Inside there are 4,500 works of art, tapestries, paintings and furnishings. On cold days some of the fires are lit giving it a homely feeling so that you can imagine how it must have been when the court were in residence. In some of the rooms there are actors dressed in the costumes of the day, regaling visitors with stories and anecdotes.
A new formal garden was inaugurated in 2017 with thousands of trees, plants and roses and the terrace overlooking it, with its central great lantern tower is magnificent. In the grounds, actors on horse back roam the park evoking a spirit of the past and its grand heyday.
There’s even a small village of shops, café’s, a fabulous biscuiterie where you can taste the local liqueur Chambord, wine tasting store, a 4* hotel Relais de Chambord and fabulous restaurant which overlooks the Chateau. It has to be one of the most extraordinary views to enjoy lunch or dinner anywhere in the world.
From the medieval chateaux that were the norm just decades before, the Chateau of Chambord ushered in a new style of building and a new art of living, and things in France would never be the same again.
Read more about Chambord here.
Just 3 years before that first stone was laid, 63 year old Leonardo da Vinci arrived in nearby Amboise, invited to stay in the grace and favour Chateau du Clos Lucé by his new royal patron, Francis I of France...
WHATS ON 2019: Exhibition: May to September, International architecture competition: one aspect focused on the history of the château, and one on its future, aiming to virtually transform it into a 21st-century utopian ideal. www.chambord.org