Blois, France a real gem

After 10 days in Paris staying with a friendit was time to move on. I had this idea to see a number of castles and this town, Blois, France, seem to have a number of castles in the area so off I went. But when I got downtown the bus schedule seemed to be sparse for the castles. By 11:30 the buses had already left and there wouldn’t be any others until the afternoon at about four or five so I decided to spend the day walking around town. What I found was very interesting. There is a castle here built and occupied by many of the kings of France for the past 800 years and there are different kinds of architecture depending upon when the structures were built to serve the king of the time. And of course there are some interesting churches and a beautiful town with a Tudor like architecture of plaster between wooden beams and supports. So I highly recommend visiting this small and very interesting town.

Blois royal château, built on a promontory high above the River Loire, forms the heart of the urban community. Around it is a bustling old town shaped by its history as a 16th-century royal town. There are several ways of getting to know Blois, a town of artistic and historic interest. You can follow itineraries indicated by brass studs on the ground, take a guided tour, or simply stroll along the streets or up and down the steps. Its diverse heritage spanning a period from the 12t to 20mh centuries, its links with. the Loire that is listed as a World Heritage site, its wide range of museums to suit all tastes, and its gardens with their breathtaking views constantly give visitors and locals alike a chance to see the town from a different angle.

Gaston d’Orléans, the son of Henri IV and Marie de’ Medici, commissioned one of the greatest transformations that the Château underwent in the 17th century. King Louis XIII’s brother and for a long time heir to the throne, he became Count of Blois in 1626 and lived there from 1634, when he launched the construction of a huge palace. The works were directed by the architect François Mansart. In 1635, a new main building was constructed at the rear of the courtyard, taking the place of the “Perche aux Bretons” building. But in 1638 the works were brought to a halt. The birth of the Dauphin Louis (the future Louis XIV) put paid to Gaston’s status as heir to the crown and to a large proportion of the financial resources granted to him by the King. Although incomplete, the new wing is a manifesto for French Classicism. It has a projecting central pavilion, a colonnade, perfect symmetry, three storeys, each with a different classical order, and two superposed pediments, all emphasising the sense of verticality. If the project had been completed, the Louis XII and François I wings would have been razed to the ground and replaced by new buildings. Gaston set up his apartments in the François I wing rather than finish the works. He died there in 1660. The Gaston wing remained an empty shell until the Château was turned into barracks at the beginning of the 19th century.