completely understand. As we visit all these castles, I keep pointing out how intricate these masters of old can manufacture capitals, friezes, fireplaces. Why, why, why is it so hard for us to source these in America??? This was technology from 500 years ago, people! Everything these days is so IKEA. So simple and dummified down. Ugh. >.<
So, as the Bohiers pressured the Marques to give up Chenonceau to them, the next king pressured Bohiers's son to give Chenonceau to him, as Thomas Bohier left a few debts unpaid upon his death. How apt, hunh?
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| Diane de Poitier's bedroom |
This king, Henry II, upon gaining Chenonceau, gave it to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, as a gift. (Actually, Diane was pulling the strings in the back; she kept pressuring Henry to pressure the son to pay his debts, with the ultimate goal of gaining Chenonceau for her very own)
This is a story very much about fate. When he was 7, he and his brother were being ransomed. His father was Francis I, the man who invited Leonardo da Vinci to France (see yesterday's post of Chateau du Clos Luce). On the way to being ransomed, the entourage included 27 year old Diane de Poitiers, who felt sorrow for the young prince's plight and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Well, Henry II clearly remembered her kiss...and they became lovers some years later. Angel keeps saying Diane's a pedophile :T Twenty years his senior?!
Henry II was known as a solemn, serious man...whose only fault was Diane, according to his contemporaries. Diane loved Henry, but she loved herself more. She was a smart, calculating woman who watched out for her own best interests--hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to rise so high, right? Diane's words, "I have vanquished the victor of all," pretty much sums up her state of mind. Life's a game, and she wants to be the winner. She's conquered the king, who's master of the world, so in her mind, she's vanquished everything ("all").
Henry II married Catherine de Medici when she was 17 years old, and now we enter her bedroom:
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| Catherine de Medici's bedroom. That's her portrait above us. |
Catherine and Diane became bitter rivals for Henry's attention. Catherine and Diane were also cousins, several times removed. Indeed, when Henry died, Catherine said, "He was the cause of my agony." Henry had put Diane up on a pedestal ever since he was a boy, and Catherine could never compete with that. Imagine that agony!
There's a lot of 15th, 16th century tapestries hanging in Chenonceau. Many of these are rare Flanders pieces. Dad noticed this very gruesome one:
The woman is using a hammer to pound a spike into the man's head. Next to her is another woman, who is holding a man's head in her hand--decapitated and all. *shudder* Ummm...girl power? Haha Chenonceau is known for the headstrong ladies who've owned this lovely property...Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medici, Louise Dupin, Marguerite Pelouze...
Another tapestry depicts the fable of the Crawfish and the Oyster (you can see them in the middle):
This fable tells of a very rich man in Greece who spent lavish sums on his belly. He loved eating crawfish. One day, upon hearing that Africa has large crawfish, he set sail to Africa. Upon arriving on the shores, some fishermen came up to his boat (he hadn't stepped foot off of the boat yet) and offered him their catch of crawfish. The rich man took one look at the crawfish and asked if they had any larger. The fishermen replied this is the largest they have, so the rich man immediately set sail for back home. He never once stepped foot off his boat or even bothered to try Africa's crawfish.
Some time later, the rich man sent the emperor fresh oysters. Now, fresh oysters were a luxury in those days, as there was no refrigeration. But by some clever contrivance, the rich man had figured out how to keep oysters fresh. Other nobles would fake it with fake oysters--yeah, there was a healthy market for those. Cooks would use anchovies to make the fake oysters. But this wouldn't do for the emperor, the rich man figured.
Upon receiving the real, fresh oysters, the emperor announced he had a hankering for anchovies instead. Go figure. :T
The moral of the tale is that wealth does not buy you taste.
Or taste buds, in this case. --Angel's contribution
Jen: Wealth does not buy class, is my interpretation. That's just rude to sail to Africa and not even try the fishermen's offerings.
Angel: This is the girl who went to a first-rate pastry school and eats Oreos all day, instead of Pierre Herme macarons.
Jen: What's wrong with Oreos?
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| Catherine de Medici's study room and her desk |
Catherine de Medici's study stems off her bedroom and is known as the Green Room. This is the room where she ruled France, as after her husband's death, she effectively controlled France through her sons. Three of her sons became the King of France. The first two sons had Catherine pulling the strings in the background.
You can see why it's called the Green Room more clearly here:
The wallpaper is actually velvet damask! How lovely!
This is the emblem of Henry II and Catherine de Medici (her sign is two "C"s). People joke now, and perhaps even back then, that the H and C interlock to form a D...for his mistress, Diane de Poitiers:
Diane de Poitier's sign, the interlocked Ds, are still found on the tile floors. These are original from her time:
During a jousting tournament, Henry II lost to his opponent. He insisted on a rematch (always a bad idea), and his opponent's lance punctured through his eyeball to the back of his head, right through his brain. Miraculously, Henry survived this...for 10 days.
Diane and Catherine both fainted at the jousting tournament. Catherine sat vigil next to Henry for these next 10 agonizing days, but Diane stayed away, for fear of Catherine.
Upon Henry's death, Catherine forced Diane to give up Chenonceau in exchange for a smaller chateau, Chaumont. Diane conceded, as it's in her best interest not to get her head chopped off. By this time, Diane had made Chenonceau into a renowned palace. She added a bridge to the original complex to cross the river Cher. She added farms and mulberry trees, as silk was rapidly gaining popularity, and she could sell the mulberry leaves to feed silkworms. Smart business woman. She threw lavish parties here that were the to-die-for invitations of the time.
When Catherine gained the property, she built on top of Diane's bridge, enclosing the bridge off to form:
A gallery. This is the interior view of the gorgeous bridge and arches you see from the outside, that spans across the river Cher. In this gallery, Catherine threw balls and hosted sumptuous dinners. She brought Italy to France--she had gondolas floating in the moats outside, masquerades, fireworks (another Italian import) and orgy-themed parties (she threw a party where the woman arrived, dressed only in their skirts. From the waist up, they were naked). It was these parties where she seduced the aristocracy into submission, which was a common tactic among the royalty at the time. When the nobles arrived and saw such splendor, had so much fun...well, who'd really want to start a rebellion?
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| Dad noticed that the log holders are carved in the shape of horses |
We went down into the kitchens, which, from the outside view, forms the base of the bridge arches. So it's particularly drafty in here, as it's closer to the water. There's stairs going straight from the river up to the kitchens, so that it's efficient to move supplies. They can moor boats there.
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| The butcher's corner |
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| The baker's corner. Look at 'em bread! |
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| Where the servants ate. The servants had their own individual lockers as well. Anyone thinking Downton Abbey? |
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| Servants' dining area |
This is a painting hanging in King Francois I's bedroom. It's by van Loo, and he named it The Three Graces:
The three women are frolicking in much the same positions as Botticelli's The Three Graces. Van Loo's painting, however, is actually of three sisters, who, at various periods in time, were all mistresses of Louis XV. Not quite incest, I guess...
This is the bedroom of Francois I's uncle:
Francois really liked his uncle, so he presented his uncle with this present:
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| Angel says it's gaudy. Potatoes, po-tah-toes :T |
After Catherine de Medici's death, Chenonceau was bequeathed to her daughter-in-law, Louise of Lorraine. Unloved by her parents, she grew up to be quiet, dutiful and pious. Her marriage to King Henry III happened quite by happenstance. Henry III was visiting her cousin one day and noticed Louise's beauty...and that she bore a strong resemblance to Marie de Cleves the Princess of Conde. Henry was infatuated with the married princess and after ascending to the throne, intended to procure a divorce for Marie so that he could marry her himself. Marie died however, and so Henry sent his councillor to Louise's parents to advise them that he intended to marry Louise. Louise was on a religious pilgrimage at the time, and upon arriving home, her parents had to bow to her (how embarrassing!), the future queen of France.
Catherine de Medici, Henry's mother, was against the match at first, because Louise's family was considered too low. Henry was her favorite son, but also the child she could least control. Catherine also feared that Louise would act as an agent for her own family's wishes, much like how the Boleyn girls were at the mercy of their scheming father and uncle. But in time, Catherine got to know Louise and knew Louise would never act an agent for her own family's concerns, so Louise became a favored daughter-in-law.
The marriage was a love match and when Henry was assassinated by a monk (remember the French Wars of Religion? Yup, these events were coming to a head in this decade), Louise fell into a deep state of depression. She turned Chenonceau into a retreat for nuns, often asking the Capuchin nuns to accompany her about the castle, and wore white til the end of her days. White was the official mourning color for queens, so she became known as "The White Queen."
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| The White Queen, ever in mourning |
Henry and Louise produced no children, so the next heir to the throne was a distant family member. And Catherine had spent a fortune renovating the chateau, which meant Louise inherited all the debts too. Beginning to sound like a familiar story?
The next king, Henry IV, also had a favored mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrees, who wanted Chenonceau for her very own. So Henry began pressuring Louise to pay off the debts, which of course she couldn't pony up, as she had no money.
What they eventually settled on was that Louise would pass on the estate to her niece, who in turn would be betrothed to Henry IV and Gabrielle's son, Cesar de Bourbon. So the next owners of Chenonceau were the Bourbons, who used the place as a hunting lodge. They didn't stay here often and had little interest in Chenonceau. The last Bourbon who stayed here ended up selling off most of the statues of Chenonceau, and most of these statues ended up in Versailles.
The next owner to purchase the castle was a wealthy squire named Claude Dupin. His wife, Louise Dupin, was the daughter of a famed actress and a financier. At Chenonceau, she held literary salons with the most celebrated writers at the time, like Voltaire and Montesquieu. Rousseau was employed as her secretary and tutored her son, and it is said that Rousseau fell in love with Louise, though she remained steadfast to her husband. She was clever, intelligent and beautiful, and is an ancestor to the novelist George Sand (great-grandmother?).
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| A portrait of Louise Dupin |
Louise Dupin saved Chenonceau from being burned down during the French Revolution. She hid all the scrolls, saving them, and when the revolutionaries came to her door, she told them that the castle was the only way to cross the river Cher. She very eloquently persuaded them that Chenonceau's bridge was essential for travel and commerce, as it was the only means of crossing Cher for several miles. They had no cars in the day, so that would mean a day's worth--if not more--of traveling elsewhere to cross the river. She then opened the doors and invited anyone who wanted to cross, to cross, which was very democratic of her. The revolutionaries liked this, so they let Chenonceau off the hook. I think Louise was in her 80s at the time. That's some balls, woman! You go!
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| Balcony overlooking Diane de Poitier's garden |
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| An original tower from when the Marques owned the land--remember them? The first owners way back when? |
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| Yay! I'm getting damask wallpaper! Now if only we can source it... |
These staircases were quite nouveau and caused a lot of commotion, as this architectural feat (another Italian import) was new to France at the time:
Quite different from the medieval winding staircases they were used to!
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| Exhibit of clothes they used to wear in Catherine de Medici's time |
The last, and current, owners of Chenonceau (quite a long saga of the rise and fall of fortunes, isn't it?) is the Menier family. The Meniers are famous for their chocolates. During WWI, Gaston Menier converted Chenonceau into a hospital to treat the wounded, and here's a display of what the chateau looked like back then:
The Meniers have spent a fortune to renovate Chenonceau into its former glory. And I think it's well worth the price of admission (12.50 euro per person) to help preserve this beautiful castle. There's so much history here, so much intrigue and scandals that happened.
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| The arched bridge from Diane de Poitiers that Catherine de Medici enclosed off into a two-story wonderland |
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| Diane de Poitier's garden |
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| Entryway to Chenonceau |
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| The entrance of the maze at Chenonceau |
The whole time in France, I noticed a lot of cars branded with a double V (or chevron, what have you) logo. I kept wondering what brand it was, and as it turns out, I'm driving this car! The Citroen Picasso:
Dinner was a puff pastry pie with sauteed mushrooms stuffed inside. Tasted like Portobello mushrooms. Yum!
Even better smothered with cheese:
And a spinach salmon quiche:
And delicious almond croissants:
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