The Loire Valley

A diaphanous aura of subtly shifting lightplays over the luxuriant countryside of the Loire Valley, a region blessedly mild of climate, richly populated with game, and habitually fertile. Although it had always been viewed as prime real estate, the victorious Valois dynasty began to see new possibilities in the territory once the dust from the Hundred Years' War began to settle. This, they mused, was an ideal spot for a holiday home. Sketching, no doubt, on a tavern napkin at Blois, Louis XII dreamed of a tasteful blend of symmetry and fantasy, of turrets and gargoyles, while Anne of Brittany breathed down his neck for more closet space. In no time at all, the neighboring Joneses had followed suit, and by the 16th century the area was a showplace of fabulous châteaux d'agrément, or pleasure castles. There were boxwood gardens endlessly receding toward vanishing points, moats graced with swans, parades of delicate cone-topped towers, frescoes, and fancywork ceilings. The glories of the Italian Renaissance, observed by the Valois while making war on their neighbor, were brought to bear on these mega-monuments with all the elegance and proportions characteristic of antiquity. More »