La Vallée de la Loire : Day 3

On our last day in the Loire Valley, we intended to see 2 châteaux and a museum. We woke up to torrential rain but headed to Chambord nevertheless.  We were one of the few cars in the parking lot and had to sit in the car waiting for a break in the rain.  We still got soaked in the few hundred metres we had to sprint to the ticket booth and then again to the château entrance.

The Château de Chambord is located in a former marsh, within what is now the largest public forest park in France, and possibly Europe - the park is the size of inner Paris.  King François I began construction of Chambord in 1519 as a hunting lodge.  Because of its intended use, and since it was never an official royal residence, the interior did not have the same ornamentation as some of the other châteaux we have seen, but as the largest château in the Loire, it is nonetheless a very imposing building.

The architecture of Chambord is quite interesting and unique.  It was built around a central keep, containing a double-spiral staircase, which was topped with an ornate lantern that allowed natural light into the center of the building.

Not too many of the rooms are recreated as they would have been when the château was lived in, but there are many mementos of its history as a hunting lodge.

Danielle was quite concerned about the baby birds (partridges?) in the display case.

We quite liked this engraving. We're pretty sure the guy holding the boat buggered off and left his buddy to sort out the bear on his own.

Even though the interior is not very ornate, there is a lot of detail on the exterior of the building, which is especially striking from the rooftop terrace.

It was still rainy by the time we finally made it to the roof. Our shoes never did dry out this day...

After returning our rental car, we had a bit of time to spare before catching our train back to Paris so we decided to squeeze in one more thing. The Maison de la Magie was more of a kids' attraction with all sorts of things relating to illusions and magic, including a live theatrical magic show. Probably the most interesting thing was the animatronic 6-headed dragon that came out every hour.

Highlights from our return trip to Paris included seeing a field of sunflowers against the backdrop of a nuclear power station, and the giant vending machine at Gare de Lyon.