Visiting Blois, France’s Loire Valley Château Made
Famous by Catherine de Medici with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
To
celebrate my finding a part-time job as an English teacher, my husband Laurent,
baby Florence, and I went to visit France’s Loire Valley Château at Blois.
Blois
was more interesting than other châteaux in the Loire Valley where the life of
the châteaux seemed to revolve around hunting and dining. Blois had conspiracy associated with it like
murder and poison.
In
1415, Charles d’Orléans was taken prisoner at Azincourt by the English. He remained in captivity for 25 years. In 1440, he was allowed to return home and
ran a cultivated court at Blois. When he
was 71, be became the father of a son, the future Louis XII.
Louis
XII succeeded King Charles VII in 1498 and lived at Blois happily with his wife
Anne de Bretagne just like in the fairy tales.
Francis
1st, the next king, was happily married to his wife Claude de
France, too, but she died in childbirth after her seventh child was born.
The
history of Blois becomes bloodier with King Henri II, who organized the assassination
of his rival Henri de Guise in 1558.
After
the Duke of Guise was murdered, his body was burned in a chimney at Blois. The Duke’s ashes were spread on the Loire
River. Eight months later, King Henri II
was murdered by Jacques Clémant in Paris.
Queen
Catherine de Medici had a roomful of small, wooden cabinets at Blois, but I
think she kept Florentine stationery and pens in the cabinets not vials of
poison.
Blois
has a great double staircase, which allows people to go up and down without
seeing people on the other staircase.
The
rumor is that Leonardo da Vinci designed the staircase when he lived at the
Clos Lucé by Amboise Château.
Blois
is a defensive château that sits high above the Loire River guarding the
entrance to the pleasure châteaux downriver on the Loire.
By
Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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