Thursday was our final day touring in the Loire Valley and we chose Cheverny, a Chateau which is still lived in by the original owners (though along the way the family lost the estate and reacquired it.). It’s the real life chateau of the “Tin Tin” children’s books.
The lands for the chateau were purchased by Henri Hurault, Comte de Cheverny, a lieutenant general and military treasurer for Louis XIII, whose descendant, the Marquis de Vibraye, is the present owner. The Hurault family’s classical Chateau de Cheverny was built between 1620 and 1634 on the site of a preceding castle.
Lost to the Crown because of fraud to the State, it was donated by King Henri II to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. Since she preferred Chateau de Chenonceau, Diane sold the chateau back to the Hurault family, to whom it now belongs, but the ownership was not uninterrpupted. Due to losing much of their wealth during the French Revolution, the family sold the property in 1802, , but bought it back again in 1824, during the Restoration under Charles X, when the aristocracy was once again in a very strong political and economic position.
In addition to the Chateau, there are extensive gardens and grounds and a kennel with over 120 hounds.
The interior is fully furnished down to the hat pins and very lovely.
After we left Cheverny, my cousin Sonya drove us to to drop off our bags at our airport hotel, and then we went with her to Charles de Gaulle airport to return the rental car. Finding the rental car return was a bit tricky, but after that, we had an easy walk and train ride to our hotel. And the train was free.
I use the train the next morning for my early flight leaving the hotel around 5 AM and had no problems even with big bags walking to the airport train.
It was very quick at that time of the morning to go through passport control, and security, and I didn’t have to go through passport control again in Great Britain, which was nice.
And that’s a wrap on my international travel for 2025. Happy Halloween Happy Thanksgiving and Happy holidays!