Josephine Baker’s Château des Milandes is a wonderful mix. It’s a traditional grand château but it’s a château devoted to its most intriguing and unusual owner, the legendary black American singer and dancer.

Set high above the Dordogne river in the little village of Les Milandes, the château was built in 1489 by the local lord of nearby Castelnau, François de Caumont, for his wife. It went through various fortunes, and like so many other great buildings, fell into disrepair after the French Revolution.

The 1900s and a New Owner

For decades the château languished…until 1900 when it was bought by one Charles Auguste Claverie. The 1900s was a good time for many of these old châteaux which were being snapped up by a new self-made, moneyed class. It happened all over France; in the Loir valley, the Château des Bazouges was similarly saved – by a publisher.

Claverie’s fortune had come from selling erotica in his shop in Paris and then branching out into ladies’ corsets which he also manufactured.  On his newly acquired country estate he restored much of the old château and added new towers, rooms, a winery and farm to make the property self-sufficient. 

Claverie died in 1919 leaving the estate to his widow. Josephine Baker, along with her fellow actresses/singers Arletty and Mistinguet, had long been a customer at his store for ladies essential underwear so she knew about the sale of the pale sandstone castle with its turrets and towers, gargoyles and curlicues. For 30 years the château became her sanctuary and her beloved home.

A New Era

Sadly Josephine Baker was forced to sell the Château des Milandes in 1968. In 2001, Claude de Labarre and her daughter Angélique de Saint-Exupéry, bought the château. Angélique’s mission has been to create the museum as a homage to Josephine Baker. She has done it in the castle the charismatic performer so loved, telling the story of this extraordinary woman’s life.

What you see

Enter the château through wrought-iron gates into a courtyard with a chapel and attractive outbuildings. In typical French style, neat flower beds are divided by mall box shrub borders.

A splendid Gothic doorway invites you into a building whose rooms house a mix of original furniture, restored sculptures and huge Renaissance fireplaces. This, you feel, was a real family home, a grand one of course, but a very liveable place. 

Josephine Baker’s Extraordinary Life

Each of the main rooms illustrates a different aspect of Josephine Baker’s life with a mix of costumes, posters, photographs, documents and artefacts…and in the background always the voice of Josephine Baker singing the songs that made her a star.

It’s a famous rags-to-riches story, starting with the difficulties of growing up as a black American in the early 1900s. Born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 3^rd, 1906, her childhood was a miserable one. But at the age of 14 it changed forever when a performance at the Booker Washington Theater in St. Louis, Missouri lit up the world.

Music Hall Days

The old library has been transformed into a music hall which takes you through her early career from Missouri to New York.

In 1925 she performed in Paris with the Revue Nègre at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées. Semi-naked, with a few modest rose petals adorning her stunning body, she was sexy, energetic, daring, and quite like anything the audiences had seen before. She was an immediate success.

The Folies Bergères followed in the late 1920s, then her La Folie du jour when she danced in the famous banana belt on display in the château. She became known as the ‘Black Venus’, the ‘Black Pearl’ and the ‘Creole Goddess’ and rivalled Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford.

Being a nude dancer might have brought fame and fortune, but Josephine wanted more and started a film career with Siren of the Tropics.  

Check out the Costumes

The Grand Salon, the final room in the 15^th-century section of Josephine Baker’s château, is full of the star’s costumes. They run from the ultra-glamorous to the faintly ridiculous (one of them, a jump suit she wore at Carnegie Hall in 1973, looks like an ABBA costume).

You move on through rooms decorated with tapestries, display cases and old furniture. You see her original bedroom, which was subsequently devoted to her family. Starting in the 1950s she adopted 12 children of all races, creeds and colours for her ‘Village du Monde’. Her ‘Rainbow Tribe’ was the ultimate multi-racial, harmonious family unit, supported by her fourth husband, Jo Bouillon, a jazz band leader. They met in 1933 and eventually married in 1947 in the little chapel beside the château.

Public Works and Private Pleasures

Josephine worked hard on the château. She had electricity and running water installed inside the chateau; she had the same amenities installed in the village, organized the first bus stops there and bought many of the surrounding local buildings.

She loved bathrooms, spending lavishly on the most expensive decor; one is designed in the style of the Arpège by Jeanne Lanvin perfume bottle, with gold and black mosaics and a gold leaf-painted ceiling. 

Above all, she loved to party, inviting showbiz stars of the day like Jean Gabin. Between 1954 and 1960 over 500,000 people were invited here for summer ballets, jazz evenings, fireworks displays and dances.

A French Heroine

The story moves on to her role in the Resistance in World War II, showing how she was recruited by the Free French Forces in 1939. “It is France that has made me who I am, I will be forever grateful to this country…I am ready to give my life for France…use me however you deem fit.” It’s a brave, defiant statement and a sad reflection on the USA which had rejected her.

There’s more in the ground floor kitchen, the billiard room, and the dining room where she entertained at a huge dining table. But the story of Josephine Baker and her beloved château ends sadly. Always wildly extravagant, she spent her fortune; her husband Jo Bouillon left France for Argentina and she was forced finally to sell the château. Initially evicted, she was then allowed to stay for a year.

The Final Years

Later she settled in Roquebrune on the Cote d’Azur, supported by admirers and friends like Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot. 

In 1975 at the age of 69 she appeared in public for the last time at the Bobino Theater in Paris. She died the next day from a brain haemorrhage.  

Her funeral was at the Madeleine church in Paris. Over 20,000 gathered and the French government honoured her with a 21-gun salute. She was the first American woman buried in France with military honours.

On the day of her funeral, over 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris to witness the procession. The French government gave a 21-gun salute, making her the first American woman to be buried in France with military honours.

She is buried in the Monaco cemetery. As Grace Kelly said: ”This queen of the music hall could not be buried anywhere else other than a place fit for a princess.”

In November 2021, Josephine was given France’s highest honour. She was inducted into the French Pantheon, the nation’s mausoleum of heroes, alongside the likes of Voltaire, Victor Hugo and Marie Curie. As the French President, Emanuel Macron said: “She broke down barriers. She became part of the hearts and minds of French people…Josephine Baker, you enter the Pantheon because while you were born American, deep down there was no one more French than you.”

She is the first performing artist, the first black woman and the first American to be so honoured.

Visiting Josephine Baker’s Château des Milandes

While the main interest of the château is about Josephine Baker and her life, it’s geared up for the whole family, with a Birds of Prey show keeping children (and adults) intrigued. The gardens are delightful, and there’s also a good gift shop and restaurant.

A little light reading:

The Dordogne – one of the main rivers of France

Jane Birkin – another famous foreign French woman

The post Josephine Baker’s Château des Milandes appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Château du Lude with its beautiful gardens stands on the green banks of the river at the heart of the undiscovered Loir valley. It’s a perfect place to see the different façades and interiors of four centuries of architectural changes.

The Château du Lude has a great history and has been in the same family for some 225 years. Built where the three regions of Maine, Anjou and Touraine meet, Lude was strategically important. The 11th-century castle of the Counts of Anjou played a major defensive role against attacks by the ambitious Normans. It was inevitable that the château was caught up in the constant warfare that plagued the middle ages.

The Medieval Château du Lude

The château’s medieval beginnings show most obviously in the towers that protected the castle, though Renaissance windows have replaced many of the original arrow slits. Massive military fortifications under the main buildings provided the foundations for the château’s defences.

A New Beginning

When the Hundred Years War limped to its end in 1453, everything changed. Now great lords showed off their power and wealth in grand buildings rather than on the battlefield. They competed to outdo each other in the size, opulence and decoration of their new architectural masterpieces.

In 1457 the adventurous soldier-knight Jean de Daillon acquired Lude. He began to rebuild his new property which had been badly damaged in the on-off century old war between the French and the English. This part of the secret Loir valley has found itself one of the main battlegrounds.

Daillon was a lucky man. In the convoluted politics of the age he had supported King Charles VII instead of his son Louis. When Louis became King Louis XI Daillon spent 7 years hiding in a nearby grotto (well that’s the story) before he was forgiven and reinstated.

The Italian Renaissance (and how to out-class the neighbours)

And the Château du Lude was no exception. Grand staircases link the floors. The rooms built for some pretty ostentatious entertaining have wooden parquetry floors, painted ceilings and grand fireplaces.

I found the château sad. It feels rather neglected, like an old dowager who has lost her sparkle.

But there are good things to see. The most impressive room is the library which was added by the Duc de Bouillon in the 19^th century for his 2,000 odd books.

And the all-important rooms housing the servants and the kitchens are great fun.

The Upper Upstairs

Go behind the scenes and it’s a different story. The nursery and the rooms upstairs for minor friends, children and servants are functional rather than ostentatious. But even here there are a few nice touches. Washing was rudimentary but fancy having jugs and pots inscribed with the name of your property. A touch of luxury to make you feel better?

The Downstairs Bit

I love kitchens and these are impressive, housed in the original medieval basements which you access from the outside. Here the downstairs lot laboured to keep the nobility and their friends well fed. But the food must have been pretty cold by the time it reached the owners and their guests in the rooms above.

How they got around

Walk around the stables once busy with lads feeding and grooming the horses while other stablemen looked after the carriages that transported their masters from château to château. It all seems very grand, but early coach travel was far from comfortable. Suspension wasn’t introduced until the mid 17^th century. Carriages were challenging in bad weather; until the 1680s when glass windows were introduced, all you had to protect your elaborate dress were simple blinds.

18th-century Womanpower

Works on rebuilding the west wing facing the river in the 18^th century were carried out by the energetic half-French, half-English Marquise de la Vieuville. She was typical of her time – women were responsible for many grand building works (as well as producing those oh-so-important heirs), while their husbands hunted, wined and dined their friends.

The French Revolution interrupted the work but did no damage to the château. It did however cost her husband, the Marquis, his life. He was guillotined in Rennes in 1795 at the age of 82 which seems a little unfortunate.

The Marquise left the chateau to her daughter who married into the de Talhouët family. Their descendants, the Count and Countess de Nicolaÿ and their children still own and run Lude.  

The Gardens of the Château du Lude

The gardens are extensive and a major reason to visit the Château. They stretch out on two levels from the Château in splendid and typical French formal fashion. The upper grand terrace runs along a vista of green lawns, gravel paths and the odd statue. The formal gardens lie on a second level beside the river.

The small Jardin de la source has a Chinese pavilion; come here in the spring for the hellebores, euphorbias, geraniums and Chinese peonies. Sadly the kitchen garden was shut on our visit.

Garden Events through the year

The best way to enjoy the gardens is the first weekend in June, when the château hosts La Fête des Jardiniers. Or book for one of their Journées Potagères et Gourmandes in the summer/autumn when you can visit the kitchen gardens and watch a cooking demonstration in those fabulous old kitchens. In 2021 it’s on October 31.

How to get there and more information

We took the DFDS ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe. It was a 321 km/200 mile drive taking around 3 hrs 5 mins. The Château du Lude is the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region.

More about Ferries to France from the UK.

We were on a self-driving press trip organised by the Vallée du Loir tourist office. The trip also took in Le Mans, slightly to the north east of the Château de Bazouges.

Also check out the Region’s Atlantic Loire Valley Tourism website

More to see in the region and surrounds

This part of the secret Loir Valley has plenty to offer. Check these out:

Medieval Baugé has a great castle (good for children), a former hospital with enough gruesome details to keep everyone happy and a spectacular historic apothecary.

Make a small diversion to see the delightful Château de Bazouges with its family history and lovely gardens.

If you want to see the Loir’s famous cousin, here’s a guide to the complete Loire Valley Tour.

Read more about travel to France at the time of Covid-19 regulations.

The post Château du Lude and its Gardens in the Loir Valley appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Medieval Baugé is a real find with its ancient Hospital, an Apothecary that has a real Harry Potter feel to it and a château that came into its own in the mid 15th century. It’s in the secret Loir valley (without an ‘e’). Located just north of the more famous Loire valley (with an ‘e’), the area is a real find. It’s lovely, with 140 châteaux, magnificent gardens, a great cycle route, small towns and a crowd-free trip.

Baugé is a pretty place. It’s located just south of a small town called la Flèche and just north east of Angers in the Pays de la Loire region.

Baugé’s important buildings stand in gravel squares dotted with lawns and flower beds, surrounded by narrow streets of medieval and 18^th-century houses. For those after modern comforts medieval Baugé has a great Logis hotel and restaurant as well (details at end).

But first a little history to place medieval Baugé and the secret Loir in the grand scheme of things. (If you want to miss the history bit just scroll down, but it does make a visit to the château and the whole area more interesting.)

A Short Potted History of 1421

The Hundred Years War (1337–1453) between the French and the English is still spluttering on. It’s 1421, just 6 years after the massive defeat of the French at the Battle of Agincourt and the choice of the King of England, Henry V, as King of France. He led the troops at Agincourt and married the daughter of the French Charles VI in 1520.

At the beginning of 1421 Henry was all-powerful. With Caen and Rouen captured, he controlled Normandy. The French Dauphin, Charles VII was disinherited and Henry entered Paris as the new ruler.

A reversal of fortunes as everything changes

On March 22, 1421, everything changed. Henry had returned to England, leaving his younger brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence in control.

After failing to take the vital and formidably protected town of Angers, the Duke was returning to Normandy where the French Dauphin’s troops were gathering. At Beaufort-en-Anjou he heard of a French force stationed just outside Baugé. Against the advice of his generals, he set off with around 1,500 soldiers, leaving the rest of his force in Beaufort under the command of Thomas of Montacute, Count of Salisbury.

Clarence was facing an army of 5,000, made up of French men at arms led by Gilbert Motier de La Fayette and Scottish soldiers led by John Stewart, Earl of Buchan. The Auld Alliance between the Scots and the French had been signed in 1295 and was renewed in 1326. It bound the two kingdoms together in mutual support against the English. Not great news for the hot-headed Duke and his men.

La Bataille du Vieil-Baugé

The Battle of Vieil-Baugé took place some 2 kms west of Baugé on the banks of the River Couasnon. It was a disaster for the rash young Duke of Clarence who led the attack straight into the Scottish men at arms. The English knights on their heavy horses sank into the mud on the left bank of the river, to be picked off by Scottish archers and foot soldiers.

The English troops who fled to the village were trapped and killed in their hundreds. Among them was the Duke of Clarence who was unseated from his horse by John Carmichael of Douglasdale, then killed by Alexander Buchanan. There was nothing else to do but sue for peace.

The English lost over 1054 men; a further 500 were captured. Franco-Scottish losses were minimal.

John, the bastard son of the Duke of Clarence recovered the body of his father. It was sent back to England and buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

Salisbury with an army of around 2000 soldiers plus some survivors from Baugé retreated towards Normandy. The secret Loir valley might be little known today, but it was vital in the all important Hundred Years War.

The battle set the scene for the final years of the epic war. In 1429 Joan of Arc took Orléans.

In 1453, the English were finally defeated. France was about to move on and out of the centuries-old conflict that had its roots in the invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066.

Visit the Château in medieval Baugé

In 1454, the old fortified medieval Château de Baugé (which the English had set fire to) passed into the hands of René of Anjou (1409-1480), Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence (and King of Naples). He set about restoring it as a hunting lodge.

Unusually, René actually had a hand in the design of parts of the building; don’t miss the watch tower where the faces of the masons are carved into the stone.

Start with that Battle

Walk into the main entrance for your tickets (and some good shopping). An exhibition off to one side is aimed at children, but it’s a very good introduction to that famous Battle of Vieil-Baugé. You want to know the difference between the French, English and Scottish knights? This is the place to come.

The Baugé château is cleverly laid out. You’re inspired as you walk through rooms designed to take you back to good King René’s time. There’s little left from its medieval beginnings apart from the structure. But still you’re drawn into the very different world of the daily lives of the great and the good.

The Forest and the Hunt

Hunting in the great forests of France was strictly controlled. It was a ritualised pleasure that taught young boys how to handle a horse, travel through a forest looking for prey, work in a group and handle a bow and arrow, a lance, knife, a sword and in the 16^th century a firearm.  All skills that were transferred into the battlefields of Europe.

The Great Knights

Watching this thundering towards you would have put the fear of God into your soul.

Whispering in the Palace

Sit in this room of bare stone walls as the film unfolds, telling the story of the building of the medieval Baugé Château.

René’s Grand Banquet Room

A fireplace dominates one side of an enormous room where tapestries once hung on the massive walls. This was where René exercised – and enjoyed – his power. Here he received his guests, gave judgement and entertained with great feasts. Such a room was the heart of every medieval château.

The Hôtel-Dieu (Hospital) in Medieval Baugé

Most large towns in France had their own Hôtel-Dieu, built for the sick and the homeless. Baugé had an excellent Hôtel-Dieu plus a fascinating apothecary, both originally administered by the Sisters of St Joseph.

You get an idea of the size and scope of the hospital when you first go in, where a large plan identifies the different wings and rooms. There’s the old kitchen, a dining room (very bare for use by the nuns) and a chapter room which was used for meetings and the place where the nuns could spend their very little free time.

The Apothecary

There are two parts to the hospital and you start with the oldest, and vital part, the Apothecary You can only do this with a guide; you’ll see why when you enter the locked Apothecary, one of the most complete and beautiful in France.

You’re going back into a world that where medicines were made from plants – and bits of animals. It all felt a bit Harry Potterish though I couldn’t find mandrakes among the pots, glass bottles and boxes that line the walls from floor to ceiling. But I bet they were lurking somewhere in this chamber of secret medicine. Never mind, plenty of other unusual ingredients were there: blood of dragons, crayfish eyes, goat liver, roots, leaves and flowers that kept our ancestors alive.

The Hôtel-Dieu visit

The first thing you see is a long gallery housing beds ranged along the two sides. The ceiling has been lowered; back in its day it was much higher. Even then it was known that good ventilation would help prevent the spread of diseases.

A written guide in English takes you back to the past as you walk along the room once full of the sick and dying. The hospital was ahead of its time in its organisation and realisation of basic nursing. The nursing sister took the name, age and place of birth of each new patient. Their feet were washed and they were given bed linen, slippers, dressing gowns and in winter the all-important nightcap.

There’s a section about the medical practices of the time which makes you thankful to live in the 21^st century.

Patients could watch the services in the chapel beyond. The sisters were there to look after the spiritual wellbeing of their charges as much as their physical states.

The sisters of St Joseph still exist today with the first French colony abroad established in Montreal in 1641. Today there are communities in 15 countries operating hospitals and schools.

A later Apothecary

There’s also another apothecary which intrigued me as it’s connected to my local Auvergne town of Le Puy-en-Velay.

The later 19th-century apothecary was established when science was taking over, substituting new products for the old plant- and animal-based medicines. In 1901 Antonin Merle (1872-1918) bought the beautiful oak cabinets, made in the second half of the 19th century, from another pharmacy in the small village of Arlanc. Merle opened his apothecary in rue Pannessac in Le Puy-en-Velay and for 3 generations the family served the local community.

If you’re visiting Baugé, make a diversion to see the delightful Château de Bazouges with its family history and lovely gardens.

Where to stay and/or eat in medieval Baugé

The family owned and run Logis Hôtel, Ô Prestige in the centre of town. It’s particularly known for its excellent restaurant. If you’re there for lunch, try the 3-course Gourmande menu at €33.

More about the area

Baugé Tourist Office covers the town and the local area.

Vallée du Loir Tourisme covers the whole of the region.

If you’re here, check out the Château du Lude. It has a fascinating history and great gardens.

How to get there

We took the DFDS ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe. It was a 321 km/200 mile drive taking around 3 hrs 5 mins. Baugé is in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region.

More about Ferries to France from the UK.

We were on a self-driving press trip organised by the Vallée du Loir tourist office. The trip also took in Le Mans, slightly to the north east of the Château de Bazouges.

What to see in the region and the surrounding countryside

Also check out the Region’s Atlantic Loire Valley Tourism website

If you want to see the Loir’s famous cousin, here’s a guide to the complete Loire Valley Tour

Read more about travel to France at the time of Covid-19 regulations.

The post Glorious Medieval Baugé appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Château de Bazouges is a delightful castle that stands peacefully beside the secret Loir river. It’s just one of the 140 châteaux along this little known part of France where you can avoid the crowds and take the journey at your own pace.

The Loir Valley really is a secret to be discovered. The little known cousin of the mighty Loire River is a place for slow wanderings, taking small roads to quiet towns and villages, and coming across small gems like the Château de Bazouges.

Château de Bazouges

The 1900s might have been the Belle Epoque and a time of conspicuous consumption but away from the big cities, grand, often crumbling châteaux were proving too expensive for their owners to keep up. It was time for a huge change of ownership from the landowners who had managed to survive the French Revolution, clinging onto their old châteaux and manor houses, to a newly influential and wealthy class.

New owners take over

Today the Château de Bazouges is owned by the family of Gilles Serrand who runs it with his daughter Charlotte Lorge.

In 1910, Adrien Mithouard (1854-1919), co-founder of the literary revue L’Occident was an influential figure in Paris, an essayist, poet, publisher and politician. He looked at two châteaux to buy at roughly the same price. They were the Château de Bazouges-sur-Loir and…Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley between Tours and Saumur. Does Gilles regret his grandfather’s choice? “Too many rooms” he laughs at the idea of owning the latter.

We met the family on a warm August late afternoon when the sun sparkled on the Loir river. Their love of the château was palpable and their concerns about the huge upkeep obvious (just look at the rooves of châteaux you visit – often the most expensive item).

The Visit

The family took us on the route visitors follow. You start with its 15^th-century beginnings when the château played its part in the defence of France against the English in the 100 Years War. The secret Loir valley was an important battleground.

Walk into the entrance where the huge imposing space is now empty of gates, the drawbridge and other contraptions of previous turbulent centuries. To one side there’s a small chapel. You come out into the courtyard then go into the château itself.

The medieval rooms are sturdy, the former Guard room with its massive fireplace and tapestry on one of the walls a reminder of the past.

Then you see the abrupt change from medieval to the 18th century. Walk through a doorway: on one side of the thick wall it’s rough stone and plaster; on the other the delightful rooms are covered with gracious panelling painted in the pastel colours that were oh-so chic in the 18^th-century.

These were the rooms where Adrien Mithouard entertained the writers and artists of the day. And these are the rooms still used by the family when the visitors have departed. The former owners are still there, at least in the form of a sculpture of Mithouard and a copy of a portrait of his wife by Renoir who became friends of the couple in the early 1890s.

Up into the roof

We climbed up wooden steps into the huge roof space of the main tower, then outside and along the narrow battlements where for centuries graffiti has been scratched into the walls. Don’t look down through the iron grills to the ground if you have no head for heights. However if you do, imagine the lot of attackers trying to scale the walls and getting vats of boiling oil, stones and anything the defenders could find (like the contents of chamber pots) raining down on them.

Stories from the Château

There were plenty of stories to hear…about the screen depicting members of the family that was instantly classified as a Monument Historique by the official who had come to assess the château’s suitability for the classification. It’s by Georges de Traz (1881-1980) and is quite charming.  

…About how the family hope to make the château into an arts centre, which could partly be funded by film companies. However, the best chance for that was lost some years ago when Roger Vadim came to see the château for a film starring…Brigitte Bardot. Gilles Serrand’s grandmother, a formidable lady who saw off the Nazis in the area, was horrified at the inclusion of the actress and the idea was dropped.

The Gardens

Outside, the more formal Italianate garden takes you past arbours, under arches and along straight walks of green grass shaded by rows of tall trees. A huge weeping willow, a perfect hiding place for children, punctures the formality.

The visit doesn’t take long; this is a small castle. But do try to see the Château de Bazouges in the secret and lovely Loir valley; it’s well worth it.

How to get there

We took the DFDS ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe. It was a 321 km/200 mile drive taking around 3 hrs 5 mins. The Château de Bazouges is in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region.

More about Ferries to France from the UK.

We were on a self-driving press trip organised by the Vallée du Loir tourist office. The trip also took in Le Mans, slightly to the north east of the Château de Bazouges.

Attractions to see nearby

A short drive takes you to glorious medieval Baugé. It has a château which shows the life of the nobles of the past, an apothecary straight out of Harry Potter and an intriguing piece of industrial architecture – a massive old turntable and sheds for the trains and carriages on the Paris to Bordeaux route.

Garden lovers should make a visit to the Château du Lude for its formal gardens sitting peacefully on the banks of the Loir River.

Also check out the Region’s Atlantic Loire Valley Tourism website

If you want to see the Loir’s famous cousin, here’s a guide to the complete Loire Valley Tour

Read more about travel to France at the time of Covid-19 regulations

The post Château de Bazouges – A Family Affair appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The complete Loire Valley drive takes you from Le Puy-en-Velay in the Auvergne to Saint-Nazaire on the French Atlantic Coast where the mighty river empties into the ocean after its 630 mile (1,013 km) journey.

I have divided this Loire Valley drive into six major sections. The first and the last stage have less well known attractions but offer spectacular views and some great surprises. The most popular routes are in the sections from Orléans to Saumur, taking in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Valley of the Kings. It was in this part of France favoured by monarchs for centuries that much of the history of the country was made.

Click on the heading for a Loire Valley drive through each section.

Le Puy-en-Velay to Nevers

One of the least known of the routes along the Loire Valley passes through two cities steeped in industrial heritage and the arts. Visit the château built on an island in the river and the spa town of Bourbon-Lancy. The route takes in one of France’s great canals and finishes at the delightful town of Nevers.

Nevers to Orléans

The small roads between the river and the canal will surprise with an old town with medieval quays and an engineering feat that answered the great challenges of building France’s canal system. Plus two famous wine-producing regions, a château with a stunning kitchen garden, and a town famous for ceramics (and one of those tempting factory outlet shops).
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Loire Valley starts here. The route finishes at Orléans, a city well worth a longer visit.

Orléans to Blois

This Loire Valley section takes you into the intriguing, and often bloody, history of the French monarchs, their wives, mistresses and scheming courtiers. It has some of France’s greatest châteaux to wander through, less famous ones to discover, and a garden for rose lovers.

Blois to Tours

More blockbuster châteaux in this part of the Loire Valley drive plus the last home of Leonardo da Vinci. Go off the beaten track for beautiful gardens and surprises. Did you know about the fabulous gardens at Nitray, or the château that has the National Tomato Conservatory with over 700 tomato varieties, and a good bed and breakfast?

Tours to Saumur

Châteaux and fortified castles offer more turbulent French history while some of France’s great potagers (kitchen gardens) show how well the French Kings and Queens ate. The English Plantagenet royal family lies in state in a great French Abbey which has a hotel, restaurants and a contemporary art museum.

Saumur to Saint-Nazaire

This last section starts with familiar attractions then takes on the feel of the sea as it nears the Atlantic Ocean. Plus fascinating unknown châteaux: the ‘medieval Doomsday bunker’ and the ‘Giant of the Loire Valley’. Great cities vie with each other with world famous tapestries and huge machines that walk around the town. The Loire Valley drive ends at Saint-Nazaire whose major shipyards have built the world’s greatest liners.

More Information

Loire Valley Towns and Cities with attractions, places to stay and how to get to each one

French Atlantic Coast

Major Rivers of France

Loire à Velo Route – Where to stay, how to book and attractions to see on this great cycle route

Budget Hotel Chains give you some good options on cheap (and good) accommodation in all parts of France

Departments of France

New Regions of France

The post The Complete Loire Valley Drive appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Napoleon’s France isn’t as important to the French as you might expect. The bicentenary of his death on May 5 2021 has a few exhibitions, events and talks around the country but no great razzamatazz. Foreign visitors, particularly the British, will probably show more interest in Napoleon’s France. (But might that be because the British always like to claim that they were the saviours of Europe?)

In the Footsteps of Napoleon

You can follow Napoleon’s life on a series of visits which are all described below. Start in Ajaccio, then move on to Paris where his ambitious buildings are magnificent.

You can walk in his footsteps in Boulogne, and drive the Route Napoleon from Golfe-Juan to Grenoble in the south of France. Consider visiting my favorite place, the small Ile d’Aix on the French Atlantic coast where he spent his final three days of freedom.

Napoleon – Hero or Villain?

For Napoleon: Some historians claim that Napoleon destroyed the old feudal and autocratic order in Europe, giving rise to modern nationalism and unity. And today, the European Union. His bureaucratic reforms were extraordinary. Nobody can deny his huge influence on life today through his liberalising of whole countries, his legal Code and his huge modernisation of Paris (and Cherbourg and Lyon).

Against Napoleon: Critics point to the huge numbers of soldiers killed during his long campaigns in Europe to 1815 – estimates vary from 900,000 soldiers to around 2.5 million. Civilian casualties are estimated at around 1 million. And all due to the ambitions of the Corsican boy, born into a family with modest ancestors. He became Emperor in 1804 which demonstrated megalomania, replacing the short-lived French republic after the Revolution, and he restored slavery.

There’s a lot more to both sides of the argument, but that’s for the historians.

Napoleon’s France through his life

The Start of it all in Corsica

Napoleon’s France begins in Corsica where he was born into a relatively modest family on Aug 15, 1769. He only lived here for nine years before sailing to France and starting his military education. But Corsica and particularly the capital of Ajaccio have done their best to commemorate one of the most famous names in European history.

Ajaccio’s Napoleon Sites

The Musée National de la Maison Bonaparte is housed in the former family home. It’s worth visiting for the story it tells rather than the objects.

One of the great surprises of Corsica is the Palais Fesch in Ajaccio. Napoleon’s uncle Cardinal Joseph Fesch was born here and decided to turn the family home into a museum, donating a huge number of paintings as the start. The donation is estimated at 1,000 from the 17,000 he accumulated as a result of his nephew’s policy of ransacking the great galleries and private collections of Europe during the Napoleonic wars.

The museum’s Italian collection is a gem and includes works by Veronese, Michelangelo, Titian, Vasari, Botticelli plus a whole host of other Old Masters. The museum also has an impressive collection of artefacts, including religious treasures and Napoleonic items.

Napoleon’s mother is buried in the chapel attached to the palace, along with the Cardinal. Fesch was a key figure in Napoleon’s life and was responsible for persuading Pope Pius VII to crown Napoleon Emperor in 1804.

Paris in the 18th Century

In the 18th century Paris had become one of the great centres of the Age of Enlightenment. Paris was the financial capital of France and continental Europe. By the 1740s cafés flourished throughout the city, becoming the places where artists, writers and anyone with intellectual pretentions would meet. It was the main European city for book publishing, fine household furniture and luxury goods, theatres and fashion.

Napoleon’s Paris

Napoleon finished his military education at the École Militaire in Paris before joining the Army in 1785. The military academy is an impressive building and in a corner of Paris very near the Eiffel Tower that I particularly like. It’s well worth a visit.

Right beside is the Champ de Mars where Napoleon held parades and military reviews to impress the citizens of Paris and inspire his troops. He planned a grand one here when he returned from exile in 1815. Two weeks later came his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The École Militaire is not open to the public generally but the building does open on European Heritage Days in September.

Napoleon’s Grand Vision

Paris was a city rooted in the autocratic past and Napoleon wanted a capital that reflected the new order and particularly his power. When he became Emperor in 1804, he commissioned buildings that were to change the image of Paris, making it a suitable center of his empire.

The Arc de Triomphe

The foundation stone of the Arc de Triomphe was laid on Aug 15, 1806, Napoleon’s birthday.  It remained unfinished at his death in 1821 and was finally opened in 1836.

The Madeleine

The Madeleine was built in 1806 as a Temple de la Gloire de la Grand Armée (Temple to the Glory of the Grand Army). Inspired by the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, the neo-classical building is a Paris parish church.

Arc du Carrousel

Standing in front of the Louvre the triumphal Arc celebrates the victories of the Grande Armée under Napoleon in 1805.

Vendôme Column

The Place Vendôme is a magnificent square, the ideal place for a grand column. Napoleon commissioned his in 1810 in memory of his victory at Austerlitz.

Napoleon and the Louvre

The Louvre began as a fortress in 1190 and became a royal palace in the mid 14^th century. Falling out of royal favour it was abandoned and by the 1750s was ramshackle with prostitutes and shady businesses occupying the once beautiful buildings.

Renamed the Musée Napoléon so nobody would be in any doubt as to his importance to the museum and to art, Napoleon set about building the north wing and renovating other parts. He also made sure many of the art works he took on his campaigns found their way here. You’ll find objects associated with Napoleon on permanent display at the Louvre, along with paintings by David, the most famous artist associated with Napoleon.

Also check out the Egyptian gallery opened in 1827. It was the result of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign and was curated by Jean-François Champollion who deciphered the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone.

If Egyptology is your thing, visit the new museum opening in Vif near Grenoble in Isère. One of the major events of 2021, the Champollion museum is dedicated to the two Champollion brothers Jean-François and Jacques-Joseph and the 19^th-century Egyptology obsession.

How did he do it all?

Napoleon’s energy was extraordinary, managing all these projects while mostly campaigning in Europe.

“Make me a little report on the works I have ordered. Where is the Bourse?…What has been done to the Arc de Triomphe? ..Shall I pass over the Pont d’Iena on my return? So much for Paris…” He wrote to Monsieur Cretet, in charge of his work as he marched to Spain in 1809.

Napoleon’s Visions for Parisians

For the ordinary citizen post Revolution Paris was a mess. It was crowded; the Seine was polluted; there was no clean water for the poor and the streets were filthy. To Napoleon the plan was clear: clean up Paris.

Roads

Paris was hazardous for walkers who used decrotteurs de rues (street scanvengers) to scrape the mud and filth off their shoes. Napoleon’s grand building project improved the grand roads and boulevards but destroyed much of working-class Paris, something which Haussmann finished. The Emperor’s most famous road is the Rue de Rivoli, named after Napoleon’s 1797 victory.

The Seine

The river Seine broke its banks and flooded the city in 1797, 1801 and 1920. One of Napoleon’s first concerns, he had flood defences and new quays built along the riverside.

Bridges

River traffic along the Seine was vital for trade. The road system was overcrowded, made more so as there were not enough bridges linking the right to the left bank. Napoleon ordered four major new bridges of which three were built during his time: the Pont d’Iéna, Pont d’Austerlitz and the Pont des Arts, the first iron bridge in Paris.

Sewers came next…

Some 40 years before Joseph Bazalgette built London’s Victorian sewage system, Napoleon constructed a 19 mile/30 km stretch of underground, brick-lined sewers.

…along with Clean Water

The Ourcq Canal was built to bring clean water into Paris from the River Ourcq. Between 1802 and 1808 60 miles (96.5 kms) of the canal were constructed. Make your way to north east Paris for a walk along its banks, lined with bars and cafés.

As part of the improvements, 19 new wells were promised in a law of 1806. The Fontaine du Palmier on the Quai de Gesvres is the only one left of the 14 fountains he commissioned.

…and Finally

The expansion of Paris brought another problem: overcrowded cemeteries. In 1804 Napoleon ordered Alexandre Brongniart to design the layout of Père Lachaise. It was grand and grandiose and quickly became the place to be buried; its ornate 19^th-century tombs and mausoleums vying with each other as status symbols.

Père Lachaise is full of the great and the good of French history (many of them now forgotten) including 14 Marshals of the Empire. Balzac, Proust, Isadora Duncan, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Yves Montand are among many other post-Napoleonic figures buried here. But the most popular grave is of Jim Morrison who died mysteriously in Paris in July 1971.

Napoleon’s France: What to see outside Paris

Château de Malmaison

Malmaison was bought by Josephine de Beauharnais in 1796 just after she had married Napoleon. The couple came here to Malmaison to escape their official life. It’s a delighful place and gives a more domesticated idea of the life of one of the world’s greatest generals. The house is full of mementos and there’s a very definite military take on the décor. The gardens are lovely and include an old rose garden laid out by Josephine who was an avid gardener.

Josephine died here on May 29 1814 and is buried in the church of St Pierre and St-Paul in Rueil-Malmaison.

Malmaison is organising various events around Napolean. More details here.

Malmaison is around 15 kms/9.3 miles west of central Paris.

To get there take the RATP train from Porte Maillot metro station to La Defense. Then take the bus 258 from the La Defense-Metro-Rer-Tramway to Ecole La Malmaison. It’s a five minute walk from there to the Château.

A taxi from Porte Maillot to Château de Malmaison takes around 15 mins and will cost £17 to £21.

Château de Bois-Préau

Josephine bought the Château de Bois-Préau next to Malmaison in 1810. She tore down the walls between the two so it became possible to walk to nearby Rueil without leaving the property.

Bois-Préau was initially used to house her staff including her doctor and her estate manager and for storing many of the books of her library, her archives and natural history collection.

The Château is being renovated but you can walk through the park.

Château de Fontainebleau

The huge Château de Fontainebleau is magnificent with1,500 rooms. One of Napoleon’s favorite places to live, he called it the ‘King’s true home’ and ‘house of the ages’. Several rooms at the beginning of the visit show Napoleon’s life as Emperor.

Renovating Fontainebleau was one of Napoleon’s pet projects, spurred on by the need to host Pope Pius VII who was about to visit for Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor. He redecorated to suit his taste and created his own throne room. The small room where Napoleon abdicated in April 1814 is rather sad.
Fontainebleau has a series of itineraries around the Napoleon theme commemorating the anniversary.

Read the full story on the Château de Fontainebleau

Château de Vincennes

The Château de Vincennes is an extraordinary building with a huge central tower inside its defensive walls. It was the French monarchs’ favoured palace until Versailles was built in 1668.

Napoleon used Vincennes as an arsenal in 1808. But the château is associated more with Napoleon’s renowned and eccentric General Daumesnil than the army commander. Daumesnil had lost a leg at the Battle of Wagram in 1809 and commanded the château in the Battle of Paris in 1814. The allies offered generous terms as it was clear the place would be difficult to take unlike the rest of the city. When Daumesnil met them he declared: “I will surrender the castle when you return me my leg”. The redoubtable general held out even after the fall of Paris.

Vincennes is on the northern edge of the Bois de Vincennes in Paris.

To get there either take the Metro line 1 from Gare de Lyon to Château de Vincennes. Then it’s a five-minute walk.

Napoleon’s France from north to south

Napoleon’s Plans to Invade England from Boulogne

On May 16, 1803, war was declared on France by the British and the Third Coalition of European States: Austria, Russia and Sweden. Napoleon’s plan to invade England involved setting up the Boulogne Camp where 120,000 soldiers were placed. The camp went all the way down to Wimereux – the coastal town chosen as the harbour for the French flotilla.

In 1805 Napoleon gave up the plan and marched towards Austerlitz instead. But he still had old defences reinforced and new ones built against a possible invasion from England.

There are a few buildings and Napoleonic forts left along the coast, many of which were used during World War II.

One you may not know is Terlincthun Fort, constructed between 1806 and 1808 at Wimereux and renamed the Fort de la Crèche in World War II. The fort has the added distinction of being the first place outside Paris where the Légion d’Honneur (another Napoleonic innovation in 1802) was awarded.

Check out the Alprech Battery, reinforced by Napoleon which you can visit with an appointment. Find out more at the Le Portel Tourist Office, tel: +33 (0)3 21 31 45 93 south of Boulogne.

At Wimille you can’t miss the Column of the Grand Army. It stands 53 metres high on a cliff with Napoleon on top looking over the Channel towards Britain.

The Hundred Days and the Route Napoleon

When Napoleon abdicated after the defeat of the Battle of Paris in 1814, he was sent to Elba. He sailed back to a divided France, landing on March 1, 1815 with three generals, a thousand men and four cannon.

He landed at Golf-Juan in the Alpes-Maritime in Provence beginning his Hundred Days which ended at the Battle of Waterloo.

He took a route which ran north west along the foothills of the Alps finishing in Grenoble in Isère. Following the muleteers’ footpaths it took 6 days to cover the 324 kms (201 miles). At Grenoble he was greeted by French troops who overwhelmingly deserted the official army to join the returned Emperor. When he entered Paris on March 20 it was clear that he had the support of the vast majority of the French. And it had been so easy.

As Honore de Blazac remarked: “Did ever a man before in history win a great empire simply by showing his hat?”  

The Route Napoleon was officially set up in 1932. It makes a great drive through some beautiful scenery.

Ile d’Aix

Ile d’Aix just off the French Atlantic coast is one of my favorite places, even surpassing the very chic Ile de Re further south. It’s a small car-free island which you get to by ferry.

Napoleon spent his last three days of freedom here from July 12^th to 15^th, 1815 after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18 and his abdication on June 22. His plan had been to slip past the Royal Navy blockade and escape to America – an impossible idea that he rapidly abandoned. He boarded the British ship HMS Bellerophon to be taken to Portsmouth and from there to his final exile on St Helena.

On Ile d’Aix you can visit the small house, now a museum, where he stayed before his final exile. It’s small with just a few mementos, portraits and sculptures of the man.

There’s an excellent boutique hotel called of course the Hôtel Napoleon with a good restaurant. Otherwise just cycle the paths around the island and soak in the atmosphere of the Atlantic.

More about Ile d’Aix, a place for chilling out.

Napoleon’s Tomb

Napoleon died on St Helena and was buried there, despite his wish and those of many of the French to be buried in France. It wasn’t until 1840 that his body, remarkably intact, was brought back to France.

King Louis Philippe ordered a grand state funeral. The horse-drawn hearse went from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade des Invalides and then St Jérôme’s Chapel, where Napoleon’s body remained until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti for Les Invalides was completed. In 1861 he was finally laid to rest in the crypt under the dome of Les Invalides in a splendidly ornate tomb.

Napoleon’s France: French Events

There are very few major events in France around the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death on May 5, 2021. You will find some on this Napoleon website.

More on Napoleon events in Paris.

The most important event is the exhibition Napoléon at Grande Hall de la Villette until Sep 19, 2021. It displays 150 relevant objects from furniture to porcelain, from the famous black felt hat to his campaign tent. It’s a good overall picture of the private man and the public Emperor. Details here.

The Musée de l’Armée (which is well worth a visit for more on Napoleon) is holding the exhibition Napoléon n’est plus (Napoleon is no more). It runs until Sep 19, 2021 and concentrates on his death of St Helena. The exhibition covers the end of his life comprehensively using archaeology, medicine, and chemistry to provide more information.

The museum is also putting on a contemporary art exhibition around Napoleon, Napoleon? Encore! From Marina Abramovic to Yan Pei-Ming (Napoleon? Again!) It’s rather fitting, given the controversial nature of the Emperor, that one of the exhibits has enraged critics. It’s a plastic replica of the skeleton of Napoleon’s horse Marengo which passed into British ownership. (The skeleton is on display at the National Army Museum in London.) Critics have deemed the exhibit tasteless, irrelevant and generally a ‘bad thing‘.

Napoleon’s France: The achievements you don’t see

Napoleon was an exceptional visionary. He reformed higher education, brought in a new tax code and established the Banque de France, the first central Bank in France. He instituted the Bourse (Stock Exchange) and created a new relationship with the catholic church.

He helped found the modern system of departments in France.

He instituted a set of civil laws, now known as the Napoleonic Code which has influenced a quarter of the world’s jurisdictions in continental Europe, the Americas and Africa.

He sold the French Louisiana Territory to the USA in 1804, effectively doubling the size of the country.

He certainly plundered much of Europe’s art collections during his campaigns. He also founded 15 provincial art museums across his Empire in Europe, distributing the works from the Louvre. It means that many of the Fine Arts Museums have superb collections, well worth visiting. The repatriation of art works stolen during war remains a problem.

But did Napoleon introduce driving on the right side of the road? The jury is out on this one, though most historians think it was down to the French Revolutionaries. But he did enforce it in the rest of Europe, so the myth is partly true.

So Napoleon – hero or villain? You decide.

More Articles

Guide to Paris

Seaside Resorts in North France

The post Napoleon’s France appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Loire valley from Blois to Tours has real treasures to see. Take in the two spectacular châteaux fought over by the rivals for the love, and bed, of King Henri II, the final home of Leonardo da Vinci and romantic gardens attached to vineyards. But what about the smaller less well known sights? Have you visited the National Tomato Conservatory? You’ll find it at a château that offers bed and breakfast and has a Tomato Bar.

Loire Valley Routes from Blois to Tours

Fast Route: Blois to Tours is 66 kms/41 miles and takes around 50 mins. The A10 has tolls of €5.90.

Scenic Route: Blois to Tours is 160 kms/98 miles taking around 3 hrs 10 mins. I have not included the time spent on visits to the attractions.

Blois to Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire

Drive: The D952 takes you beside the stately Loire river. It’s a short 18 km/11 miles, 18-min journey to one of the great beauties of the river, the Château of Chaumont-sur-Loire.

The Château stands overlooking the river; old houses along its banks cling to the ground below the walls. Dating from the 10^th century, it was rebuilt in the Renaissance and the 18^th century.

Chaumont was one of those châteaux that were tossed around like toys by their royal owners. In 1550 Catherine de Medicis, wife of King Henri II, bought Chaumont. It was a profitable business, with numerous farms and tolls from the river traffic but it wasn’t the most beautiful château in this part of the Valley of the Kings (or in this case Valley of the Queens). In fact it wasn’t a patch on nearby Chenonceau.

Down in the Cher valley, Diane de Poitiers was enjoying, and enhancing, the beautiful château which had been given to her by her lover, the King.  When Henri died in 1559, Catherine de Medicis who was not a lady to take kindly to any affront, forced Diane de Poitiers to exchange her beloved Chenonceau for Chaumont.

Chaumont is beautiful, though much of the interior was updated to the heavy 19^th-century décor by the Broglie family owners. You can see some of the Renaissance rooms, particularly the splendid council chamber.

It’s the gardens which are the true inspiration, transformed into an English park by the Broglie family. Every year, the château hosts a spectacular Festival des Jardins, displaying gardens by contemporary designers.

Chaumont to the Château de Chenonceau

Drive: Go south on the D114 and the D115 then turn onto the D80 down to Chenonceau for 26 kms/16 miles for around 30 mins.

However many pictures you might have seen, there’s still a wonderment about your first sight of the fairytale Château de Chenonceau.The lovely building sits reflected in the river Cher, one of the main tributaries of the Loire.

A long gallery spans the river. This was the place for Catherine de Medicis’ dissolute parties.

The gardens outside were cultivated by both the Queen and her rival. The Diane de Poitiers parterre is protected from the rising waters of the river Cher by raised terraces. Small hedges of box and laurel line the flower beds, set in strict geometric patterns. Catherine de Medicis has fine panels of lawn around a circular basin opposite the west façade.

The décor is rich; the paintings splendid and the kitchens give just the right kind of upstairs downstairs atmosphere. It’s the only château in the world with its own floral workshop so expect superb flowers and arrangements from Jean-François Boucher.

Check for summer evenings when you can walk through the lit up gardens, listening to classical music and imagining yourself back in the Renaissance.

Try to go out of the main season and the most popular times. Chenonceau is the most visited château in France after Versailles.

Château de Chenonceau to Château de Nitray

Drive: Take the D976 along the Cher for 20 kms/12 miles taking around 20 mins.

The Château de Nitray dates from the 15^th and 16^th centuries. A visit takes in the east wing of this white stone building, the courtyard and an intriguing dovecote.

But it’s the vineyard most people come to see (that forms part of the visit). The 10-hectare area has been producing wine for nearly 3 centuries. You see the vineyard, learn about winemaking here and it all finishes with a tasting. You can also take an hour-long bike tour of the surrounding countryside.

Château de Nitray to Amboise

Drive: Take the D83 for 14 kms/9 miles for around 20 mins to Amboise.

Amboise is a pretty market town, once the seat of power and home of Kings in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In 1615 in Lyon François was given the walking mechanical lion that Leonardo da Vinci had invented to celebrate an alliance between France and Florence. Impressed and intrigued the French King invited the inventor to Amboise. The Renaissance genius made his way from Lombardy to Amboise in 1516. He brought with him three paintings including the Mona Lisa which he continued to work on in his last years. 

Château Royal d’Amboise

The Château Royal d’Amboise was rebuilt by Charles VIII in the late 15^th century. He loved his childhood home and when he married Anne of Brittany, he added a Gothic wing. But he didn’t live long to enjoy his palace, dying at the age of 28. The new king, Louis XII preferred Blois leaving his son, the future François I here in relative safety.

The château has quite a history, tied up with the notorious Ducs de Guise who took the catholic cause in the French Wars of Religion. In 1560 a group of Hugenot conspirators arrived in Amboise hoping to take the young heir, François II and persuade him to pursue a more tolerant religious course. They were ambushed in the forest outside Amboise by the Guise faction, tried in a sham trial in the château.

Some drowned in the Loire below the château; others were beheaded in the grounds. But to make the point, many of them were hung from the château’s balconies, visible from the town and surrounding countryside.

The château is worth a visit, though it’s less spectacular inside than many Loire châteaux. But make sure you explore the underground passageways with their dungeons, and stroll around the gardens.

Clos-Lucé – Leonardo da Vinci’s Home

The more interesting, and intimate house to visit is the Château du Clos-Lucé where Leonardo lived for the three years before his death in 1519. Invited by the King, he was appointed primier peinctre et ingenieur et architecte du Roy (The King’s First Painter, Engineer and Architect). He brought with him three paintings: the Mona Lisa, Saint John the Baptist and the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.

The red brick house is delightful with rooms that you can imagine living in. Now a museum to Leonardo, it also has reproductions of some of his machines and inventions in the house and in the gardens. Spring 2021 sees the opening of a new gallery with 17 paintings projected onto the walls and a new multimedia gallery. It makes the great Renaissance man’s achievements even more extraordinary.

Amboise to the Château de Valmer

Drive: Take the D952 along the river then turn onto the D78 north for 15 kms/9.5 miles. 18 mins.

The Château de Valmer is another place that you may not have heard of. It’s well worth the detour for its spectacular gardens and its vineyard. Walk through a series of gardens on 8 levels. They’re all in a huge park where statues, columns and fountains take you back to the Renaissance. There’s also a troglodyte chapel dating from 1524 that was dug down into the turf.

There’s a great view from the High Terrace over all the gardens, the Grand Canal, the vineyard and the Brenne valley. There are glorious flower gardens for an all-summer experience. The conservatory vegetable garden keeps to its original 15^th-century plan. There are espaliers of fruit trees, high walls with towers that were once used to house the gardeners and a donkey, vegetables and fruit trees from blackcurrants to raspberries.

Then there’s the 35-hectare vineyard, run by the 5^th generation of the family who bought the estate in1888. Check out the website for cellar weekend visits.

Loire Valley from Blois to Tours takes in Vouvray Wines

Drive: Take the D46 for 10 kms/6 miles. 12 mins.

Vouvray is the centre of a great wine-producing region. There are plenty of wineries to visit in and around the town (and if you’ve visited the Château de Valmer you’ve tasted some Vouvray wines already).

From Vouvray to Château de la Bourdaisière

Drive: Take the D751 over the Loire and east for 10 kms/6 miles for around 16 mins.

The Château de la Bourdaisière is another delightful surprise. Once owned by the Broglie family who through the generations have owned so many châteaux in the Loire Valley, it now offers a great bed and breakfast.

But more unusually, it has a fabulous kitchen garden, famous for its 700 kinds of tomatoes. The National Tomato Conservatory is in the 19^th-century vegetable garden where some 180 different species of dahlias also bloom. Watch out for the excellent Tomato Festival, usually on the second weekend in September for some revelations of this remarkable plant. Or try some at their Tomato Bar.

Finish the Loire Valley Blois to Tours Drive: Château de la Bourdaisière to Tours

Drive: Take the D140 and D142 along the Loire into Tours. It’s an 18 km/11 mile drive taking around 25 mins.

Tours is a delightful city to visit, with good places to stay. Take a good hotel, the Loire Valley Blois to Tours drive is a long day.

More Information

Loire Valley Towns – Information on the major Loire Towns including where to stay and how to get to each one

Loire Valley Drive from Le Puy-en-Velay to Nevers, the start of the epic journey

Loire Valley Drive from Orléans to Blois

Major Rivers of France

Loire à Velo Route – Where to stay, how to book and attractions to see on this great cycle route

French Atlantic Coast

The post Loire Valley from Blois to Tours appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

A guide to French Architecture? Who needs that I thought before I spent so much time in France. I had no idea how many different types of architectural styles there were.

It makes a trip through France more entertaining and with so many distinctive regional styles you’ll be able to point out where you are. “We must be in Brittany because that building over there is a typical long house.” Even if you’ve shot past it, such knowledge (which might not make you the favourite person), does impress. Well it impresses for a short time.

To help you distinguish your mas from your maison à colombage here’s what I hope is a helpful guide to French architecture.

French Architecture in North France: Maison à Colombage

Maisons à Colombage (half-timbered houses) are found mainly in northern France and particularly in Normandy, Champagne and Alsace (where the French architecture style is German influenced).

These are regions where timber was plentiful and the method of building simple using a main wooden framework. The panels between the wooden beams were filled with whatever was local. Some used cob (torchis in French), a mix of lime, straw, sand or animal manure and wet clay. Others used small stones or bricks for the infill.

Such houses were easy to build but they often weren’t symmetrical. Some of the eccentric angles you see are due to the structure moving over the centuries. But you’ll also see odd pieces of wood added for strength as the builder couldn’t get timber of a precise length. It makes for a strange and rather endearing look.

Of all the styles of French architecture, this is the most obvious and you’ll find examples all over north France. Particularly good towns full of half-timbered houses include Rennes and Dinan in Brittany; Dijon and Beaune in Burgundy; Rouen in Normandy; Troyes in Champagne, Tours in the Loire Valley, and Riquewihr, Colmar, Strasbourg, Saint-Hippolyte and Kayseberg in Alsace.

Longère

The longère is found mainly in Brittany and Normandy though they were also built in Limousin and parts of west France. The name gives a clue to the style: longère translates as long house.

A longère is a long one-storey rectangular house, orientated so the  back is to the prevailing winds. Built of local stone, and of granite in Brittany, they have slate or sometimes thatched  roofs. Many of them today have first-floor rooms converted from old attics, and a few still retain the outside stairs to the attics. Most of them were originally built as small farmhouses.

They’re distinguished from farm houses in the rest of France by their outbuildings. These are laid out in a long row with no real farmyard or courtyard in front of the house.

So many longères have been converted into homes and holiday homes that it’s one of the styles of French architecture that is difficult to spot.

French Architecture in Provence: Mas

These traditional stone properties fill the countryside in the south of France, and particularly in Provence.

A mas is less elegant than a bastide (see below) and smaller than a regular farm. In the past they had enough land attached for the owners to be self sufficient. Fruit trees filled the orchards, vegetables grew in neatly laid out potagers; grain was produced in the larger mas. In Languedoc-Roussillon where mulberry trees flourish many owners produced silkworms in their magnanerie (silk farm).

Animals would be kept on the ground floor, herded in through big high doors; the main rooms for the family, the bedrooms and kitchen were on the upper floor. It was both for safely and for warmth.

Made from local stone they sit serenely in their particular patch. Two stories high with a red tiled roof, shutters green or blue against walls of warm sandstone where vines and wisteria shade the entrance, they are part of the landscape.

In the Camargue a mas is slightly different. It’s more like a typical Spanish hacienda with white walls and stables. They often face south as a protection against the cold Mistral wind which whips down the Rhône valley to the Mediterranean.

It’s the style of French architecture that appeals most to many of the Europeans who flock to France for the culture, wine and food…and beautiful buildings.

French Architecture in the South and West: Bastide

Bastides were originally fortified medieval towns of the 13^th and 14^th century. Planned and built on a grid pattern by one founder, they often had a central market place surrounded by arcades (couverts), effectively streets that interconnected.

Later bastide came to mean a large, detached stone-built manor house surrounded by land. Posher than a mas, a bastide typically stands on a hill or rise, making the owner master of all he or she surveyed.

The best bastides are lovely country houses. The walls of the large square building are often covered with lime plaster and painted in an ochre or pink wash, topped by a gently sloping red tiled roof. The windows of the two stories all match; a balcony or stone verandah runs along the front of the house. Many of them have an avenue of lime trees leading up to the house.

Bastides are typically located in south west France, Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées.

One bastide that has become something of a pilgrimage is the Bastide Neuve in the village of La Treille. In 1904 the family of Marcel Pagnol (author of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources) rented it as a summer holiday house and he used the village both for his books and for his films. It’s on the outskirts of Marseille.

Maison de Maître

Literally meaning ‘master’s house’, a maison de maître is usually found in a town or village. It’s a mansion or a manor house with a symmetrical façade; it looks elegant and shows off the owner’s status, perhaps a local squire or modest landowner.

Rooms inside have high ceilings and good proportions and there are typically four rooms on each floor. There can be two or three storeys, and usually attic rooms as well. Maisons de maître often come with a large garden or small park, even in the centre of town.

You’ll find them all over France, making them one of the most common of French architecture styles.

French Architecture on the West Coast: Charentaise

Built of stone and of a substantial size, Charentaise houses are found in the Charente and throughout the Poitou-Charente region in west France on the Atlantic coast. Typically rectangular in shape they have uniform features and are similar to a bastide in layout. You walk through the central doorway into a hallway. Large, identical rooms fan off on either side.

Less grand than a Maison de Maître, these buildings were mainly built in the 19^th century and are found both in towns and in the countryside. Either two or three storeys high, many have a courtyard at the front and a garden at the back surrounded by outbuildings. They usually face south and the north facing back has few openings to keep out the cold north winds.

Ferme

A farmhouse can be large and impressive, or small and less impressive. It might have a yard in front and a milking shed to one side, with various other outbuildings dotted around. At least that’s what the farmhouse looks like in my village in the Auvergne.

The one aspect differentiating my Auvergne neighbour from a farmhouse in the north is the building material. Northern farms are built of brick; ours are built of stone and granite.

Some of the most imposing are fermes fortifiée, fortified farmhouses that sit squarely in the countryside. The farmhouse is to one side, the outbuildings often all linked surround a courtyard. Big gates at the arched entrance could be shut at night, leaving humans and animals safe inside.

If you want to experience one, you can’t do better than booking a stay at one of my favorite hotels, La Ferme de la  Rançonnière near the Normandy D-Day Landing Beaches.

French Architecture in the Mountains: Ski Chalet

You might not guess it from the elegant chalets that make up the mountain resorts in France, but chalets were originally the small and primitive huts of animal herders. Come the spring when the transhumance started and the herders took their animals up to the lush high Alpine pastures they needed somewhere to sleep for the night. Once up on the plateaux, the refuges provided place to live in during the summer the herders made butter and cheeses to preserve the milk. Hence the chalets.

Above all Alpine chalets are practical: a gabled roof with large overhanging eaves protects against the weather.

Today’s ski chalets can be traditional, following traditional French architecture or a modern take on an age-old tried and tested design. Whatever the style you’ll find them in every mountain ski resort in the mountains of France.

Manoir

The term manoir is now often used instead of château to describe a building. But a manoir was a real style of French architecture, starting life in the Middle Ages as a maison-forte (fortified house).

During the 14th and 15th century Hundred Years War life was precarious, particularly if you were well off. So those who could built themselves a manoir.

Typically a manoir had enclosed walls, a drawbridge and a ground-floor hall (salle basse). The salle haute or upper hall was the grand room, where the Seigneur and his family received visitors. It was usually open to the roof trusses and the family’s private chambers were located off the hall. The main attraction was a fireplace with a beautifully decorated chimney piece. If the owner was particularly well off, the walls might be covered in tapestries.

The very best had their own private latrine (which emptied straight down into the moat below – practical but a bit messy).

There aren’t many old manoirs left, but if you want to see a typical example of a fortified manor house, visit the Manoir de Crevecoeur in Normandy (which calls itself a château).

Manoirs continued to be built in some parts of France, but they became grander and more elaborate. In reality they were fortified château. In Brittany, the imposing 16th century Château de Kerjean in Finistère is a superb example with its solid defensive walls outside the main building.

Most manoirs are located in Normandy and Brittany.

Domaine

A domaine is definitely grand. It’s a country estate which has a prestigious country house, a château or perhaps several houses with extensive grounds and land.

Many domaines today have their own vineyards. In Burgundy, all the major vineyards call themselves domaines, like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. In Bordeaux a similar property with a vineyard is called a château.

Architecturally they can be almost anything from red brick solid mansions to the most elegant and flamboyant of buildings.

French Architecture at its finest: Château

And so we come to the big daddy of traditional French architecture – the châteaux.

There is no one classic style to these great, often over-the-top bombastic buildings. They can be square, rectangular, built around a courtyard, large or small. They can be deep in the countryside, tucked into a small village (as in my small village in the Auvergne), or standing beside a grand river like the Loire. They can have as many or as few of those delightful towers topped by round cones, castellated walls and moats as you could wish for. Or be rather plain.

The defining characteristic is prestige. But that covers a multitude of possibilities as well; it’s all relative. Châteaux are for the important, whether they be a small landowner in remote France or aristocrats, relative and friends of the monarch, and of course Kings, Queens and mistresses.  

One other distinction is the period they were built in. During the 13^th and 14^th centuries they were built for defense. They were châteaux forts, or what we would call castles. In effect they were the same buildings as those ancient manoirs. They have battlements, fortified walls, arrow slits and are totally enclosed.

Et voilà! Everything you need to know to make you a French architectural expert.

More about…

Guide to Normandy

Guide to Provence

Building a medieval castle in Burgundy

Drive the Loire Valley to see wonderful châteaux

Here’s a different kind of house in Brittany to explore from Ferne Arfin. I hadn’t heard of these. It’s a fascinating story about the gentlemen pirates of St. Malo and their domestic lives.

The post An Idiot’s Guide to French Architecture appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

In a forest in northern Burgundy, you’ll come across a unique project – the building of the medieval castle of Guédelon.  This is not a restoration project; it’s a castle built entirely according to the construction techniques of the Middle Ages. Not an electric drill, concrete mixer, rolled steel joist in sight. Just humans and natural materials.

Stones are cut by hand; materials are transported by horse and cart; tiles are made from local clay and fired in hand-made kilns; colors are created from plants and dyed in wooden buckets. And it’s all done by people dressed in medieval costume.

It’s not a cliche; at Guédelon you really do step into the past. This is no theme park. It’s a serious project discovering more about medieval building techniques as well as reviving old skills. Guédelon really is living history.

How Guédelon started

In the mid 1990s, a local resident, Michel Guyot, who already owned the nearby Château de Saint-Fargeau, bought a former quarry and 12 hectares of surrounding forest for 6,500 francs. It was an ideal place to acquire. There was sandstone for the castle walls; clay for tiles and sand for mortar, and the forest would provide wood for scaffolding, for beams for rooves and fuel for the kilns.

Work started in 1997 and the first visitors began arriving the following year. Today around 300,000 people visit annually, bringing in €5 million.

What you see

A small turning off the small D955 road takes you to the site. We visited just after lockdown ended in France and the extended grounds were satisfyingly busy. At first all you see are wooden buildings and a ticket office. Walk into a barn for a very quick introduction then walk out the other side. You’re to one side of the castle. The forest stretches out to the right, dotted with small buildings, paddocks and stables for the horses and a garden.

We were in the village where the craftsmen and women work. We walked down to a group of little sheds, the House of Colours, to watch dyers turning white cloth into colored fabrics which they then hang up to dry.

We saw tile makers turning clay into tiles for rooves, floors and wall decorations.

Blacksmiths work iron into tools, nails, hinges and more.

Wood cutters shape logs for the carpenters who will make the necessary tools and furniture.

Most importantly, skilled stone masons cut the huge sandstone blocks that make the walls, the doorways, and domestic buildings.

Then you walk up to the castle itself. It’s a hive of activity. When we were there, they were constructing a tower on the wall at the entrance. A huge treadmill, powered by two men walking slowly around the wheels, was attached to a wooden crane. Slowly and carefully it lifted a wooden palette full of dressed stone above the tower. A man pulled it over so it hung above the tower. The treadmill reversed and the palette with the stone was lowered onto the wall. It’s mesmerising.

Safety Measures

Make no mistake; this is dangerous, complicated work. But despite the medieval methods and materials, it is carefully supervised. If you look at some of the headgear you’ll spot the hard hats underneath. The workers wear steel toe capped boots, again disguised. And some of the materials, like the ropes, are made to modern specifications off site.

A Medieval Building Site

What strikes home is the noise, or lack of it. You’re looking at a building site, but it’s a medieval one. So instead of the shriek of heavy machinery, electric drills, endless lorries, and all the paraphernalia you associate with modern construction, you hear people shouting instructions, the creak of wagon wheels slowly going over the gritty paths and the squeak of wooden machinery.

Walk around Guédelon Castle

Walk into the castle’s courtyard through a side entrance (not via the gate yet) and you’ll find the master stone mason, one Florian Renucci, drawing in the sand. He trained in heritage restoration so he knows what he’s talking about. He’s explaining how the stone vaults are constructed according to medieval methods.

Visitors are encouraged to talk to the workers and ask them questions (don’t worry; most of them speak English, and some of them are English). It makes for a very real interactive experience.

The Lord’s Great Hall

The living quarters are in a large building opposite the gateway and butting up to the outside wall.

You can see the Great Hall with its massive wooden vaulted ceiling, huge fireplace and tiled floor.

Just off this is the bed chamber for the castle’s owner. It’s decorated with a motif wall painting taken from 13^th century church in nearby Moutiers-en-Puisaye village.

The kitchen, chapel and guard rooms are all housed in this building.

The Lord’s Story

There was no castle here, so they have invented one that could certainly have been true. The castle was started in 1228 by Guilbert Courtney, a low-ranking local lord who received from his overlord a ‘licence to crenellate’.

So he can now build his castle, though a modest one as befits his position and his money. His fortified manor house is brand new, but follows the rules laid down by King Philip II Augustus (1165-1223). The King produced a standard building plan that ensured all castles, from the Louvre in Paris to modest Guédelon, were built in a similar style. They are polygonal (many sided) with high stone curtain walls, a dry ditch and round flanking towers with single arrow loops. One corner tower is higher and larger than the rest, the tour maîtresse. Twin towers  protect the gate.

Explore Further

We wandered around the rest of the site, past the potager (kitchen garden), neatly planted with vegetables that are now cooked and served in the restaurant. The carthorses were enjoying a well-earned rest but all the humans were still working hard.

We walked down a path to the newly constructed watermill. It’s very small but does the work of grinding corn for flour effectively. At least it does normally. We visited in the hot months of summer 2020 and the stream that powers the mill by a series of cunningly placed dams had run dry. But the miller was on hand to explain the techniques.

Opposite him, the wood turner worked the machinery with his foot to turn the lathe making exquisite small bowls and plates from what looked like unpromising lumps of wood.

The Future of Guédelon Castle

It’s hoped that the castle will be complete by 2030. If you want to see the progress from the first steps in 1997, check here.

There’s one exciting possibility. The CEO of the project, Maryline Martin, is hoping to create an artisan trades school at Guédelon with a diploma in historical renovation. Following the burning of Notre Dame in Paris, she hopes that such skills learned at Guédelon will become recognised as important.

Where to Stay

We stayed at Hôtel les Grands Chênes, just outside Saint Fargeau at Les Berthes Bailly. It’s a delightful hotel, run by Rachael, the English owner and her husband, Alain Savouré.

We stayed in a ground floor bedroom which opened onto a small private terrace. It was a good size, with traditional furnishings and a modern bathroom. There are more rooms on the first floor and accommodation in small buildings close to the hotel, some with two bedrooms and one with an extra bed. They’re ideal for families. There’s no bar or restaurant; breakfast is served in a cheerful lounge with an open fire at one end. There’s an extensive garden, badminton and a small heated swimming pool and free parking in the grounds.

Where to Eat

Saint Fargeau is just 4km from the hotel and offers some good options. We ate at the Restaurant de l’Ancienne Gare. As it suggests, it’s in a former railway station, on the opposite side of the town from the hotel. It still looks like a station, is friendly and offers good value menus from €20. No website; book (or get the hotel to do this for you) on +33  (03) 86 74 16 45.

For more about the area which is in the Yonne department in Burgundy, go to the Yonne website.

Read about Burgundy food which has always been rich and satisfying. The region is famous for its truffles, Bresse chicken, blackcurrants and more. And of course its great cheeses.

Declaration: I was a guest of Guédelon. And Yonne Tourism kindly provided our hotel.

The post Guédelon – Building a Medieval Castle in Burgundy appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The magnificent, rambling 1,500-room Château of Fontainebleau lies at the very heart of French history.

Like many grand buildings, Fontainebleau began as a hunting lodge for the Kings of France who came from nearby Paris with their vast retinues to hunt for wild boar, bear and deer in the forest that even today surrounds the château.

From Hunting Lodge to Château

In 1137 a massive square tower was built to accommodate the King of France, Louis VII. Other buildings stretched out on both sides against defensive oval-shaped curtain walls with a southern gate serving as the main entrance.

In 1169 the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas à Becket, exiled in France, consecrated the Château de Fontainebleau chapel. The story of the Château of Fontainebleau had begun.

Over the ages, the Château of Fontainebleau was enlarged and improved. Of all the royal buildings of France, Fontainebleau played the greatest role in French royal life for seven centuries. It was not the permanent home of the royal family but it served as the favorite palace of Kings and Emperors from Louis VII (1137-1180) to Napoleon III (1808-1873), the last monarch of France.

I found the history fascinating, so here’s a short trot through the Château of Fontainebleau’s past. If you want to skip this, scroll down to what you will see on a visit.

A Glorious Start

From the 13^th to the 16^th century, the Kings of France enriched Fontainebleau. Louis IX, known as Saint Louis (1214-1270), added a convent, hospital and church.

A century later, the royal family fled the black plague which raged through Paris and came to the safety of Fontainebleau where the air was clear and the plague kept at bay.

Fontainebleau was the place for great events. Kings were born here; Kings died here and they welcomed their illustrious visitors from all over Europe to the vast château.

In 1323 Isabella of France, Queen of England, came to see her brother, Charles IV the Fair. Charles V established a library here, the first to be set up in a castle. In 1404, Queen Isabeau, wife of Charles VI, lived in the castle where she had the first steam rooms installed in the medieval castle. But the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) saw the court moving to the Loire Valley and Fontainebleau declined, a castle ‘of very ancient lineage’ which seemed to have past its time.

The Château of Fontainebleau Revived

It was François I (1494-1547) who was the most important figure in Fontainebleau’s history. He loved the place, calling a visit there ‘going home’ and transforming it from medieval castle into Italianate palace.

From 1528 he spent his winters there and used it to receive royal visitors. In December 1536 his future son-in-law, James V, King of Scotland arrived. The famous French-Scottish Auld alliance against their common enemy England was alive and well. In 1539 it was the Holy Roman Emperor’s turn for a visit.

The Queen of François I, Catherine de Medici, gave birth to six of their children here. François II was born on 19 January 1544 and was baptised at Fontainebleau on 10 February of the same year. His brothers and sisters were destined to be Kings, Queens, Princesses and Dukes. Fontainebleau was the centre of the world.

The Château of Fontainebleau and the Sun King

Louis XIV (1638-1715) used Fontainebleau extensively in his early reign. The son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, he made Fontainebleau the seat of power, the place where the intrigues of the 17^th century were played out.

In 1661 the young 23-year old King moved there to wait for the birth of his son. For entertainment he staged Jean-Baptiste magnificent Lulli’s Ballet of the Seasons, then set off to visit the new  château at Vaux-le-Vicomte of his powerful Superintendant of France, Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680). Vaux-le-Vicomte was magnificent, too magnificent in fact, and two months later, Louis had d’Artagnan, captain of the King’s musketeers arrest Foucault.

As Voltaire remarked: “On August 17, at six in the evening Fouquet was King of France, at two in the morning, he was nobody”. The King added insult to injury by taking most of the treasures, even uprooting and taking the orange trees.

The King also took over the three artists who had designed Foucault’s château: the architect Louis Le Vau, the painter Charles Le Brun, and the gardiner/architect André Le Nôtre. His plan? To create a masterpiece that would outdo Vaux-le-Vicomte, and ultimately Fontainebleau. He chose the small château and former hunting lodge of Versailles to remodel on a very grand scale.

Louis XIV is mostly associated with Versailles which he made the court’s official residence in 1682. But Fontainebleau remained important. It was still the great hunting lodge and the place where Kings, and emperors, could escape the overly ornate gold extravaganza of life at Versailles.

Visiting the Château of Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau, set in 130 acres of parkland and garden has 1500 rooms. But don’t worry; not all of them are open.

Napoleon’s Museum

As you enter, first go left to see the series of rooms devoted to Napoleon, aspects of his life and his overwhelming love of pomp and circumstance. An extraordinary general, he became Emperor then proceeded to plant his children in different European countries as their rulers.

The Royal Apartments

The Royal Apartment stretch out on the first floor. Like all such buildings of its time, the apartments run into each other down one long straight corridor separated by doors. It gives a pretty impressive vista of grand room after grand room.

The rooms are magnificent, each one devoted to a separate royal figure, from Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, to Napoleon. There’s little chronological logic as new rulers took over the rooms of past monarchs and redecorated them, installing their wives and their mistresses at will.

State rooms for receiving visitors have tapestries from the Paris Gobelin manufactory hanging on the walls to keep out the winter chill, well-stuffed chairs and sofas, grand gilded furniture made of precious woods, ceilings painted with allegorical scenes and works of art on the walls where there’s room.

The genius of François I

I found the long gallery, 200 feet long by 20 feet wide, of François I the most impressive of the rooms. No ornate furniture, just a few seats, a wooden floor, a very long gallery with wooden panels on the bottom half of the walls dedicated to Francois I and extraordinary paintings and sculptures running above. Built in the 1520s, the gallery was intended for private use; François wore the entrance key around his neck. It became the model for later galleries like the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre (post-1661) and the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles (post-1678).

The Château of Fontainebleau and Napoleon

When Napoleon Bonaparte founded his empire, he chose Fontainebleau as his favorite residence and set about refurbishing the ‘ruin’. A Papal Apartment was created in 1804 for Pius VII who had come from Rome to crown him Emperor of the French.

The extraordinary event took place in the Throne Room. Originally built as the bedroom of the king, Napoleon converted it to demonstrate his place in the history of France. It remains the only Throne Room in France with the original furniture still there.

Napoleon called Fontainebleau ‘The King’s true home’ and ‘house of the ages’. He lived there permanently during the last days of his reign before he abdicated here on April 6^th, 1814.

 If you want to see one of the later 19th century gems, the Imperial Theatre inaugurated in 1857 by Emperor Napoleon III, you have to take the tour. It’s worth it; this is a unique example of a court theatre during the Second French Empire. Tours are daily except Tuesdays at 1pm.

The Château of Fontainebleau in the 20th century

During World War I, the furniture and art works were removed for safe keeping before Fontainebleau was turned into a military hospital in 1915. During World War II it was occupied by the local German forces though the architect Albert Bray kept the place as intact as he could, valuing its superb architecture and decoration.

In the summer of 1946, the Franco-Vietnamese summit was held here with Hô Chi Minh. But the conference wasn’t a success and the Indochina work broke out at the end of the year.

Music and the Arts

Music has played a surprising part in the  château’s history. During World War I, General Pershing wanted to improve the US military bands and asked the conductor of the New York Philharmonic to organise a music school in Chaumont. After the end of the war, the two founding members moved it to Fontainebleau and there’s been a music school here ever since, offering summer programs of the best French musical education to young, talented musicians.

The names associated with this are extraordinary, running from Maurice Ravel to Mstislav Rostropovitch and Igor Stravinsky, from Yehudi Menuhin to Arthur Rubinstein and Leonard Bernstein. Nadia Boulanger was Director from 1949 to 1979.

Latterly, names like Burt Bacharach, Daniel Barenboim, Elliott Carter and Aaron Copland join Phillip Glass, Quincy Jones, and many others.

In 1923 a School of Fine Arts was added offering painting, nude, architecture and fresco workshops.

More about the Fontainebleau Schools here

Courtyards and Gardens

The château circles four main courtyards, some internal, others looking out over the lawns and the lakes.

There are three spectacular gardens. The Grand Parterre is the largest formal garden in Europe, created by André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau for Louis XIV.

The Jardin Anglais is the French idea of an English Garden. Created in the early 19^th century, it’s really a small park, full of rare trees and statues and has a little stream river running through the middle.

The Jardin de Diane (Garden of Diane) was once the private garden of the queen. Today’s it’s formal with a fountain sculpted in the form of Diana, Goddess of Hunting.

The Park offers a wonderful vista from a stone terrace, stretching away down a 17^th-century canal lined with mature trees.

How to have fun at the Château of Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau is very well organised with enough to do to make this at least a half-day or full day excursion.

In the summer you can listen to an early afternoon open-air concert beside the lake.

You can hire a rowing boat for €5 per person per half hour and make a leisurely circuit of the lake, taking in the little island pavilion in the middle.

Take a picnic, or buy sandwiches, drinks and snacks from the different outlets in the main courtyard. Then find somewhere to sit in the park for a leisurely lunch.

In April and May, 2021, costumed actors enact the days of Napoleon and Marie-Louise.

Quick Tip: The toilets are at the entrance to the château. There are lots of them and they are spotless. But these are the only only ones, so take advantage at the beginning!

How to get to the Château of Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau is in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region. It’s just 69 kms/43 miles from Pairs. I visited on my summer 2020 trip to France on my way back from the Auvergne and stayed in the town. But it’s easy to reach from the French capital for a day trip.

By car: Take the A6 from Paris (Porte d’Orléans or Porte d’Italie), follow the exit for Fontainebleau. Follow signs for Fontainebleau, then follow the ‘château’ signs. There is ample public parking in Fontainebleau. The best car park is just near the château.

By train: From Paris Gare de Lyon (main line), take the train for either Montargis Sens, Montereau or Laroche-Migennes. Get off at Fontainebleau-Avon station. The train journey takes around 1 hr 16 mins. At the station take the ‘Ligne 1’ bus destined for Les Lilas, getting off at the ‘Château’ stop. Or take the Les Cars Bleus 184-014 towards Gare de Malesherbes and get off at the ‘Château’ stop. It’s 2.8kms, taking about 34 minutes if you choose to walk.

The post The Château of Fontainebleau just outside Paris appeared first on Mary Anne's France.