Chateaus

I juggled in front of every Chateau we visited.

I saw too many Chateaus. By the end I was beginning to take these marvels for granted, as if the sweat, dirt, drama, and life that happened within those walls didn’t matter. Each chateau we visited was unique, but in some way they were all the same. For one, all the chateaus were cold. Also, each one had a history, its own story older than that of the United States, and beautiful bouquets of fresh flowers decorating its interior. And of course every chateau was stuffed with paintings, mostly either portraits of people or of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. It was as if Jesus was the Brad Pitt of the 15^th century.

But, this isn’t to say that the chateaus were all the same. Not at all. Each one had its own personality, its own feel to it. My two favorite chateaus were Villandry and Sache. Villandry wasn’t so much of a chateaux as it was an elaborate garden. As I noted in my journal “it was as if someone was painting with a paintbrush of hedges and flowers on a dirt canvas”. The sheer size and the precision with which each plant was trimmed made the garden look like less of a garden and more like a geometric painting. Chateau Sache was the complete opposite of Villandry. It was by far the smallest Chateau we visited. I liked it because it was peaceful. The morning we visited the chateau was so quiet, I could hear the leaves rustling in the trees as we walked through the mansion. I liked the simplicity of this brick mansion. It reminded me of a cabin, one that I would want to own someday. But it would have to be in the mountains, of course.

Overall, I’m very glad that my mom and I visited all of these Chateaus and remembered (if but for a moment) the exciting, happy, dull , and tormented lives of the people that lived in them. I doubt that many of the houses built today are durable enough to last 5 centuries as these have. Let’s hope we have something else to show people of the future instead.