Due to its mild climate and sweet fragrances, the Loire Valley as a whole is called "le jardin de la France". It is the reason why, since the end of the Middle Ages, kings and lords built sumptuous manors and castles there. No need to mention Château de Blois, whose spiral staircase enclosed in an innovative octagonal tower is known worldwide. Blois was the main royal residence from Louis XII to Henri IV. Though François 1er loved to stay there, he designed a much more extravagant castle set among marshes and forests: Chambord, to be completed by Louis XIV in the 1680s, includes nearly 500 rooms, bedchambers and galleries and is crowned by terraces covered by beautifully carved chimneys, sophisticated lanterns and spires. The project had presumably been initiated by Leonardo da Vinci, who stayed at the Royal French Court until his death in 1519. The Grand Staircase, probably, was also inspired by his Carnets.
The great Italian artist, who had his apartments and workshop in near-by Château de Cloux (today Clos-Lucé), was most certainly buried in a small chapel set in the ramparts protecting Château d'Amboise, a more discreet but very elegant building overlooking the river Loire. King Charles VIII, Louis XI's son, was unlucky enough to hit his head to death on a low door-frame leading to the moat as he was hurrying to attend a tournament. The most remarkable feature of Château d'Amboise is the large ramp going up Tour des Cavaliers, where knights on horseback could ride to the inner lodges. The royal castle was also the seat of a political plot against François II (Conspiration d'Amboise) which started the wars of religion between Calvinists and Catholics in France.
History and Literature, indeed, are present everywhere. In 1491, the annexation of Brittany by the Kingdom of France was taken for granted as soon as Charles VIII and young duchess Anne de Bretagne married in Château de Langeais, a dark feudal fort with a drawbridge and massive towers. More delightful is Château d'Ussé, along the river Indre, which became "château de la Belle au Bois Dormant" in Charles Perrault's famous fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. The almost ruined Château de Chinon, on the river Vienne, harboured the crucial meeting between Joan of Arc and the future Charles VII. François Rabelais was born near Chinon and grew up among colourful villagers whom he took as models for his literally larger- than-life characters, Gargantua and Pantagruel. Honoré de Balzac, born in Tours and educated in Vendôme, was also deeply in love with his native country, which played a notable part in his novels. In Le Lys dans la vallée, for instance, he praised Château d'Azay-le-Rideau which he compared with a "faceted diamond".
The incursion of Château de Cheverny into literature was particularly unexpected: when Tintin's "father", Hergé, caught sight on the castle, he was so impressed by its classical harmony that he asked the owner permission to take it as a model for Moulinsart, Captain Haddock's mansion. Its inner stone staircase as well is the scenery of all sorts of incidents. Since 2001 and at least for the current decade, a permanent exhibition on the matter is held on site.
But the most charming of all is probably Château de Chenonceaux, with its arched bridge topped with a Florentine gallery crossing the river Cher. King Henri II gave it as a lavish present to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. From that time, the place was quite exclusively developed and decorated by women, and that is most certainly where its attraction lies. After the King's death, his rancurous widow Catherine de' Medici chased Diane to Château de Chaumont. She transformed the place to her own taste and designed beautiful jardins à la française where she organised magnificent parties (deliberately?) called "Triumphs". During the Revolution, the château was saved from destruction by Madame Dupin, the new owner's wife and a woman of letters. Her son was taught by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who stayed several years in Chenonceaux, where, from his own testimony, he became "as fat as a monk", but took time to write his Emile for the young boy's edification.
Lucky country, where the very names of the cities keep ringing like bells in old Saint-Martin Tower: "Orléans, Beaugency, Notre-Dame de Cléry, Vendôme, Vendôme "