Château de Cheverny

Thursday afternoon was a nice stop at the château de Cheverny, a privately owned (Chambord is state-owned) castle in the same département. As we piled off the bus in the picturesque little village where Cheverny is found, we started talking about how we expected the townspeople from Beauty and the Beast to appear in windows and doorways and start singing their "Bonjour" to us. It was that kind of picturesque French village.

Cheverny was built during the French classical era (17th century) and not during the Renaissance, like all of the other castles we were visiting (I didn't fall for Vincent's later trick question: Was Cheverny built during the first or the second Renaissance?). It's been in the same family since nearly the beginning.

This crazy-looking creature roamed around France about 6000 years ago. His skull and monstrous antlers were found in glacial remnants... and there was some story as to how he ended up in the castle, but I don't remember the details...

What's also special about the château de Cheverny is that it inspired the fictional château de Moulinsart in the comic book series, Tintin. Tintin is practically a religion in France - and among lots of francophile students too - so on the grounds of Cheverny, in one of the old barns, an exhibit has been set up that allows visitors to walk through various scenes from the Tintin series and see some original drawings by the Belgian author, Hergé.