Gatecrashing my Mother’s Honeymoon!

[Music] this week I'm going to visit the chateau de chenonceau with my mother and Parsi who are on their honeymoon excited I've been here before of course but one never comes often enough to Shahnaz I only attended with the best people so I haven't met him before so couldn't you pick two finishes aren't they adorable I feel as I'm gate-crashing a honeymoon this spectacular Chateau has long been owned by very powerful women no less than five Queens and at least two royal mistresses have slept here the most powerful of these women were kattiline de Medici and Diane de Poitiers Catherine arrived from Italy to marry henry ii of france when they were both 14 years old but Henry was already enamored of his governess Diane de Poitiers they became lovers when he was about 15 and she was 35 and she ruled his heart and France until his death Diane loved hunting and was often portrayed as the goddess Diana the Huntress all he gave her this Chateau and she had the bridge built over the river so that she could get to the forest on the other side she also attributed her lasting beauty to bathing naked in the river each morning no I don't know which door Diane came out of to go swimming every day in the river but maybe those little steps down directly must have been quite a sight for the staff Catherine had no choice but to tolerate Diane during Henry's lifetime but on his death she forced Diane to swap this chateau for the Chateau de Shema which I visited in vlog 26 she immediately started improving the Chateau and added the beautiful building on to Diana's bridge between them the two rivals created a masterpiece wheat-free courtyard I'm ashamed Percy I really need a quick word with the maintenance team I think the maintenance team have taken that eye off the ball in the courtyard and I think that what we can learn from this courtyard is that it's possible to have one that isn't green and that surprises me when we have created the maintenance money but we are talking of we shall provide a maintenance account yes ah yes yes but that's where it stops you are adept at diverting funds where ever you want them to go woman yes in the first place that's all you refuse to make that list I want where the priorities to them you change them every second day you may be pleased to know that been grant and I discussed exactly putting some of this on the courtyard when they were there we don't need to stop a discussion you see this is why whims are good you have a whim you deal with it it's done well at the time we thought it was more important to build a pergola oh yes that's true it's true that the whim of the day was the pergola yes that is true and that's where the money's in wind yes all right but now new whim is courtyard so it was discussed we shall think about it again I love France I'm certainly a Francophile definitely more than you are now we're crossing the first small bridge over to the main chateau the building of which was overseen by louise de Blois Ornette whilst her husband was too busy dealing with the king's affairs and what an excellent job she did on the impose entrance doors we can see the coat of arms of Louise first of the famous women of Chenonceau here we are in Diane de Poitiers bedroom truly this must be the heart of this home and this was her actual bed I wonder what she was really like this woman who was able to enthrall a king for 25 years until his death so mummy that is the bed of Diane de Poitiers the mistress of France and apparently no bear said that he would rather spend one night in this bed alone with the memory of such a glorious mistress than to be in any other bed with real-life people about you Percy would you rather be in this bed alone with the memory of Diana you have no imagination either of you Robert was a man of great imagination the vows the bouquet the flowers everything is beautiful I love that against the tapestry and in front of Diana's bad you can see there's a little sculpture next to the bed which I suspect is Diana the Huntress we'll go and have a look yes it is there's a naked goddess Diana next to a stag hmm something tells me that maybe the portrait of Catherine de Medici wasn't looking over Diana's bed in her lifetime I suspect that was added after Catherine took over on the chimney-piece you can see catherine de medicis monogram the entwined sees next to her husband's monogram the H but when you put those two together you get this the official royal monogram to seize and an H which obviously looks rather like two DS and an H I can't help but think that this royal monogram must have been a constant thorn in Catherine's side and a small daily triumph for Diane after ousting Diane from the Chateau and moving in herself Queen Catherine choses beautiful rumours her study and what a view here on the ceiling is the original paint work with catherine's monogram so it would have been green in high day - somehow it feels right to see you in Kathleen de Medicis study I can imagine you running an empire from here I think I could grow used to it a bit you can't I can imagine Catherine here dealing with the affairs of state and planning the lavish parties that ssin also became famous for mummy's fitting right in because from that balcony five Queens attended Mass in this Chapel catherine de medici her daughters marguerite in elizabeth who married Henry the fourth of France and philip ii of spain and the wives of her three sons who all became kings of france Elizabeth Louise and Mary Queen of Scots who was married to her son Francois the Scottish guards of Mary Queen of Scots even left English graffiti in the chapel this one says man's anger does not accomplish God's justice I was thinking poor Catherine de Medici must have prayed so much she had ten children she was eight during her lifetime and a husband imagined the prayers she must have been pouring out here how frustrating it must have been to her to see her children get sick and die whilst diana seemed impervious to time she was famed for remaining beautiful later in life this portrait of her was painted when she was still very much the King's favorite at the age of 57 are you excited mommy you're about to go up the first straight flight of stairs in France this was Catherine de Medicis bedroom and it is sumptuous in the 16th century beds became status symbols and you can see that no expense was spared in this one this bed is covered in carvings and shows just how important its owner was but even the most beautiful bed in the world wasn't going to law her husband away from his mistress here we are in the Magnificent gallery that catherine de medici built over Diane de Poitiers bridge the rivers passing right below us in June 1577 catherine de medici threw a lavish party to inaugurate the opening of the new gallery in honor of her son henry the 3rd this Bacchanalia came to be known as the ball of the naked breasts she wanted to quash rumors that her son would be incapable of producing a royal heir because he liked dressing up as a woman and hanging out with his male friends a lot so she invited all of the most beautiful women of the court 60 of them to come bare breasted clad in diaphanous transparent fabrics and served the dinner the feast was so lavish that she had to take out a loan just to cover the cost apparently it was the same cost as an entire army stephanie's are more important things in life and I found it absolutely surprising that Catherine de Medici who had that's so many unhappiness is in her life was so interested in parties but he in terms of human did she actually enjoy partying or was it means in a way to control her people I think probably the latter surely I just need to inspire mummy to get into the party spirit show us how it's done mummy is that is that it that's your dance Oh mommy is getting into the spirit of the dance look at that grace and elegance I can practically hear the elegant music can see the dashing quarters dancing around her when I see why isn't he dancing with you how have we managed to lose Percy oh that man I lost him in the lounge several times now he's disappeared I lost him in cramming them here we should be worried because it doesn't speak a word of French [Music] [Music] of course I'm pleased you're worried mysterious why do you always go you're quite an eel of a man anyway I'm very glad you're back every five minutes as a child visiting this Chateau I remember being a little bit disappointed in the gallery which is ridiculous because it's the most famous thing about the shuttle darshan or saw but it's just a place for prom annada up and down and is only used at parties other than that there's no furniture in it and if I ever had the chance to take over the living in this Chateau I would make the entire gallery into a glorified bed set I'd have a beautiful full poster bed library squishy sofas everything in this room just the kitchens downstairs and I think I'd never leave it but this galleries also been used for far more important things than dances in the Second World War the river share was the line between the occupied zone and free France and this gallery was used to smuggle resistance members into the free zone do earnings whoo here to get free from the Germans okay station yeah new way of looking at the gallery now we're off to see the kitchens which in the pillars of the bridge over the share imagine the bustle down here as the staff prepared for the lavish parties above even in the kitchen I'm really excited to see the baguette molds here because last month I went to a poor can't with Mattie and bought three of them for our bread oven room as well the wicker baskets that French bakers use to fruit that I get before putting them in the bread oven well I think we might need to put new oil in them fast and back inside the chateau de chenonceau I'm feeling just a little bit smug at the fact that our bread oven is much bigger than theirs I think yes quite surprised that our scooters this was the servants dining room and judging by the size of that fire it must have been one of the warmest places in the Chateau here's the Magnificent kitchen built into the archway of the bridge and I can't wait to show you the cooker look it's the same as the one at Leyland unbelievable though our coppers really not that shiny one of the things that I love most about this Chateau is that walking through it is like walking through every aspect of womanhood from powerful politician to devout worship her through lover mother wife and up in the attic widow this was the bedroom of louise de lujan the widow of catherine de medicis son henry the third he never did provide her with an heir to france but she loved him dearly and after his death she cloistered herself away in chenonceau she dressed in white from that day forward and had a bedroom painted black covered with white ostrich feathers of mourning it is a deeply gloomy place I think it's fair to say that Louise had a bit of difficulty moving on we're in the Gift Shop and Maddie is with us in spirit because there's this stunning book called the bouquets of Chenonceau and I'm thinking of her flower arrangements these are exquisite I love this one with the green bean still in their pods absolutely heavenly we musty things like this at Nylund Molly come back I've got new ideas I've absolutely loved this voyage through woman heard at the chateau de chenonceau and I'm inspired to spend the rest of my life trying to leave behind a fraction of the beauty thank you so much not to do some still her daughter came to I knew I'd managed to persuade them to come on honeymoon with me yes Jerry eat your heart out you're gonna have to pull something major out of the bag to get them to go on honeymoon with you Buckingham Palace perhaps gerald you you

Channel: The Chateau Diaries

Views: 88,664

Keywords: escape to the chateau, escape to the chateau diy, chateau life, french château, chateau diaries, stephanie chateau, loire valley, chateau tour, french chateau, chateau de chenonceau, chenonceau chateau, loire valley chateaux, chateau chenonceau, life in a chateau, catherine de medici, diane de poitiers, catherine de medici and henry, real life lore, chateau de la lande blog, chateau de la lande escape to the chateau, secrets of history, chateau secrets, chateau intrigue

Id: PYa1g1wCpro

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 19 2019