Château de Blois

The Château de Blois is four centuries of French architecture arranged around a single courtyard. Standing in the middle, one can turn from a thirteenth-century hall to a late-Gothic wing of red brick and grey stone, then to an exuberant Renaissance façade and finally to a severe classical front — each built by a different master of the house as royal taste changed. Kings Louis XII, Francis I and Henry III lived here, among others.

The oldest part is the Salle des États, one of the oldest seigneurial halls preserved in France. The entrance wing of Louis XII, from the start of the sixteenth century, still carries his emblem, the porcupine, with its motto warning that whoever rubs against it gets pricked. Francis I began his wing soon after his accession in 1515, and its octagonal open staircase, projecting into the courtyard and covered in carving, is one of the great set pieces of the French Renaissance — Balzac compared it to a Chinese ivory. On the outer side of the same wing, the Façade des Loges recalls the loggias Bramante built at the Vatican. The last wing, designed by François Mansart for Gaston d'Orléans in the 1630s, was left unfinished when the money ran out, but its disciplined Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders mark the arrival of French classicism.

The château is also a stage of history. Joan of Arc came here in 1429 to receive a blessing before setting out with her army. On 23 December 1588 Henry III had Henry, Duke of Guise, killed by his guards inside the château, and the duke's brother, the Cardinal of Guise, was murdered the next day. Inside, the study attributed to Catherine de' Medici is lined with 237 carved panels, four of which conceal cupboards opened by hidden pedals. The building was among the first placed on France's list of historic monuments in 1840, on the initiative of Prosper Mérimée, and Félix Duban's restoration of the 1860s repainted the royal apartments in rich polychrome, with thousands of fleurs-de-lis on the panelling. The Louis XII wing houses the town's fine arts museum.

Getting there

The château stands in Blois, in the Loire Valley, about 1 km from the heart of the town. The nearest airport is Tours Val de Loire (TUF), about 48 km away.