Tours, Loire, France
The world's most famous collection of palaces is in the Loire Valley outside of Paris in France. You’ll find the city of Tours is a very good home base for staying a few days, and from here you can easily explore the Loire Valley, and visit the many illustrious Château that are in the region. Most of the major attractions are within 30 to 40 minutes away from Tours – it's very convenient either by train or by private Tours company.
A big attraction of Tours are the large number of hotels available in a wide range of prices, and lots of restaurants – and the train station is right in the center of town, so it's real convenient for getting around. Tours is easy to reach from Paris by train. You can take the high-speed TGV from Montparnasse Station and it just takes an hour and 12 minutes with no change of train necessary, so that's very convenient. And the train station is right in the middle of town when you arrive in Tour, so everything is just in front of you.In the tangle of narrow streets branching off from the Place Plumereau, one finds many examples of fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth century houses, including a few with wooden fronts ornamented with roughly carved statuettes.
Natural wines of the Loire Valley - Cheverny
In this episode,
we jump a ride to Cheverny in the Loire Valley with our friend Jean-Luc where we visit the house of Christian Venier. A 3rd generation natural winemaker for an impromptu wine tasting and lunch for the birthday of his father, 90-year-old Eugène Venier.
An absolute legend of a human who has been making organic natural wine since before world war 2.
We meet some other excellent natural winemakers from across France.
Laurent Saillard from Pouillé and Jeff Coutelou from Languedoc.
We have a quick interview with Christian, Eugène and Jeff with the expert help of Laurant as translator.
Music courtesy of:
Iron Horse - Bluegrass cover of Modest Mouse's Polar Opposites
Leo Marjane & Brassai - Je suis seule ce soir, 1941.
To read more on the natural winemakers (Courtesy of wineterroirs.com)
CHRISTIAN VENIER
LAURENT SALLIARD
JEFF COUTELOU
Thank you so much to the whole Venier family for such a wonderful day
Amboise Chateau, Loire, France
Amboise lies on the banks of the Loire River, 17 miles (27 km) east of Tours. Amboise was once home of the French royal court., and today is a small market town.
The town of Amboise is also only about 11 miles (18 km) away from the historic Chateau de Chenonceau, situated on the Cher River near the small village of Chenonceaux. Its former name was Ambacia, from the old name of the river and marsh Amasse.
The city is famous for the Clos Lucé manor house where Leonardo da Vinci lived (and ultimately died) at the invitation of King Francis I of France, whose Chateau d'Amboise, which dominates the town, is located just 500 m (1,640 feet) away.
The narrow streets contain some good examples of timbered housing.
A 19th-century fountain by John Oswald of a turtle topped by a teddy bear figure, standing in front of the spot where the markets are held.
Clovis I (c. 466–511) and the Visigoths signed a peace treaty of alliance with the Arvernians in 503, which assisted him in his defeat of the Visigothic kingdom in the Battle of Vouille in 507.
Joan of Arc passed through in 1429 on her way to Orleans to the Battle of Patay.
The Amboise conspiracy was the conspiracy of Conde and the Huguenots in 1560 against Francis II, Catherine de' Medici, and the Guises.
The Edict of Amboise (1563) conceded the free exercise of worship to the Protestants.
-The Chateau at Amboise was home to Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, for much of her early life, being raised there at the French court of Henry II. She arrived in France from Scotland in 1548, aged six, remained in France until 1561, when she returned to her homeland - sailing up the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh on 15 August that year.
-Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life in Amboise. Some models of his inventions are still there and have not been removed. The house has lost some of its original parts, but it still stands today and has a beautiful overlook of the gardens and the town below.
-Francis I, who, having spent part of his youth at Amboise, continued to live there during the early years of his reign, made such further additions to the castle as were needed to bring it practically to a finished state.
-At the beginning of 1516 he also had a little manor-house, situated not far from the castle, put into thorough repair, ready for the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci, who, at the age of over sixty, had consented to leave his native country and place his genius as painter, engineer, and architect at the King's service. He had been in declining health for some time before. and he lived but three years after his arrival at Amboise.
- In the seventeenth century it was degraded to the level of a State prison, the most illustrious man to be enclosed within its walls being Nicolas Fouquet, that dishonest Superintendent of Finance of Louis xiv who, with his embezzled millions, built the magnificent Chateau of Vaux,
Chinon, Loire, France travel video
Driving through the main shopping lane of the historic town of Chinon, in the Loire, France, gives us a quick preview of the lanes in which we'll soon be taking a little walk. It's primarily a pedestrian zone but our tour van has permission to bring us in here and then drop us off – very convenient for us.
We took a short drive uphill in our tour van and stopped for an overview of the Old Town – a spectacular vista down below, all those slate roofs on top of buildings dating back 400, 500 years old in some cases. There are remains of a large castle up on the hill also overlooking the town.
Places to see in ( Blois - France ) Chateau Royal de Blois
Places to see in ( Blois - France ) Chateau Royal de Blois
The Royal Château de Blois is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France, in the center of the city of Blois. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from Orléans.
Built in the middle of the town that it effectively controlled, the château of Blois comprises several buildings constructed from the 13th to the 17th century around the main courtyard. It has 564 rooms and 75 staircases although only 23 were used frequently. There is a fireplace in each room. There are 100 bedrooms.
The Salle des États Généraux, built in the beginning of the 13th century, is one of the oldest seignoral rooms preserved in France, and is also the largest remaining civilian Gothic room. The room was used as a court of justice by the Counts of Blois, and was used in 1576 and 1588 for the États Généraux.
The medieval castle was purchased in 1391 by Louis I, duc d'Orléans, brother of Charles VI; after Louis' assassination, his widow, Valentina Visconti, retired to this castle at Blois. It was later inherited by their son, Charles d'Orléans the poet, who was taken prisoner at Agincourt and spent twenty-five years as a hostage in England, before returning to his beloved Blois, which he partly rebuilt as a more commodious dwelling. It became the favourite royal residence and the political capital of the kingdom under Charles' son, King Louis XII.
When Francis I took power in 1515, his wife Queen Claude had him refurbish Blois with the intention of moving to it from the Château d'Amboise. Francis initiated the construction of a new wing and created one of the period's most important libraries in the castle. But, after the death of his wife in 1524, he spent very little time at Blois and the massive library was moved to the royal Château de Fontainebleau where it was used to form the royal library that forms the core now of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
King Henry III, driven from Paris during the French Wars of Religion, lived at Blois and held the Estates-General convention there in 1576 and 1588. It was during this convention that the king had his arch-enemy, Henry I, Duke of Guise, assassinated by the king's bodyguard known as the Forty-five, when the duke came to the Chateau for a meeting with Henry in December 1588. They also killed the Duke's brother Louis II, Cardinal of Guise the following day in the dungeons.
After this, the castle was occupied by Henry IV, the first Bourbon monarch. On Henry's death in 1610, it became the place of exile for his widow, Marie de Medici, when she was expelled from the court of her son, Louis XIII.
In 1626, King Louis XIII gave the Château of Blois to his brother Gaston duc d'Orléans as a wedding gift. In 1635 there was another attempt to develop the castle but on Gaston's death in 1660, it was abandoned. The task of developing this wing was given to François Mansart, a well-known architect of the time. This wing makes up the rear wall of the court, directly opposite the Louis XII wing. The central section is composed of three horizontal layers where the superposition of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders can be seen.
In 1841, under the direction of King Louis-Philippe, the Château de Blois was classified as a historic monument. It was restored under the direction of the architect Felix Duban, to whom is due the painted decoration on walls and beamed ceilings. The château was turned into a museum. On view for visitors are the supposed poison cabinets of Catherine de' Medici. Most likely this room, the chamber of secrets, had a much more banal purpose: exhibiting precious objects for guests.
( Blois - France ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Blois . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Blois - France
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TO DO AND NOT DO AS A TOURIST IN FRANCE. The Don’ts
In today's video I presented ten of the things you are not advised to do when you arrive in France. I hope you enjoy! For more useful videos, I invite you to subscribe to this channel.
Palaces and Castles of France
Palaces and Castles of France
Versailles, Chenonceau, Chambord, Élisée, Chantilly, Carcassonne, Tau, Vitré, Beynac, Haut-Koenigsbourg, Plessis-Bourré, Sully-sur-Loire, Villandry, Luxembourg, Saumur, Chaumont, Rambouillet, Vaux le Vicomte, Popes´ Palace, Fontainebleau, Cheverny, Fougères, Pierrefonds, Bannes, Langeais, Auzers, Valençay and Rohan
Châteaux of the Loire Valley
The Châteaux of the Loire Valley are part of the architectural heritage of the historic towns of Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Montsoreau, Nantes, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours along the Loire River in France. They illustrate Renaissance ideals of design in France.
By the middle of the 16th century, King François I had shifted the center of power in France from the Loire back to the ancient capital of Paris. With him went the great architects, but the Loire Valley continued to be the place where most of the French royalty preferred to spend the bulk of their time. The ascension to the throne of King Louis XIV in the middle of the 17th century made Paris the permanent site for great royal châteaux when he built the Palace of Versailles. Nonetheless, those who gained the king's favour and the wealthy bourgeoisie continued to renovate existing châteaux or build lavish new ones as their summer residence in the Loire.
The French Revolution saw a number of the great French châteaux destroyed and many ransacked, their treasures stolen. The overnight impoverishment of many of the deposed nobility, usually after one of its members lost his or her head to the guillotine, saw many châteaux demolished. During World War I and World War II, some chateaux were commandeered as military headquarters. Some of these continued to be used this way after the end of World War II.
Today, these privately owned châteaux serve as homes, a few open their doors to tourist visits, while others are operated as hotels or bed and breakfasts. Many have been taken over by a local government authority, or the giant structures like those at Chambord are owned and operated by the national government and are major tourist sites, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
tags: France, Europe, places, touristic, travel, tourism, tourist, trip, travelling, traveller, backpacker, palace, castle, guide, history, architecture, european, Versailles, Chenonceau, Chambord, Loire Valley, Reims, Paris, Élisée, Royal, Tour, Chantilly, Carcassonne, Tau, Vitré, Beynac, Haut-Koenigsbourg, Plessis-Bourré, Sully-sur-Loire, Villandry, Luxembourg, Saumur, Chaumont, european, Paris, Rambouillet, Vaux le Vicomte, Brittany, Château, Palais des Papes, Fontainebleau, Cheverny, Fougères, Palais des Papes, Pope's Palace, Avignon, Provence, Middle Ages, Pierrefonds, Bannes, Langeais, Auzers, Valençay, Rohan-Soubise, gardens, Alsace, Strasbourg, medieval, French Revolution
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Camping Sites et Paysages Les Saules à Cheverny, Val de Loire
Camping Sites et Paysages Les Saules à Cheverny, Val de Loire
FONTAINBLEAU THE ROYAL CHATEAUTHE LARGEST CHATEAU IN FRANCE
The Royal Château of Fontainebleau (in the Seine-et-Marne département), the largest of the French royal châteaux, introduced to France the Italian Mannerist style in interior decoration and in gardens, and transformed them in the translation.
The French Mannerist style of interior decoration of the 16th century is known as the Fontainebleau style: it combined sculpture, metalwork, painting, stucco and woodwork, and outdoors the patterned garden parterre.
The Fontainebleau style combined allegorical paintings in molded plasterwork where the framing was treated as if it were leather or paper, slashed and rolled into scrolls and combined with arabesques and grotesques.
Fontainbleau ideals of female beauty are Mannerist: a small neat head on a long neck, exaggeratedly long torso and limbs, small high breasts — almost a return to Late Gothic beauties.
The new works at Fontainebleau were recorded in refined and detailed engravings that circulated among connoisseurs and artists.
Through the engravings by the Fontainebleau school this new style was transmitted to other northern European centers, Antwerp especially, and Germany, and eventually London.
The château as it is today is the work of many monarchs, building on a structure of François I. The building is ranged round a series of courts.
The city of Fontainebleau has grown up around the remainder of the Forest of Fontainebleau, a former royal hunting park.
The older château on this site was already used in the latter part of the 12th century by Louis VII, for whom Thomas à Becket consecrated the chapel. Fontainebleau was a favourite residence of Philip Augustus and Louis IX.
The creator of the present edifice was François I, under whom the architect Gilles le Breton erected most of the buildings of the Cour Ovale, including the Porte Dorée, its southern entrance.
The king also invited the architect Sebastiano Serlio to France, and Leonardo da Vinci.
The Gallery of Francis I, with its frescoes framed in stucco by Rosso Fiorentino between 1522 and 1540, was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Broadly speaking, at Fontainebleau the Renaissance was introduced to France.
The Salle des Fêtes, in the reign of Henri II, was decorated by the Italian Mannerist painters, Francesco Primaticcio and Niccolo dell' Abbate. Benvenuto Cellini's Nymph of Fontainebleau, commissioned for the château, is at the Louvre.
Another campaign of extensive construction was undertaken by King Henri II and Catherine de' Medici, who commissioned architects Philibert Delorme and Jean Bullant.
To the Fontainebleau of François I and Henri II, King Henri IV added the Court that carries his name, the Cour des Princes, with the adjoining Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the Galerie des Cerfs, used as a library.
A second school of Fontainebleau decorators, less ambitious and original than the first, evolved from these additional projects. Henri IV pierced the wooded park with a 1200m canal (which can be fished today) and ordered the planting of pines, elms and fruit trees.
Napoleon I's throne room. Three hundred years later the château had fallen into disrepair and during the French Revolution many of the original furnishings were stolen.
What remained were sold, in the long Revolutionary sales of the contents of all the Royal châteaux, intended as a way of raising money for the nation and insuring that the Bourbons could not return to their comforts.
Nevertheless, with a decade Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, began to transform the Château de Fontainebleau into a symbol of his grandeur, as an alternative to empty Versailles, with its Bourbon connotations.
At Fontainebleau Napoleon bade farewell to his Old Guard and went into exile in 1814. With modifications of the château's structure, including the cobblestone entrance wide enough for his carriage, Napoleon helped make the château the place that visitors see today.
Fontainebleau was the setting of the Second Empire court of his nephew Napoleon III.
Philip the Fair, Henry III and Louis XIII were all born in the palace, and the first of these kings died there.
Christina of Sweden lived there for years, following her abdication in 1654. In 1685 Fontainebleau saw the signing of the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes (1598).
Royal guests of the Bourbon kings were housed at Fontainebleau: Peter the Great of Russia and Christian VII of Denmark, and so, under Napoleon was Pope Pius VII — in 1804 when he came to consecrate the emperor Napoleon, and in 1812—1814, when he was Napoleon's prisoner.
Château de Chambord - À l'intérieur du sommet de la tour Lanterne