3089 FRANCE (Centre-Val de Loire) - Chateau de Boisrenault in Buzançais

The Château du Boisrenault, located 12 kilometers from the commune Buzançais, in the Indre department in central France, was built from 1882 to 1896 in Renaissance style by Huard de Boisrenault, who offered it as a wedding present to his daughter Marguerite, when she married Viscount Léonce de Maussabré. The youngest son of the two, Louis, will live there with his wife Denise. When her nephew Yves du Manoir married Sylvie, Denise was widow and offered to share her home. They have 3 children: Olivier, Florence and Véronique.

2365 FRANCE (Centre-Val de Loire) - The church of Saint Fiacre in Lugny-Champagne

Lugny-Champagne is a commune with only 181 inhabitants (2208) located in the center of France, at 34km northeast from Bourges, and at 189km from Paris, actually a farming area comprising a small village and several hamlets in the valley of the river Ragnon. Built in the 13th century, the village's church, dedicated to Saint Fiacre, was fully rebuilt in the 19th century. It is a little country church, of modest size, composed of a rectangular nave, without transept.

2191 FRANCE (Centre-Val de Loire) - Château de Chenonceau

Located on the River Cher, near the village of Chenonceaux, the Château de Chenonceau, an architectural mixture of late  Gothic and early Renaissance, is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley, and the most visited, after Palace of Versailles. The estate of Chenonceau was first mentioned in writing in the 11th century, but the current château was built in 1514-1522 on the foundations of an old mill.  The bridge was built (1556-1559) to designs by the French architect Philibert de l'Orme, and the gallery on the bridge (1570–1576) to designs by Jean Bullant.

0894 FRANCE (Centre-Val de Loire) - Chartres Cathedral (UNESCO WHS)

Located on a hill on the left bank of the Eure River, at 96km southwest of Paris, Chartres is best known for its cathedral (Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres), widely considered to be the finest Gothic cathedral in France, for which reason was included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979. The current cathedral, mostly constructed between 1194 and 1250, is the last of at least five which have occupied the site since the town became a bishopric in the 4th century. While the city was heavy bombed in WWII, the cathedral was spared by an American Army officer who challenged the order to destroy it, so it is in an exceptional state of preservation. The majority of the original stained glass windows survive intact (during the WWII were removed), while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century.

0533, 0534, 0535 FRANCE (Centre-Val de Loire / Pays de la Loire) - The Loire Valley and its castles (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the middle stretch of the Loire River, in central France, Loire Valley is considered the Cradle of the French Language, and the Garden of France, but is also notable for its historic towns, architecture and wines. In 2000, UNESCO added the central part of the valley to its list of World Heritage Sites, under the name The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes, considering it "an outstanding cultural landscape along a major river which bears witness to an interchange of human values and to a harmonious development of interactions between human beings and their environment over two millennia. It is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Blois, Chinon, Orléans, Saumur and Tours, but in particular in its world-famous castles, such as the Château de Chambord."

The more than 300 châteaux represent a nation of builders starting with the castle fortifications in the 10th century to the splendor of those built half a millennium later. When the French kings began constructing their huge châteaux here, the nobility, not wanting or even daring to be far from the seat of power, followed suit. In the postcard sent by Anne are illustrated the eight most important castles: Château d'Amboise, Château d'Azay-le-Rideau, Château de Saumur, Château de Chambord, Château de Blois, Château de Cheverny, Château de Loches and Château d'Angers. I will write now only about the two castles depicted in the postcards below, because I'm sure that I will receive also the postcards with the others.

The royal Château de Chambord, the largest in the Loire Valley, is also one of the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its very distinct French Renaissance architecture which blends traditional French medieval forms with classical Renaissance structures. The building, which was never completed, was constructed by the extravagant King François I at the age of twenty-five, on the one hand to show the world in spectacular fashion his two favourite pastimes, hunting and architecture, and on the other to be near to his mistress, the Comtesse de Thoury.

Chambord is so much more than a castle: it’s an exceptional piece of architecture, a technical feat, a stone colossus… quite simply the dream of the young king come true. Its geometric clarity, the harmony of its proportions and fantasy of its rooves bristling with turrets, chimneys and breathtakingly high skylights leave any visitor in awe. The shadow of Leonardo da Vinci, the official "architecteur", who died a few months before the construction work began in 1519, hovers over the astonishing double spiral staircase.

Abandoned for almost a century after the death of François I, restaured by Gaston d'Orléans, used by Louis XIV and finally again abandoned, inhabited by Stanislas Leszczyński, and Maurice de Saxe, once again remained empty for many years, devastated during the French Revolution, given by Napoleon to Louis Alexandre Berthier, sold to Henri Charles Dieudonné, used as field hospital during the Franco-Prussian War, inherited by the Dukes of Parma, confiscated in WWI as enemy property, recovered by the family of the Duke of Parma, the castle came into the hands of the French state in 1930's, which began to restore it a few years after WWII.

 

Unlike Chambord, Château de Cheverny was never abandoned, although changed many owners, it's true members of the same family, which holds it for more than six centuries and opened it to the public in 1922. Every generation has made an effort to maintain and to embellish it with passion. The today's castle was built between 1624 and 1630, but only a portion of the original fortified castle possibly remains in existence today. Even to me, a novice in terms of architecture, seems obvious that Cheverny recalls features of Palais du Luxembourg, which I had the joy to see it two weeks ago. The Belgian comic book creator Hergé used Cheverny as a model for his fictional Château de Moulinsart (Marlinspike Hall) in The Adventures of Tintin books.

0402 FRANCE (Centre-Val de Loire) - Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Orléans (UNESCO WHS)

Located about 130 kilometres southwest of Paris, on the Loire River, Orléans has a long and rich history, which began with the Gallic stronghold named Cenabum and continued with the roman city Aureliana Civitas (city of Aurelian), owned a while by Alans. In the Merovingian era, the city was capital of the kingdom of Orléans, then it became the capital of a county then duchy, in appanage of the house of Valois-Orléans, which acceded to the throne of France. The city was always a strategic point on the Loire, for it was sited at the river's most northerly point (so closest to Paris). There were few bridges over the dangerous river Loire, and Orléans had one of them, and so became, with Rouen and Paris, one of medieval France's three richest cities. But in the wider world the city is known primarily due to Jeanne d'Arc, "La pucelle d'Orléans" (Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orléans), but also to Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) - the capital of the French colony that stretched along the Mississippi River, from its mouth to its source, at the borders of Canada - named so in honor of Louis XV's regent, the duke of Orleans.