Chateau de Chenonceau

Chenonceau arches its white gallery clean across the River Cher - the 'Chateau des Dames', shaped by a succession of remarkable women: Diane de Poitiers, who threw the bridge over the water, and Catherine de Medici, who raised the two-storey gallery upon it in the 1570s, turning a castle into architecture's most graceful river crossing. Begun in 1514 on the piles of an old fortified mill, the chateau now mirrors itself in slow green water, flanked by the rival parterres its two mistresses laid out, and furnished inside with tapestries, period kitchens tucked into the bridge piers and flower arrangements cut fresh from its own cutting garden. Among the most visited chateaux in France, it earns the queue honestly: no other Loire palace floats. Canoes thread the arches on summer afternoons, and the gallery's chequerboard floor runs some sixty metres over the river.

History

The estate is first mentioned in the 11th century, and in the 13th it belonged to the Marques family, whose castle was burned in 1412 to punish Jean Marques for sedition; he rebuilt a castle and fortified mill in the 1430s, and his indebted heir sold it in 1513 to Thomas Bohier, chamberlain to Charles VIII, who pulled down most of it, keeping the 15th-century keep, and built a new residence between 1515 and 1521, overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet. Francis I seized it in 1535 for debts to the Crown, and Henry II gave it to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who commissioned Philibert de l'Orme in 1555 to build the arched bridge across the Cher and laid out great gardens. After Henry's death in 1559 Catherine de Medici forced Diane to exchange it for Chaumont, held lavish festivities here, among them the first fireworks seen in France in 1560, and had the grand gallery built along the bridge, dedicated in 1577 (Wikipedia, Château de Chenonceau).

The main sights

• The gallery over the Cher - the chequerboard hall bridging the river itself.
• The two gardens - Diane's and Catherine's rival parterres, still competing.
• The bridge-pier kitchens - copper and larders built into the arches.
• The river view - the floating facade from a canoe or the far bank.

When to go

April to October for gardens in full production; June flowers and September light are the connoisseur picks. Winter opens shorter hours but hands you the gallery nearly alone.

Practical notes

This is the Loire's most crowded interior after Versailles-scale sights - mid-morning coaches pack the gallery, so arrive at opening or after four. Rooms are relatively small and the visit is shorter than Chambord's; the gardens and river angles are half the ticket's value. Book online in summer.

Nearby

Amboise, Chambord and the Loire Valley chateaux; Tours is the rail hub.

Key facts