Thursday 4th October 2012 - Ouchamps

The weather for the last few days has been unsettled with some rain at night and, during the day, a mixture of bright sunlight and occasional drizzle but not enough rain to stop us doing anything. Yesterday evening we had a heavy shower and more rain during the night. We woke to leaden skies and it was soon raining, looking set in for the day. We weren't in a hurry to get going but when we did we were surprised to see the heavy cloud moving away to be replaced with blue skies and sun.

We drove to Bracieux to check out a campsite, one of the very few that are open after the end of September, and finding that it looked very pleasant, noted it as a potential place to stop tonight.

A few miles further on we arrived at the magnificent Château of Chambord, the largest and most visited château in the Loire valley. We were still in the La Solonge area and has passed more lakes and signs warning of those elusive deer and wild board. We passed another such sign as we entered the walled royal estate of Chambord, an area of 54 square kilometres, the largest hunting estate in Europe. Jane was just saying “I can't see any ...” when she said “Yes I can” and pointed to a family of wild boar, two adults and one young. The vast majority of the estate is a 'no stopping, no walking' area reserved solely for the use of high-ranking members of the French Government. However, this is great news for the wildlife (apart from when they are being shot!) and they thrive in the reserve. We slowed down but had to content ourselves with a brief view of the wild boar.

As you can see from the photograph, the château is a very attractive building with a wonderfully ornate roof area. At the age of 25, King Francis I initiated the project of building the château in 1519 but when he died in 1547, having only spent a total of 72 days there, it was not completed. By this time, only the keep and the royal wing had been built. Francis used Chambord as a very sophisticated hunting lodge and only stayed for a few days at a time whilst hunting in the park. He apparently found it cold and draughty in the Winter and as it was surrounded by marsh, mosquito-infested in the Summer. The château has had a chequered history with periods of neglect interspersed with periods of building and improvement. Over the centuries, the marshes were drained, a curtain wall built and many more rooms and embellishments added. It is now 156 metres long, 56 metres tall, has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms!

We spent about 3 hours wandering around the interior the highlights being the double spiral staircases in the centre of the keep and the views of the magnificently carved roof structures from the balcony.

There are 10 square kilometres of the estate are open to the public and are freely accessible at any time. We had obtained a map of walking routes from the information desk by the car park and, given that the weather was still sunny and warm, we set off into the woods to search for deer and boar. Immediately we saw many signs of boar with disturbed ground everywhere but we did not catch sight of any animals even from the observation towers. To be fair, the time to see them is really at dawn and dusk, especially the deer at this time of year when it is rutting season. The walk was however very pleasant although some confusion was caused by the green and blue routes on the map being reversed by the the route markers on the trees. One of the people responsible was obviously green / blue colour-blind.

We had contemplated staying the night in the aire at Chambord but felt that the additional €20 fee was a little steep given that there are no shower or toilet facilities. Instead we just paid the €6 parking fee (this could be avoided by parking in the forest car parks and walking in) and headed off to the aire at Blois.

We normally try to arrive at our next stop by 17:00 but it was gone 18:00 when we arrived at Blois to find that the aire no longer exists. There were no signs to the aire and there was no sign of motorhomes parked where our book suggested that it should be. A reappraisal of our options was undertaken and we drove on about 9 miles to Ouchamps where we found the aire by a lake on the edge of the village.

Photos: Château Chambord; Roof detail; The double-spiral staircase at the centre of the keep.