Langeais and Villandry: Chateaux Hopping in France's Loire Valley with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Langeais and Villandry:  Châteaux Hopping in France’s Loire Valley with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I went to the Loire Valley to do some shopping on one winter weekend as we left Paris for a car trip.

The Loire Valley Château at Langeais beckoned us.  The tall, central dungeon, whose ruins are part of the Château, was built in the 10^th century, making it one of the most ancient dungeons in France. 

The tall dungeon was the most secure place in a castle.  Prisoners, the food stores for 5 years or more, and the women and children were kept in the dungeon in wartime at different levels of the dungeon tower.

Louis XI built the Château between 1465 and 1469 to keep the wily Bretons from coming up the Loire River from Nantes to the Touraine where Langeais is located.  It almost sounds like Langeais was a Hadrian’s Wall to keep the wily Scots from descending down into England.

The Loire River by Langeais Château was not always full of sand bars like it is today.

A royal marriage between Anne de Bretagne and Charles VIII stamped out any future Breton invasions.  Brittany became part of France after this marriage.

Unlike other châteaux, Langeais has many tapestries and many pieces of furniture to give you an idea of how life was lived in the 15^th century in a royal household.

My favorite artworks were the tapestries from Flanders and the Mille Fleurs or “Thousand Flowers” tapestries.  The tapestries served as insulation in damp châteaux.

Our next stop was the Château at Villandry, famous for its reconstruction of a 16^th century French garden.  There are many terraces and canals with hedges shaped into forms symbolizing love.

There was also a vegetable garden whose plants are arranged in a cross-pattern developed in a pre-Columbian monastery gardens similar to those in blueprints for the St. Gall Monastery in Switzerland.

I liked the canal system at Villandry whose different gardens occupy different levels around the Château grounds.

We left the Château and ate cheese and mushroom pizza in Vielle Tours downtown with its half-timbered buildings.

I loved both Langeais and Villandry for being close enough to Paris that you could drive there or take the train or TGV (Speed Train) for a short weekend visit.

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

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Ruth Paget Selfie