• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

France Travel

  • Home
  • Trip Planner
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Map
  • Weather
  • Site Map
  • Destinations
  • Sightseeing
  • Shopping
  • Food
  • Getting around
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Sightseeing / Château de Chenonceau – The King, the wife and the mistress!

Château de Chenonceau – The King, the wife and the mistress!

By Helen Page Leave a Comment

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Château de Chenonceau – The Ladies’ Castle:

Chenonceau - Loire chateau

Chenonceau on the Loire ©Travelsignposts

A tree-lined avenue marks the start of the grand entrance to Château de Chenonceau.  Imagine how grand it must have been when gold-gilded, horse-drawn carriages used to travel along this path, transporting its royal residents to and from the château.

Today, us mere mortals had to make our way up the tree-lined avenue on foot. That said, walking did give our legs time to rediscover themselves, after hours of sitting in our not-so-royal 48-seater coach.

If you think that the view that greets you at the end of the avenue is awesome, wait till you catch the view from the gardens. The fairy-tale castle stretches across the Cher River and its reflection in the water paints a dreamy picture of the château and accentuates its already magnificent beauty.

The Women of Château de Chenonceau

Château de Chenonceau was built in traditional Renaissance style and owes its beauty and existence to six women. On our tour of the chateau, we were told of the love triangle between King Henri II, his wife Catherine de’ Medici and the mistress Diane de Poitiers. When Henri II married Catherine de’ Medici in 1533, Château de Chenonceau became a royal palace in the Loire Valley. However, it was to Diane that Henri offered Chenonceau to in 1547. You can imagine how incensed Catherine was as she wanted Chenonceau for herself.

Diane de Poitiers – No Ordinary Mistress!

Chateau de Chenonceau

Chateau de Chenonceau

The story of Diane de Poitiers is an interesting one. She was no ordinary mistress and to understand the King’s devotion to her, one needs to trace back to how she happened to be in the King’s inner sanctum. At the young age of 15 (not so young during those days) Diane married Louis de Brézé, grandson of King Charles VII, who was 39 years her senior.  Diane was made lady-in-waiting to Claude de France, first wife of Francis I. When the Queen died, Diane was placed in charge of the royal nursery and she became a mother figure for the young princes. Henri was only five at the time.

In 1525, Francis I was taken hostage after the Battle of Pavia. He offered his two sons as hostages to the Spaniards in exchange for his own freedom (I’m biting my tongue to refrain from making any comments here!) . Diane accompanied the two young princes to the Spanish border and it is said that Diane’s presence at his departure left a great impact on Henri as she tried to comfort the nine year old. When he returned from captivity, it was Diane that he sought and not his father, hence the beginning of a very powerful relationship between Henri and Diane, which then grew into one of the most powerful love affairs of the Renaissance.

Apart from being exceedingly beautiful, Diane was of sharp intellect and politically astute. She was very loyal to Henri and he in turn relied on her as his most dependable ally. As can be expected, Catherine seethed with jealousy and hatred over this relationship and on Henri’s death in 1559, she quickly took back possession of Chenonceau from Diane and even evicted her from the palace. She also redeveloped the castle to rid it of any reminders of Diane’s existence, however the spirit of Diane lives with us to this day.

You’ll see on the tour that Diane’s room is on the ground floor whereas Catherine’s room is on the first floor. Interestingly, from the plan, it appears that Catherine’s room was right above Diane’s.

See more Chateau Chenonceau photos at Travelsignposts Loire Chateaux album Here.

From Paris, there are a number of Loire valley tours that you can do. However, if you are on a driving holiday and want the experience of staying in one of the Loire chateaux hotels, here are a few to choose from.

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Sightseeing Tagged With: chateau azay-le-rideau, chateau d'amboise, chateau de chenonceau, chateau de la loire, Chenonceau), loire valley tours

avatar

About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • A French May Day Good Luck Offering
  • New Year’s Concerts in Beautiful Paris Churches
  • Classical Concerts in Famous Paris Churches 2021
  • Christmas Illuminations – Paris Christmas Lights 2021
  • Locations and Dates of Paris Christmas Markets 2021

Plan and Book Your Trip


eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright © 2022 ·Lifestyle Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address