Château de Blois, Château de Chambord, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, Joel & Micheline a Villejust

August 7

This was to be our last trip day, culminating in a supper hosted by Jerome’s cousin, Joel, and Micheline in Villejust, sleeping over at the Cheval Rouge in Versailles.

We left at 0800 for the Royal Château de Blois, a 50 minute drive toward Paris, arriving at its opening. It’s really difficult to appreciate the size of the château, which towers over the street below, on the one hand, and dominates the Loire River. On the other hand, its frontal section around the corner masks the courtyard and buildings behind it that form a square. The château comprises several buildings constructed from the 13th to the 17th century around the main courtyard. Blois was the principal royal residence until Henri IV moved the court to Paris in 1598. Louis XIV's Versailles was to eclipse Blois with magnificence and size. 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.

The Château's most renowned feature is the spiral staircase in the François I wing. The extraordinary thing, which I saw in no other place, was the extent of the collections of porcelain. This may well have been because of the route provided visitors in wheelchairs to areas that are generally not open to the public or which require separate paid admissions. In any event, one reels from the range and quality of materials displayed.

The "Versailles" of the 16th century and the largest of the Loire châteaux, the Château de Chambord is the kind of place William Randolph Hearst might have built if he'd had the money. Variously dubbed "megalomaniacal" and "an enormous film-set extravaganza," this is one of the most extraordinary structures in Europe, set in the middle of a royal game forest, with just a cluster of buildings across the road. With 440 rooms and 365 chimneys, a wall 32 km (20 mi) long to enclose a 13,000-acre forest, this is one of the greatest buildings in France. It was built to serve only as a hunting lodge for King François I, who maintained his royal residences at Château de Blois and at Château d'Amboise. He had the original grandiose idea to divert the Loire to form a moat, but was persuaded to make do with the River Cosson. He used the château only for short stays; yet when he came, 12,000 horses were required to transport his luggage, servants, and entourage. Later kings also used Chambord as an occasional retreat.

King Francis I built Château Chambord in the Sixteenth century to serve three concurrent purposes: country palace, hunting lodge and sturdy fortress. He wanted to impress his subjects and visiting foreign dignitaries - and was successful in doing it. The high point here is the spectacular chimneyscape - a forest of towers, turrets, cupolas, gables, and chimneys have been compared to everything from the minarets of Constantinople to a bizarre chessboard. The most eye-popping time to see this roof is at night, when the château is spectacularly illuminated. The main Chambord Château interior attraction is the twin, spiraling staircases, which are intertwined, double-helix style. People ascending do not encounter those descending.

Among the châteaux we visited, this châteaux was unusual in that it had a fairly substantial open air market with vendors of food products, as well as food service stations and sit down tables and chairs with umbrellas. This is where we had a quick lunch before hitting the road again.

Shortly after we arrived in Chartres and its cathedral, it began to rain, becoming quite the downpour and prolonging our exit when we were in its interior.

Not only is the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres one of the greatest achievements in the history of architecture, it is almost perfectly preserved in its original design and details. Chartres' extensive cycle of portal sculpture remains fully intact and its glowing stained-glass windows are all originals. Of the original 186 stained-glass windows, 152 have survived. It is thus the only cathedral that conveys an almost perfect image of how it looked when it was built. The cathedral's origins are uncertain; some have suggested it grew up over an ancient Druid site that later became a Roman temple. As early as the 4th century, there was a Christian basilica here.

This magnificent medieval Gothic cathedral in France has nearly 200 bright-hued stained glass windows dating back to the 12th and 13th Centuries. Covering an expanse of more than 2,500 sq. m. (27,000 sq. ft.), the glass is unlike anything else in the world. The stained glass was spared in both world wars by being painstakingly removed, piece by piece, and stored away. The huge roseate windows above the cathedral's main entrances are particularly spectacular and justifiably world famous. It's difficult to single out one panel or window above the others, but an exceptional one is the 12th-century Vierge de la Belle Verrière (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window) on the south side. Its stained glass, which gave the world a new color, Chartres blue, has not been able to duplicate its production. The extensive windowing would have been impossible were it not for the newfound flying buttress construction method. It lowered the load-bearing responsibilities of the Chartres Cathedral walls, allowing them to be taller and full of sizeable holes for the windows. The outdoor sculptures of Chartres are almost as renowned as the stained glass windows. They adorn the cathedral's exterior around the doorways.

If you want a visual tour of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, this is an excellent link:

http://gallery.sjsu.edu/chartres/tour.html

We were finished in sufficient time to meet our targeted 1600 arrival, as suggested by Lindsay, in Villejust; however, we debated about whether to first divert to our final hotel in Versailles, which is about 30 minutes from Villejust, so that the girls could get dolled up. At the end of the day, since we were uncertain of distances and times overall, we decided to proceed to Villjust. For whatever reason, our reliable GPS would not deliver us to the appointed address, which was rectified once we spoke to a local outside a bistro (whose immediate question upon learning we sought directions was to ask if we had GPS). We probably arrived around 1700.

As fatigued as we were from the continuous boot camp, we were delighted to see the friendly faces of Joel & Micheline. They had had something like 3.75 cm of rain overnight and rain again that day, so we weren’t able to see the large garden from which nearly everything served that evening had been produced. While I intended, I also never really had the opportunity I anticipated to take some pics of their house, which is lovely.

We were kinda wound up as we arrived, bringing in individual luggage to enable repacking for the flight the next day, knowing that we were likely to be getting into our hotel in Versailles not before 2200 or 2300 (which turned out to be the case). I had Joel call the hotel and confirm our arrival, but after their 1900 closing, so that they could provide the code to enter the hotel and its locked parking compound and know our room numbers.

We had a nice, leisurely and civilized meal, beginning with coke and/or beer to slake our thirst. There was then a round of crudités, followed by snacks; then separate courses of a beet salad (loved by those who don’t typically like beets) and the first tomatoes of the season with basil; then a fabulous potato pie, prepared with crème fraiche; then a delicious ratatouille; roast beef, as good as the maudit English could do and overseen by Joel came next; then a course of 4 types of cheese, including chevre and camembert; and, finally, ice cream with real chocolate sauce.

We had presented gifts earlier, including ice cider. During our conversation, Joel had shown a lot of interest in Ireland and in wanting to visit it soon. Gerald presented him with a pretty exhaustive guide book that he had purchased, which Joel found very touching. Joel knew that were quite fatigued, and graciously took it easy in allowing us to beg off further gluttony. I took a photo of Joel and Micheline with the painting given him upon his recent retirement from Air France.

I didn’t know if it was because he was distracted, but I’d been quite looking forward to Joel’s showing his wine cellar, as I understand from Lindsay and Jerome that it is quite impressive. Of course, it won’t be as impressive as when we arrived, in that, by my count, we depleted his stores by 2 champagnes (not counting the one that Gerald walked away with), 2 1978 Baron Vardeuil Nuzet red, and 1 Sancerres white. Lots of dead soldiers, and good times had by all.

With that, we took off for Versailles and our rooms at Hotel du Cheval Rouge in Versailles. The rooms were fine, overlooking an interior courtyard, and shower and bathroom spacious and very much like the standard expected chez nous.