Chambord

When our little group decided to take a day trip to a castle, I imagined it in dark, gray, mysterious medieval, Beauty-and-the-Beast-style. Chambord, located between the Loire and Sologne, is not exactly what I imagined. First of all, it is called a chateau, not a castle. It is unique and enormous, bigger than any building I have even seen.


Chateau de Chambord

It thrilled and humbled me, as most of France did. It is, in fact, a white stone castle teeming with the kind of tourists on might find at an American amusement park. There is a beautiful sparkling moat surrounding the structure, but the most amazing feature is the staircase inside. It is a double helix, twisting around itself so that one person can walk up while the other is walking down and never pass each other. After touring the castle and dodging the Six-Flags-like crowds to get a crepe, we had to lounge around on the lawn outside the chateau for quite a while before the bus came. I guess it’s not such a bad way to spend an afternoon – lying in the shade of a sun-soaked French lawn, with a five-century-old castle stretched out before us.