{"id":1254,"date":"2012-03-26T17:31:10","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T21:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2015-06-11T06:23:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T10:23:19","slug":"get-to-know-student-tours-to-the-loire-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/get-to-know-student-tours-to-the-loire-valley","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know: Student Tours to The Loire Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo
\nOur \u2018Get to Know\u2019 blog series gives you an in-depth look at the people, places and activities that make educational tours amazing.\u00a0 Today\u2019s post features the Ch\u00e2teau de Chenonceau, one of the most beautiful landmarks in France, and a destination available on our popular <\/em>Paris & the Loire Valley tour<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Commonly called \u2018Ladies House\u2019, or Le Ch\u00e2teau des Dames, this eleventh century castle contains remnants of France\u2019s storied past\u2014and is a focal point for some of the country\u2019s most powerful women.\u00a0 On your tour, you can view the chambers of former queens, many of which remain unchanged since their former occupants, well, occupied them.\u00a0 Enormous canopy beds, ancient silverware and immaculate gardens are some of the treasures these grand dames left behind.<\/p>\n

The first woman to \u2018man\u2019 this castle was none other than King Henry II\u2019s mistress, Diane de Poitiers.\u00a0 It is her gardens that still stand to prove the manicured horticultural beauty of the time period.\u00a0 The acres of fruit trees arranged in triangular landscape designs survived the mistress who was ousted by the King\u2019s widow, Catherine de’ Medici<\/a>, after his death.\u00a0 But it was Catherine de\u2019 Medici herself that brought the most fame to the chateau when she held the first fireworks display this side of the Pyrenees.\u00a0 One can only imagine the site of some big sparklers shimmering over Chenenceau\u2019s drawbridge.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the Palace did fall under some hard times.\u00a0 When Catherine passed in 1589, Chenonceau was inherited by her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine-Vaud\u00e9mont. After learning of her husband King Henry III\u2019s assassination, Louise added her somber touch by hanging dark tapestries embroidered with skulls and crossbones.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for the Palace (and us), things took a turn for the better in the eighteenth century whenthe current lady of the house, Madame Louise Dupin, entertained members of the Enlightenment the likes of Voltaire<\/a> and\u00a0Jean-Jacques Rousseau<\/a> making it a gorgeous artist\u2019s salon.<\/p>\n

The Madame also had good fortune to save the Castle from the destruction of the Revolution. Monarchs or revolutionaries, the women of Le Ch\u00e2teau des Dames did have one thing in common\u2014they all collected masterpieces. Rare works by Rubens, Le Tintoret and Nattier can all be seen on display in the castle. Enjoy your time wandering the halls and see how many famous artists you can discover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our \u2018Get to Know\u2019 blog series gives you an in-depth look at the people, places and activities that make educational tours amazing.\u00a0 Today\u2019s post features the Ch\u00e2teau de Chenonceau, one of the most beautiful landmarks in France, and a destination available on our popular Paris & the Loire Valley tour. Commonly called \u2018Ladies House\u2019, or Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,63,172],"tags":[58,40,240],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parents","category-students","category-teachers","tag-educational-travel","tag-france","tag-france-student-tours"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2722,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/2722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}