Chateau de Cheverny

27 Sep 2021

If you once had a teenage son or daughter, they might well look at a picture of Chateau Cheverny and think, “That seems familiar…” If they were to look at the picture below and cover up the right and left outer wings, it might come to mind: this is Captain Haddock’s Marlinspike Hall, the chateau in the Tintin books that were so popular - with our sons, for sure.

Chateau de Cheverny has a long and convoluted history. In the early 1300s the land was owned by the Herault family. A fortified chateau was here in the early 1500s, still owned by the Herault family. Then things get muddy: the fortified chateau was torn down but no one seems to know exactly when or what it looked like! Another chateau - less fortified - was then built here.

The chateau was confiscated by the state, and around 1550 Henry II gave it to his life-long mistress Diane de Poitiers. But she liked Chateau Chenonceau better and sold Cheverny back to Philippe Herault - a descendent of the original owners. Philippe Herault built the current chateau between 1624 and 1630.

During Napoleon's time as the head of France the family was required to “sell” (at little or no cost, likely) the property back to the state, but during the Restoration (1817 - 1840, when France had kings again, after the no-king era of the Revolution and Napoleon’s empire) the family re-gained the property - this time by a branch of the Herault family, the de Vibrays. In 1914 the family opened Chateau de Cheverny to the public, the first to do so. From the first records of the property belonging to the Herault family - early 1300s - to today, still owned by the de Vibraye family, this chateau and property has been in and out of the Herault/de Vibraye family for 800 years!

Okay, enough history - here are some pictures:

*The front of the Chateau. The symmetry and clean ornamentation mark it as Renaissance.*

*The back of Chateau Cheverny, every bit as beautiful as the front.*

Chateau Cheverny is famous for its interior decorations, showing how the rooms have been decorated and furnished through the years. As you’ll see, some of the rooms had some whimsical additions…

*The dining room set for a small dinner...for twelve people. There probably was no flamingo on the table when it was used for dinners.*

*The less-formal dining room for family meals. Note the deserts at each place; these are called "Religieuses au chocolat" and I'm sure you wouldn't like them at all. Nope.*

*The ceiling in one room; decorating ideas for your house.*

*The chateau built with Lego-like blocks. Many Lego-like blocks.*

*A little treat on the mantle, one for Clara and one for Henry.*

And a note from Captain Haddock, Tintin’s guardian…

*The top sign says, "Chateau for Sale." On the bottom sign Captain Haddock has added some words to make it say, "This chateau is no longer for sale."*

Many years ago Mary and Gilles took us to Chateau Cheverny, our first chateau. We remember it being beautiful, but honestly, we didn’t know enough about France and its history and culture to appreciate it as much as we could have. On this trip, probably twenty-five years and many trips later, we realized again just how beautiful this chateau is. We highly recommend it to anyone visiting the Loire Valley.

As a P.S.: it seems that every year we find a wine that kind of becomes our “wine of the trip.” This year we had a red wine from Cheverny the first week of the trip (thank you, Jamie and Hervé) which quickly became our favorite wine of 2021. We’ve had a lot of Cheverny Rouge!