Day 8: Chateau Chenonceau: the "Ladies' Castle"

Chateau Chenonceau is known to the locals as the "Ladies' Castle" for several reasons. First, the original owner who built the chateau was away on business frequently during construction, leaving his wife as the de facto construction superintendent. She left a feminine touch from the beginning.

Years later, after Chenonceau had come into the possession of King Henry II, it turned into a big bone of contention between two very powerful ladies--Catherine de Medici, Henry's wife and the crowned queen of France and Diane de Poitiers whom Henry took as his mistress when he was only 19 and she was 38. What an affront to poor Catherine: the "other woman" was also an older woman to boot!

Catherine wanted Chenonceau for herself, but Henry gave it to Diane just to keep things interesting. When Henry died from battle wounds at age 40, he was still enamored with Diane, who by then was 59 (you go, girl!). The widowed Queen Catherine wasted no time in snatching Cheonceau back from Diane and booting her to a modest country house in the remote French countryside. Catherine then had all traces of Diane removed from Chenonceau and had her own portrait hung over the mantle in Diane's bedroom (see above). Poor Diane! Payback was Hell, even in the 16th century.

Chenonceau hosted even more ladies in its hey-day, including Mary, Queen of Scots who was a daughter of Henry and Catherine, and other assorted queens and favored mistresses of kings and noblemen over the years.

Aside from the cascade of remarkable women who floated through its halls, Cheonceau is remarkable for its architecture in that it was built entirely on massive stone pylons in the middle of the Cher River with lovely raised gardens and acres of surrounding forest. It truly is a "fairy tale" castle fit for a queen--or even seven or eight! But Henry would probably say, "Not all at once."