Last day in the Loire

Thursday, 15 August

Woke up this morning to discover that today is a public holiday - lots of things closed but the lack of a Post Office was the only bothersome thing for us.  Today is Assumption of Mary Day.  It was another blue sky day and in the high twenties by afternoon. 


St Aignan Chateau

This morning we took a look at the Island Fete which was held on an island in the middle of the river at St Aignan.  It was a bit of a mixed bag - craft stalls, artists. vintage cars, rides for the children and a barbecue.  Quite a good crowd when we were there and it was lovely to look across to the chateau and the village in the morning sun.

St Aignan from the island in the River Cher

 After lunch we drove to Cheverny which is about 30 minutes away to visit the Cheverny Chateau.  It was the one that we picked from all the brochures hoping that it would have a lot of interesting things and a lot fewer people than some of the "A-list" chateaux in the Loire.  Today our wishes came true and we spent a lovely afternoon at a very pretty chateau with a nice number of people.

Cheverny

 Cheverny has been owned by the same family for 600 years and these days they live in private apartments in one wing of the chateau. Cheverny is set in magnificent gardens and although not large by chateau standards it is quite exquisite and certainly looks very aristocratic.  The gardens are as important as the chateau with beautifully manicured lawns and huge ancient trees.

Gardens at Cheverny

 The first thing to do was to tour the rooms of the chateau that are open to the public.  It is one of the most extensively furnished of the chateaux and the decoration is stunning - amazing tapestries, portraits, elegant furniture and dozens of personal household items that tell the story of the residents through the ages. The current Cheverny dates from the 1600s and it replaced a much older fortress of which very little remains.

Main salon in the chateau

Once we had visited the two floors of spendour inside we exited to the back of the building and entered the "Apprentices' Garden" which has a formal structure but is filled with overflowing flower beds in the English style.  The flowers are totally gorgeous, especially the huge pink and white hydrangeas and the wisteria arches.  Such a pretty place! 


 

Apprentices' Garden

 This garden leads to the old Orangerie which is now a tea/ice-cream shop.  It is a very attractive building and the red umbrellas and enormous pots of red petunias on the terrace look fantastic,  Of course we had to sample the ice-cream!


The Orangerie

 Our entry fee included a ride on an electric buggy through the surrounding forest and a canal boat ride so we walked along the white gravel paths past very stately old trees to the embarkation point, passing a lake and some handsome white swans on the way.   The rides are very strictly organised and we had about an hour to wait for our turn so we continued around the garden to the kennels which house 100 French hounds.  The family has for centuries been very involved in the hunt and this tradition continues today.  The dogs were all in a large concrete floor pen with a fellow who was their carer. There was a lot of tail wagging and some of them jumped up on the railing to be petted.  The dogs look healthy and well cared for but it is rather sad to see them in all in such a confined space. I guess they are really working dogs and not family  pets - Benji definitely would not approve of these living arrangements. 
We didn't linger over the dogs but carried on to the kitchen garden which was a riot of colour with the  office buildings which are also very old forming a pleasing backdrop to the exuberant planting.

Kitchen Garden

 At the appointed time we were back to take our rides.  The extended golf cart type vehicle took us through an ancient allee of monstrous pines with virgin forest on either side.  The dappled sunlight piercing the green canopy was quite magical.  Jess said she expected to see mythical creatures leap out of the woods. This part of the Cheverny estate has never been touched and it is strange to think that people hundreds of years ago would have seen the forest in the same condition.


Allee in the forest

 We came to a clearing and the little electric boats tied up at a dock on a canal.  This canal was man made in the 1700s to provide irrigation for crops - today it is used to water the vast lawns of the chateau.

Canal boat tour at Cheverny

 Plantations of poplar (a commercial crop) line the banks of the canal and it is a haven for birds and waterfowl, being full of fish.

Poplar plantation

 It was  quite dreamlike to float silently along the canal and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  There are a number of swamp cypress from Florida growing in the wider part of the canal and they separate the boats' passage from a waterlily patch.

Swamp Cypress

 After this delightful excursion we walked back to the main entrance and took in a small degustation at the local  house of wine - not great and no temptation to buy.  Time for home so we strolled through the little village of Cheverny admiring the luscious tubs of flowers in pink and purple colours.

A riot of colour in Cheverny village

 The restaurant we had chosen for dinner tonight was fully booked so Maree and Mel went for pizza to a little place around the corner and Jess and I returned to the Bacchus Bistro for a nice steak.  Again it was lovely to sit out in the square on a warm summer's night and put off packing for our journey to Brittany tomorrow.