Touring Azay-le-Rideau: Visiting a Loire Valley Financier's Renaissance Chateau with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Azay-le-Rideau:  Visiting a Loire Valley Financier’s Renaissance Château with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

  

Buttery, warm croissants with tea for me, and hot chocolate with croissants for my husband Laurent braced us for the cool yet sunny weather the next day as we set out for a darling Loire Valley château named Azay-le-Rideau.

We missed it a few times, because there were very few country highway numbers listed, just directions to the next small town around traffic circles in the center of small towns on the way there.  We finally did arrive after turning down a few roads and then turning back several times.

I arrived frazzled at the Azay-le-Rideau Château, but the sweet perfection of Azay reflecting in the lake in front of it made me feel better.  The lake was made by diverting the Indre River, a tributary of the Loire River.

The Azay-le-Rideau Château was built for leisure not defense.  The château had little “tourettes” not towers, a drawbridge for show, and too many windows to protect against wind.  Many châteaux still have large tapestries on their walls to form a type of insulation in these cold and drafty castles.

Azay-le-Rideau is an example of what the French call the First Renaissance, which began in the middle of the 15^th century.  The French Renaissance was the result of what was called “The Italian Wars,” which were fought to protect French territories in Italy created by marriage alliances.

The French brought home Italian artists and portable decorative art objects from the Italian Wars.

The man who built Azay-le-Rideau was Gilles Berthelot.  All of his family served kings as financial advisors.  The financiers raised money to pay for wars as well as for infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, and tunnels.

Berthelot was associated with the finance minister Samblançy, who had trouble raising the ransom money to free Francis 1^st, who was captive in Pavia, Italy.  Once Francis 1^st was released, he had Samblançy executed.

Berthelot’s guilt by association with Samblançy made Berthelot flee the region.  The mural of this story is “Pay a King’s Ransom Quickly.”

Berthelot was never able to live in his château at Azay-le-Rideau.

Integrating a château with water and foliage is an Italian gardening principle that is used at Azay-le-Rideau.  The “L” shape of the château shows that it is not set up for ambush.

The interior of the château at Azay-le-Rideau follows medieval interior design with rooms opening up into other rooms through doors and not hallways.

The exterior stairway is impressive with its sculptural bas-reliefs, notably the salamander representing Francis 1^st.

Successive owners took good care of Azay-le-Rideau  for the enjoyment of visitors today.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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