My hotel in Blois was not far from the train station, just across the street. Small, very cozy and the receptionist, the manager on-duty were so friendly. I was happy that my French was getting better days after days, so I was able to communicate with them in French.
Blois - a small quiet town, famous with many castles along the river Loire - châteaux in the Loire Valley! And that was a reason for me to stay here for 2 nights, to visit château de Chambord and château de Chenonceau.
September was no longer the high season, so all tourist buses going to these places were suspended, there was another public bus departing at noon, but if taking it, not enough time for me to see both châteaux in one day. I decided to hire a car with driver, it was expensive, but I did hope maybe someone could join and we would share the cost of 140 Euros, unfortunately there was no one, in return the driver, whose parents originally from Naples, was nice, we kept chatting constantly during our journey.
Château de Chambord, to be honest, looks much better in somewhere else, I mean in those photos that I saw on the internet than - in the reality, especially the main facade. When I was there a part of the facade was under renovation, but most disturbing was the strong sun, right in front of my camera, so I couldn't take any good photo as I wished. Another thing was the facade's colour, from far distance, it looked not white, neither grey, more like dirty-white-faded depressed colour.
I was struggling with this shot, the extreme strong sun was right behind the castle, I forgot to bring the sunglass or hat with me. I was standing in the middle of the road, hardly to see anything on my camera, at the end I got the idea to cover my head and camera with my scarf, it helped me a little bit. It was so damn challenging outdoor practice for the beginner, like me, in the world of photography!
Back to the magnificent Chambord, especially from the spectacular outside, it has been first built in 16th century by the King of France's initiative - Francois 1er , who inspired by the architectural styles of the Italian Renaissance, attracting many Italian artists, including Leonardo de Vinci, to work on the Chambord. But the King spent only 72 nights here for hunting during his 32 years on the throne. That could explain why the Chambord's interior was not so impressive as in another châteaux.
The famous French Renaissance rooftops of Château de Chambord and some others in this region inspired Walt Disney to create many fabulous castles in his movies. As said earlier, by the invitation of Francois 1er, Leonardo de Vinci moved here and involved in the building of this château. A special friendship developed between these two big figures - Italian master and Francois 1er. Leonardo de Vinci spent his last three years in France, and the King of France, one of very few people, was in presence next to the genius master in his last breath. I missed the chance to visit the Italian master's museum which is not far from Blois.
Château de Chambord was a royal lodge only during the hunting season, it seemed no any King of France living here for long so quite few rooms of its total 426 rooms were fully furnished, and it was not so splendid as in some other palaces.
I was leaving Château de Chambord around 1:00 pm and heading to Château de Chenonceau, it was a hot summer day in early September, I almost forgot my tripod at the baguette sandwich store in the park, I quickly found it and hurried back to the car. My next post will be about the amazing Château de Chenonceau and my lovely weekend in Blois. But before that you can have a quick look at one of the largest châteaux of the Loire Valley in the video below.
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