Trifter

The Loire is still a wild river. Ask anyone who navigates on it and they’ll tell you how it changes shape almost every year; old sandbanks disappear, and new ones rise out of the water. Visit any of the riverside towns and if you keep your eyes open, you’ll probably see records of the levels past floods have reached, sometimes two or three feet above street level. Beavers live on the islands in the stream (they were reintroduced to France some years ago), and herons stalk the shallower waters for their prey.

But while the river itself is still wild, the countryside is very much tamed. By the river you’ll find orchards; on the slopes above, often well hidden from the passer by, are vineyards, and on the plateau to either side wheat waves in the sun. This was Rabelais’ native countryside – a writer renowned for his rudery, but also for his vivid descriptions of food and wine.

For a hundred years this was the French kings’ favourite home. Francois I – the king who brought the Renaissance to France, a contemporary of England’s Henry VIII – came here to hunt and to drink. You’ll see his heraldic badge, the salamander, everywhere along the Loire; at Blois, it decorates the spiral staircase he added to the castle, while at Chambord the coffered ceilings alternate salamanders with the crowned initial ‘F’.

Start off on the river Cher, which runs into the Loire, at Chenonceau. The little square fortress was built on an island in the river by Thomas Bohier, in the sixteenth century, replacing an earlier keep. The round turrets and pinnacled dormer windows are still Gothic in form, but the decoration was in the new Renaissance style. Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, moved in here – but when her king was killed in a tournament, the widow kicked her out and moved in herself.

It’s to that widow, Catherine de Medici, that we owe the newer part of the chateau, a long gallery built on a bridge over the Cher. While you could still call Bohier’s castle Gothic in form, you couldn’t make that mistake here – it’s lovely mannerist architecture; in fact it reminds me just a little bit of the Uffizi in Florence with its subtle rhythms. Walk through the gallery, and you can come out on the other bank of the Cher, in dense moist woodland, far removed from the formal gardens on the other side.

Fine art fans will find Chenonceau one of the most interesting chateaux, with some fine small paintings – a Veronese head, two Tintorettos, and a Poussin, among others. It’s also notable for its fine flower arrangements – changed daily, and supplied from the castle’s own gardens.

Amboise was a royal castle from early days, built on a bluff above the Loire with the town huddled at its foot. The tiny Gothic chapel sits on a high rocky spike, and to get into the castle you take a ramp up through the solid rock. This is one of the castles Francois I took over from his predecessors – in fact he was largely brought up here, and when he was made king, he brought Leonardo da Vinci to live here, and added Renaissance rooms to the castle.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the castle, though, isn’t the royal apartments, splendid though they are, but the special ‘underground’ tour that takes you through the Gothic staircases, halls and passages below. Atmospheric and at times spooky, it’s highly recommended though it does cost extra.

I find it hard to recommend a visit to le Clos Lucé, Leonardo’s mansion, about a kilometre away from the castle. It’s a pleasant enough house but little remains from Leonardo’s time there – the recreations of his machines, including a Renaissance version of the military tank, are all modern.

Head along the Loire to Chaumont and you’ll find another blend of Gothic and Renaissance, a geometrically precise castle with its round towers flanking the entrance, and a courtyard facing the Loire. (Originally, a fourth wing would have closed this off, but it was removed in the eighteenth century.) The spiral staircase is delightful, with fine ornament carved in the soft ‘tuffeau’ stone of the region.

Chaumont is also a centre for modern art and garden design. There are always exhibitions in the castle and extensive grounds. I was touched, too, to find the gravestone of Mademoiselle Pundji, the family’s pet elephant, tucked away in a corner of the gardens.

Your next stop is the city of Blois - a city with some fine half-timbered houses and Renaissance mansions, but notable above all for its royal castle. Here you can see four ages of architecture – probably the most complete architectural history you’ll get anywhere in a single building. There’s a huge, simple thirteenth century Gothic hall, a late Gothic wing erected by Louis XII with his porcupine symbol displayed prominently, a Renaissance wing by Francois I, liberally speckled with salamanders, and a Baroque wing which was added in the 1630s by Gaston d’Orleans.

Make time to see the city – particularly the historic quarters underneath the rather boring cathedral, and the lovely rose garden by the town hall (previously the bishop’s palace). Little brass studs lead the way around four different walking routes – you can get the map from the tourist office near the castle for just a few cents.

The final stop on the tour is perhaps the greatest of all the Loire chateaux, Chambord. Francois I built it not as a royal castle, but as a hunting lodge, and in his entire reign only spent about thirty days there – but it’s massive, and designed with impressive rigour, around a central double-spiral staircase and cross-shaped gallery. Four huge corner towers dominate the central mass, and it’s crowned by the most amazing exuberance of turrets and pinnacles. It’s as if up to roof level, Francois could manage to keep himself to Renaissance rules – but as soon as he got up on the roof, the native French Gothic asserted itself and burst out into spirelets and spikes.

The forest around Chambord is still a hunting preserve, where you can see deer and wild boar. It’s worth taking some time to walk in the green woods – and get away from the crowds, which here as elsewhere in the Loire valley can be oppressive.