12Apr2009: Day 321: Chambord and Chenonceau (France)

Happy Easter to us. We didn’t have any dinner of ham nor did Makenna have an Easter egg hunt but we did see a castle and a chateau in France. That’s a pretty good Easter to me.

We set off about 8:30am and went to Chambord which was about an hour and a half away. This place looked amazing and huge. It was a hunting lodge used in the summer, I believe. I know it wasn’t a full time residence I just don’t remember when it was mainly used. The design of it was thought up by Francois I who eventually became King of France on Jan 1, 1515 at the age of 20.

I guess the original architect is unknown as the plans have been lost but it’s constructed in the model of an open-country stronghold, meaning that it’s designed for defence of a time gone by. It was started in 1519 and didn’t finish being built until 1685, during the reign of Louis XIV.

I think what was the hardest about the layout of this place was knowing where I was and what I had already seen. We would walk from one side to another, go in a circle and then go on to another side, walk in a circle, etc. But I couldn’t help but feel we missed some areas. We kept going up a floor and repeating the process.

One of the rooms was set up as an area to show how the name and image of Chambord has been used in advertising. It had different cases set up with things that took on the Chambord name, including liquor – which I had forgotten about. There was also a vacuum, a pushcart, miniature cars (like matchbox cars,) and various other things.

Makenna was pretty well behaved AFTER we got her some food. We grabbed some sandwiches at Chambord before going in. They had an open market right on the grounds, plus some shops, as if it was a mini-town. What she really wanted was chips, as usual and was screaming to let everyone know her desire. I bought a chicken sandwich, which is really on a baguette, and barely had any chicken, but took out pieces for her to eat and did the whole bargaining process with her. She would take the smallest bite of chicken possible in order to get a chip, but eventually she realized that the chicken was pretty good and she ate it. I bought Chris a sandwich which I thought was going to be ham and roast beef, but the word I thought was beef was really egg. He ate it anyways, I guess it was okay. She also started to breakdown near the end but we put her in the cart and she fell to sleep pretty quickly. Unfortunately it was only about a half-hour nap and this came back to bite us in the butt big time at the next place.

We left Chambord and he drove another hour and a half to Castle/Chateau Chenonceau. I wish I knew how to pronounce it but I have know idea – any French readers out there? It wasn’t as impressive looking at Chambord but it was neat in that it had a gallery that walked out over the water. What wasn’t neat was that everybody and their brother decided this was the place to be today. It was extremely crowded. I figured everybody would be home enjoying an Easter dinner – not here. If it’s anything like England, a lot of places open back up for the season on Easter so that might explain it.

We started out by going to the wax museum which was kind of cheesy but it gave us a bit of history on the women of the castle which is what was the driving force of this place existing. The building itself was built sometime after 1513 and after the first owners passed away, Thomas and Katherine Bohier, it was given to their son but for some reason he was fined by the king and in order to help pay his debt, he had to give the king the property. It then became a royal residence until the King, Henry II, gave it to his mistress for her husband’s “great and commendable services.” This mistress then had the original debt by the son of Boheir cancelled which removed the castle from crown control and she got the son of Boheir to sell it to her.

Anyways, it went through a few other women of which two were queens before it fell into the hands of the Mennier family who decided in WWI to install a hospital and all the rooms of the castle were used. During WWII, the gallery that I spoke about that goes over the water, was used by both sides as the Southern door gave access to the “free zone” while the main entrance to the chateau was in the occupied zone. This last family also took the time and money to restore it to its former glory including all the many gardens around the grounds.

There certainly were a lot of gardens to look at. We only looked briefly at a couple. One because it had a water spray and Makenna would never have forgiven us if we didn’t stop to see it. The other one had these beautiful flowers, mostly tulips all in bloom. I read in the book that the rooms in the castle have fresh flowers put into it every day from the gardens. I remember seeing the flowers, I honestly thought they were fake – I didn’t even bother to look.

Again, towards the end of being here – the last half hour or so of being in the house – Makenna was mainly screaming about this or that. She had kicked off her shoes for about the fourth time and I was waiting for one of the times to not notice and have no shoes for her for the rest of the trip. I massaged her head lightly with my fingers at one point and that calmed her down. She was just very tired again. Chris and I were taking turns going into rooms and then the other one keeping her calm as possible – which didn’t seem to be too possible. At one point, I was coming back upstairs to let Chris go look around and I heard this high-pitched shriek of a scream. I knew that screech anywhere. I took Makenna outside while Chris finished the house, which is what she wanted anyways by the yelling she was doing – “OUTSIDE!” Once we got her out there, she was much calmer and her whole demeanour changed to being that of a happy girl.

That’s when we walked around the gardens and Makenna was able to see some ducks and some donkeys. Another little girl (probably about six or so,) came running up to Makenna and rubbed her head, and gave her a kiss. Makenna stood there frozen not sure what to do. The girl noticed Makenna’s Dora cup and showed her Dora stockings to Makenna. It was very cute. At the place we ate dinner, another little girl put in her own money for Makenna to ride a horse machine which I thought was really nice.

We did find a place to eat on our way to the next hotel. It was called “Buffalo Grill.” The food was somewhat American and we could more or less figure out the menu. Plus, Makenna was extremely happy to have chicken nuggets. She didn’t even eat one fry.
On a nice note, Makenna had an ice cream cone at this chateau and enjoyed it immensely. She didn’t understand the concept of eating it quickly before it melted everywhere so it did get quite a bit messy for Chris who was holding it. Plus, as we left I told Makenna that we were going to get food and she was like, “okay, let’s go eat!” I’m always amazed and surprised at how much she understands concepts and can reply with appropriate answers such as this.

So I have to end with kudos to Chris who at the last minute last night, put together this trip today for us. He did a great job!