40.9 mi / 10.7 mph / 698 ft. climbing Home: Marie-Anne’s AirBNB Glamping Tent
Three nights in Amboise left us with one thing on Rett’s list remaining to see: Château de Chenonceau. But it’s only “in Amboise” from a driver’s perspective; it’s actually 9 miles southeast of the town, on a whole other river (the Cher). So rather than the original idea of burning an “off day” by riding out and back, I figured we could see it instead as we rode out of town, even if it sent us slightly backward. The Cher River flows westward and eventually feeds back into the Loire, so we could follow it’s example, rather than returning directly to Amboise.
We were up at 6am, riding by 8:30am, and to the castle within the first hour of its opening. But at what is touted as the most-visited chateau in France (excluding Versailles), there is no beating the crowds. Well, unless we walked faster down the avenue of trees than the big bus tour that dropped in just ahead of us.
As if to mock us for not finding a way to do a hot-air balloon ride ourselves, this one flew literally over the street we were riding down as we left Amboise.
In Rett’s chateau-bingo, Chenonceau fills in the “usable as-is as a location in a period movie” square. Which goes a long way to explaining its popularity. For me, it was the way that it bridges the Cher River that made it intensely attractive, like something a Venetian would have built, if Venetians had countryside retreats to escape to.
Approaching Château de Chenonceau.From this photo, you’d imagine that the rest of a massive cathedral is behind me. But no, it’s just a door back to the rest of the “house”. These castles all seem to include small chapels, and while this is an extreme example, they all amazingly feel like they broke off a small piece of a cathedral and had it shipped to their castle where they grafted it on.Our first view of the “bridge” section of the castle, seen from the window of one of the corner towers of the main building.One of the two big formal gardens, bordered by the River Cher on the right, and its diversion to create a moat on the left.Inside the castle, all the flower arrangements come from their own gardens, and they were honestly one of the most impressive things (and not because the rest of the castle was boring!)More flowers, in one of several grand bedrooms.Much of the story of Chenonceau focuses on the women (including Catherine de Medici) who kept and grew and maintained it (and rightly so!), but…are women really this into spires?A small section of the less-formal flower and vegetable gardens.This elvish gazebo sits at the center of the chateau’s hedge-labyrinth, a better reward than the minotaur.This canal running through the chateau’s extensive woodlands somehow feels rather royal.Many more bikes had joined us at the Château de Chenonceau bike parking area by the time we were ready to leave (most are rented, either for ~week long trips in the Loire Valley, or just a day trip from Amboise).
Rett was also impressed enough by the castle’s “bridge” that she was willing to take a slightly-longer route on our way out, first heading east to a (normal) bridge to cross to the south bank of the Cher, then back west along a gravel trail to approach the “bridge” nearly as if we were floating down the river.
Lunch looking downstream to Château de Chenonceau.Here are a couple of people actually floating down the river. From inside we could see that one of the arches had stairs built into it leading right down to the water (very Venetian!) If I was in the kayak, that’s where I would have stopped to begin my invasion!This tower was separate from the main castle, and not only could you not enter it, there was oddly no description/explanation that we saw anywhere.#FindRett riding toward an epic castle. This all would have been easier if they just let us use the castle’s bridge as an actual bridge, but although we walked its length inside on two levels, they don’t let you out the door on this end, I guess because then they’d need to check tickets there! (during WWII, it was used as an actual bridge, to help people escape Nazi-controlled France).Our last view, from the downstream side of Château de Chenonceau.
The riverside trail got a bit rough after the castle, though still manageable with our fat tires, and soon returned to asphalt. We passed several more I guess “minor” chateaus, or at least really fancy houses, and had the same nearly-car-free riding conditions along the Cher as we did along the Loire.
Do people put towers on their houses here to make themselves feel like they’re living in a French castle, or because they *are* castles?Easy bike trail riding, at least in the shade.Some hints of fall despite the high temperatures.A high speed rail line crosses the Cher Valley, and even though it’s an extremely shallow valley, they still built this really long viaduct to eliminate any difficulties for the trains. We wish road builders were as generous to us! (the trains that went over didn’t *seem* like they were going super-fast, but then they were gone before I could get a photo.)Riding the bike path, I was surprised when we suddenly had a crowd of 30 children and a couple of chaperones riding the other way. Some sort of school field trip? Then half a mile later, here is the answer: some sort of bike training course! I don’t know if it’s a chicken or an egg in relation to cycling’s popularity in France, but either way it’s good! We needed to cross back over to the south bank of the Cher at Tours, and it seemed like it would be a bitch to haul our bikes up from the riverside path to the bridges crossing above it, but luckily this relatively-new pedestrian/bike bridge made the transition easy.The heat isn’t done with France yet. It doesn’t even really make sense how such a low-angled late-September sun blaze so hot, but it brought us another 90°F afternoon.A bike themed sculpture welcomes us to Savonnieres.
With another 90°F afternoon, we stopped in Savonnieres for cold drinks and to decide our route for the final miles. I’d planned to branch off the busier riverside road and climb atop the bluff, but now with the heat, figured that traffic would be a small price to pay for the chance of riding down in the shade of that bluff. The sun’s position meant that theory didn’t quite work out, but we instead got cooling from a more novel source: the caves carved out of the bluff felt like they were blowing chilled air at us out on the road! What a great way to experience the cultural and environmental history of the area, and something we would never notice in a car.
We then did the climb up within the town of Villandry, and arrived to our AirBNB just before 5pm (late check-ins here continue to force adjustments to our preferred pattern). It’s a little strange to pay to stay in someone else’s tent when we carry our own with us, but it was the place closest to tomorrow morning’s entertainment, relatively cheap, and is another version of the indoor/outdoor thing that works easily with our bikes. Plus, the glamping tent had a full, comfortable bed, and we got an attached bathroom/kitchen to make life much easier than a campground. We microwaved the really good frozen paella that we had the first time we camped in France, and in a less-tasty repeat, wondered why we end up at glamping tents on really hot days (thankfully this one cooled off much quicker than those nights in New York a few years ago).
The ultimate self-contained shower unit: shelves, bars, sprayers all over, and even a mirror!Our sweet glamping setup.
Leave a Reply