Last castle after lunch is the very huge and architecturally very impressive Château de Chambord.
It sits on the largest natural park in France, and legend has it that Leonardo da Vinci was involved in the design. They know for a fact that he designed the double helix staircase that runs up the center of the castle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chambord
Chambord castle is one of the Renaissance’s most amazing constructions. Built to glorify Francis I from 1519, it is above all a work of genius, the result of a collaboration between the best French and Italian artists, architects and master masons. More than just a residential or administrative castle, and even more than a hunting lodge, Chambord embodies an architectural utopia, an ideal, a harmonious whole.
Its history is unique: in the 16′ and 17h centuries, Francis I’s, Henri II and Louis XIV came to stay, along with their courts, to enjoy the hunting, to dazzle their guests or to monitor the progress of the construction work. In the 18th century, relatives of the crown were occasionally allowed to use it. It then became the private estate of Henri, Count of Chambord, who was the last descedant of the elder branch of the Bourbons. The castle was bought by the State a century later, in 1930.
All Chambord’s residents have been keen to preserve this jewel of the French Renaissance, in which Francis I’s aspirations and Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas are expressed in a variety of ways.
Through the notion of reversal, viewers are given the opportunity to move within the painting, to experience it bodily.
The ancestral tradition of riding to hounds uses a pack of hounds to track and hunt down an animal until it is at bay and can be taken. When Francis I came to the throne, this form of hunting was regarded as the most noble and over the following centuries the practise of it was increasingly codified.
Today it is part of France’s intangible cultural heritage.
Apart from the act of hunting itself, riding to hounds also provided a magnificent display: the presentation of the pack, the horses and the hunters was an exactly ordered, elegant event. Its impressiveness was intended to highlight the prestige of an activity that had long been the preserve of the king and the nobility.
The costume to be worn by the hunters in particular became more standardized under Louis XIV. It comprised a heavy broadcloth riding coat or jacket with knee-length trousers, waistcoat, neck-tie, boots and stockings, gloves and riding hat. On top if this came accessories such as a riding horn, dagger, whip and so on. In order to differentiate the different hunts some parts of the costume were personalized, for instance the colour of the cloth or the pocket and collar trim, the braiding or the buttons on the jackets and waistcoats.
Following the Revolution, particular attention was lavished on the buttons which became items of skilled craftsmanship engraved with mottos or symbols referring to the species of animal hunted and all the accessories of the hunt.
From the terraces, you can enjoy a prime view of Chambord’s French gardens which were restored in 2016-2017, the result of sixteen years of scientific research and an outstanding construction. They reproduce the exact layout of the lost 18th century gardens, of which some vestiges survived until 1970. Their grassy parterres, their flower beds planted with yew topiaries and flowers, their alleys, alignments and staggered tree plantings are governed by the same rules of symmetry and geometry as the castle itself.
Take the time to admire them from the terraces before going back down to the ground floor. From there, you can access the gardens’ platform and stroll through the alleys at your leisure.
Recovery from the tour
