Despite its 282

Despite its 282 fireplaces, Chambord was so vast, it was rarely warm in the castle. through augmented reality on a HistoPad tablet, also available at the Château de Chambord. Commissioned by 16 th century King François I as a party palace, this vast turreted castle was only furnished when the monarch arrived to host hunting parties and balls. Louis XIV stayed at Chambord in the 17 th century and today the Royal Apartments are decorated in 18 th century style. Every Loire Valley Château, large and small, has its own USP. The Château de Cheverny, for instance, has always been occupied, so its ornate interior contains furnishings and collectables from many different periods. More modest in size but thoroughly magical with its turrets and moat, the fairy tale castle of Azay-le-Rideau celebrates its 500 th anniversary this year with a programme of exhibitions, illuminations and concerts. And the Renaissance exterior of Château de Candé hides an early 20 th century interior commissioned by American industrialist Charles-Eugène Bedaux. Stone balcony look familiar? Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor married at Candé in 1937, posing for photos at the top of the exterior stairs. Step inside to visit the scene of this historic wedding and discover the secrets of Wallis’s wardrobe. Grand Designs Perhaps inevitably, the largest properties cluster around the capital, some built from Inside Wallis Simpson’s wardrobe at the Château de Candé © Gillian Thornton scratch, others the result of major remodelling across the centuries. Some had royal owners, others imperial, whilst a few grand houses personified the aspirations of upwardly mobile owners, such as Nicolas Fouquet, Finance Minister to the young Louis XIV. Fouquet held a lavish party at his new home, Vaux le Vicomte, set in an extravagant landscaped park south-east of Paris, but far from being impressed, his royal boss was insanely jealous. Fouquet was imprisoned on Château of Azay-le-Rideau Dining at Vaux-le-Vicomte - enough to make a king jealous fraud charges and Louis employed Fouquet’s architect and garden designer to build him something even better, the palace we now know as Versailles, west of the capital. The ‘Sun King’ commissioned an enormous Stunning décor and furnishings at the Palace of Fontainbleau palace and park, the ultimate in 17 th century bling as befitted a style-obsessed court that followed the monarch’s every whim. Anything but homely in atmosphere, it is nevertheless one of France’s must-see Châteaux. So too is the Palace of Fontainebleau, a royal residence from the Middle Ages to the 19 th century. Renaissance king François 1 turned the town’s medieval castle into an Italianate royal palace that became an Imperial palace after the Revolution and, in 1814, was the scene of Napoleon 1’s abdication. North of Paris, the vast Château of Compiegne also had a royal pedigree, built by Louis XV and Louis XVI, but remodelled under Napoleon I and Napoleon III. Visit the lavish apartments of the First and Second Empire that contain many of the original furnishings and imagine yourself as one of the 100 guests invited every autumn by Napoleon III for a month of hunting, excursions and concerts. Further afield There are enough castles around Paris and the Loire to delight the most enthusiastic heritage fan, but every region has its own desirable properties. Between Paris and la Loire, the 26 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 27