If you want to go to a place like Chenonceau on a bright sunnny summer day, you'll do well to get there as early as possible. That's what I did in 2004, when we had an American friend of a friend visiting. She really wanted to see the Loire Valley's most glamorous château. We stopped there one afternoon when we were driving around. When I saw the fleet of tour buses and the crowd of tourists standing in line to buy tickets, I told our visitor I couldn't go through with it.
If the lines were that long and the buses that numerous, the château would be a mob scene. I told her I would make her a deal: if we just drove on that afternoon, we would get up early the next morning and drive to Chenonceau so as to arrive at 9 a.m. Chenonceau is less that 30 minutes from our house by car. The tour buses don't start arriving until 10:30 or 11:00, after the passengers have had breakfast. So that's what we did, and you see the result. No crowds in my photos. No shuffling along, cheek by jowl, to try to get glimpses of what makes Chenonceau so beautiful.
We were lucky with the weather. In this climate, summer morning are often warm and still. Summer afternoons can be hot and humid. Warm and still mornings make for good reflections in the waters of the Cher river, which the Chateau de Chenonceau spans.
In the photo below, you can see clearly how Chenonceau castle is really two separate buildings. And then there's the wing that was built on a bridge over the river.
We were very surprised that Chenonceau wasn't more crowded when we went, though we did heed advice to go in the morning... but, we probably didn't get there as early as you did. A big factor for us, I think, was that it was mid June, so French kids were still in school. There were other people, and the parking lot had lots of cars, but it didn't feel overwhelming in the slightest. I remember coming across a group of American high school kids, but they were the only people that seemed to be in an organized group with a guide. We were fortunate, it was a beautiful day, and the experience was lovely!
ReplyDeleteThe first time I visited we bought our tickets in the smaller building on the right of the above picture. Since then a separate ticket office has been built further away from the chateau. Am I remembering this correctly, Ken?
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
We saw a sound and light show there in '69. Travel was so different then.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite view of the hotel is that last picture. Sound and light shows - I saw many of those. I don't know if they're still done.
ReplyDelete