Château de Chambord

Our first stop was the magnificent château de Chambord, located in the Loir-et-Cher département. The area is named after two rivers: le Cher and le Loir - not to be confused with another, larger river, la Loire, which gives its name to the region.

(this isn't my photo, but is just to show you the massive size of Chambord)

Chambord is considered #1 when it comes to architecture among the many châteaux  in the Loire. It's really quite impressive! It has over 400 rooms and was built for French king François I to use as a hunting lodge. But he only spent 40-odd nights in the place because it was too big and drafty. He preferred to ride around the countryside and "drop in" at other, smaller castles belonging to nobles. Nobles were required to keep a sumptuous bedroom always made up for the king just in case he should decide to drop in (huge honor!) and stay the night.

Leonardo da Vinci was a good friend of king François I, and was invited to built a staircase in Chambord. The staircase has a trick, though. There are in fact two staircases wrapped around together so that people going up or down one can't see people on the other staircase. Unfortunately the second staircase was closed for maintenance, so we didn't get to test the secrecy.

François I's symbol was the salamander - not the cute little ones you can find in the garden, but the mythical dragon kind that are alternately born from fire and are able to extinguish fire with their bodies. The whole château trip turned into a big game of "spot the salamander" wherever we went - François I did a lot of building in the Loire Valley!

The domain