A Guide to the Châteaux and Gardens of the Loire Valley
Originally published in NUVO Magazine
With its enchanting oak forests and grassy riverbanks, France’s Loire Valley region has long attracted discerning vacationers. Home to over 300 châteaux, some of which date back to the 10th century, French kings and nobles once constructed their dream castles in the verdant area. Of course, no castle would be complete without a garden, and so each historic structure comes garnished with grounds, the enduring beauty and singularity of which are a key reason UNESCO recognized a 280-kilometre stretch of the Loire Valley (a.k.a. “the Garden of France”) as a World Heritage Site in 2000. The region, ranging from Chambord in the east to Angers in the west, deemed 2017 the “year of the garden”, with celebratory events hosted throughout. But one needs no occasion to enjoy the historic garden styles, rolling vineyards, and ancient wisteria vines that make this region so Edenic—only a sense of where to explore.
Château de Chambord
Begin in the east—from the town of Orléans, it is an easy drive to Château de Chambord, the French Renaissance hunting lodge of King Francis I, who tiled the exterior in striking black slate and the region’s traditional white limestone, commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to design a central spiral staircase, and had his emblematic salamander carved into nooks and crannies (only to visit twice before his death). This year, American philanthropist Stephen Schwarzman invested €3.5-million into the new restoration of the 18th-century formal French garden—a flowerless, symmetrical pattern best seen from above. A bona fide tourist attraction, Chambord features a traditional cookie bakery and a shop that sells its eponymous liqueur: an infusion of vanilla, spices, cognac, and black raspberries, based on a recipe from the late 1600s.
Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire
Located on a sprawling riverfront ground dotted with convoluted ancient cedars and riddled with spring flowers, Catherine de Medici purchased Chaumont-sur-Loire in 1560, a year after her husband King Henry II’s death. For a short while, de Medici used the castle to entertain her astrologer friends (among them Nostradamus), but ultimately decided the grounds were not for her, forcing Diane de Poitiers, Henry II’s former mistress, into a bit a historic house-swap—de Medici took over Château de Chenonceau, where de Poitiers had been residing, and de Poitiers settled for Chaumont instead. More recently, the grounds became home to the International Garden Festival, for which landscape artists submit hundreds of proposals for poetic installations created using plants and the best are brought to life for visitors to explore each year.
This story originally appeared in NUVO Magazine, August 2017. To read the full story, click here.