Bring your camera!
Chenonceaux (yes, the "x" is correct for the
village, but not for the chateau) is the best photo opp I found in rural France. I
must have wasted a hundred shots from the train in my attempts to capture a few good
photos of provincial subjects. I wanted to take home a memory of the simplistic, clean,
rustic--you know, the perfect shot, like those in travel and home-decor
magazines! Okay, so these opportunities have been "arranged" a bit for the tourist’s
convenience, but they still can’t be beat without countless hours in a car. Besides, the
village looks authentic enough! Actually, in this area of the Loire Valley, it exemplifies
the spirit of UNESCO’s World Heritage Designation for the greater area, as it is a
grouping of artisans into a community for the purpose of sharing and passing on their
cultural traditions.
Start at the railroad tracks.
The little historic
railroad building beside the track is a good shot. It may even be World Heritage, since
many of the railroad buildings in France are. Then proceed in the direction of the
ensemble of small buildings with red doors. (I don’t know what they are, but they are . . .
"idyllic," right?) After them, don’t miss the church. Go inside and find the vase of
country flowers (sunflowers for my visit) that the priest has placed right in front of the
podium--no pulpit here. (It’s a simple, unpretentious life
here--it’s a "village"!) That’s another good shot, and if that isn’t authentic--as
old as this church is? 900s?--then I don’t know what is.
Take a break. Visit the
potter.
Signs point the way. Go right on in to the compound. It’s a little
communal grouping from another era. The potter has bowls, lamps, dishes, all very nice
and priced about the same as in this country at craft markets. Large bowls and lamps can
be 100 euro, so anyone who wants a quantity of matching pottery might want to save up
for this trip. The potter’s displays and garden are photogenic, so I took pictures on my
way out.
Gastronomy is being preserved here.With only a few hundred
people, the village of Chenonceaux has an abundance of restaurants and inns, and some
are even well-known. The Hotel du Bon-Laboureur with its restaurant is known
to bicyclers who trek here to visit chateaux. It looks like a picture in a periodical
for gourmets, and it is authentic (since 1786) in its preservation of the recipes of the
Loire Valley. (I checked!) We're already planning our next visit, and it will include a stay here with dinners of coq au vin and chicken Armagnac. Several other inns and restaurants are picturesque, rather Breton-looking choices for tourists
traveling to the castles of the Loire. Best part is, we can get there effortlessly by train!
Regional Products.We followed another
sign pointing to a plant nursery, we think. At least, that’s all we found there, but we may
have been there at the lunch break before 2:00 p.m. This, too, may be a communal
setting for a number of artisans.
All accounted for, the village of Chenonceaux isn’t
too "touristy," even though it is just across the railroad tracks from the castle. Its
apparent authenticity makes a nice contrast to my album of really
touristy sites in France.