"Pierre Braunberger 95 Champs-Elysées presents" "THE BEAUTIFUL CHATEAUX OF THE LOVELY LOIRE" "O Seasons, O Chateaux..." "Narrated by Danièle Delorme" "Poems read by Antoine Bourseiller" "CHATEAU FOR SALE" "(water tower)" "Around the year 1000 Fulk The Black, Count of Anjou, was at war with Thibault The Cheat, Count of Blois." "Fulk The Black built more than 20 keeps." "The one in Langeais..." "Look." "This cedar, after the one at the Tours museum, is the largest in the region." "The one in Montrichard..." "The one in Loches..." "All in the same square style." "After the feudal wars, the crowns of France and England fought." "Sharply angled towers were built, like in Loches..." "Or round towers like in Chinon and Montrésor." "The Angers fortress was ruled by" "Fulk The Good, Fulk The Black, Fulk The Ill-Tempered and then Geoffroy The Fair, who wore broom (genet) In his hat, giving the name Plantagenet to a dynasty:" "Richard The Lionhearted, John Lackland and the good King René, his heart full of love." "The Chateau in Chinon saw the arrival of Joan of Arc... who walked through this great hall, recognized the Dauphin Charles hiding among his advisors, and promised him he would be crowned in Reims." "Chinon, with its picturesque walls, attracts Sunday painters." "Jean Schubnel, former caretaker of the Chateau, spends all his free time painting, stone by stone, the chateaux of the Loire." "He's a naïve." "He has a paper-souvenir-grocery- tobacco-haberdashery shop in Langeais." "Langeais, where Louis XI built, near the old keep, a fortified castle." "A single span, 130-meter-long sentry walk meant a besieged garrison could rapidly reach the scene of the attack." "Seen from the courtyard, the castle is austere." "Langeais is, above all, a fortress." "The high walls prevented attackers from using ladders and facilitated communication between watchtowers." "MEN" "PLUM TREES" "WIDOWS" "The construction of these high walls was supervised by Jean Bourré." "For himself, he built a different type of chateau." "The advent of the cannon had changed the art of defense." "Large moats were needed to protect against cannonballs." "The Plessis-Bourré Castle was once known as" "Plessis The Windy." "It is built of tufa, a local stone which is very soft and white and comes from quarries around the village of Bourré." "The last stone cutter," "René Hardouin, does only restoration now." "Tufa is not used in modern construction." "The wars in France finally ended." "Peace settled over the Loire Valley." "Fortresses gave way to more gracious dwellings." "In Ronsard's day there were no lime trees." "Like this chateau in Talcy, where Ronsard courted Cassandra Salviati who inspired him to write the first in his Amours series." "I would like to turn a rich yellow" "And fall drop by golden drop" "Into the bosom of my lovely Cassandra" "As her eyelids lower with sleep" "Will I never see a season bring" "Truce or peace, life or death" "To rip out the teeth Of woes gnawing me" "My heart worn down by a powerful rasp" "But Cassandra wasn't interested." "She preferred her neighbor." "And yet you do not know" "That as this lovely season, So your age will pass" "Like a flower Languishing down below" "That passing time Has failed to pluck" "You despise nature" "Are you so cruel as to scorn love?" "Here the shepherdess Spinning her spindle" "Rattles on about her loves" "And the shepherd boy Answers her song" "Here all things love" "Everything speaks of Love And yearns to burn in its flames" "Only your cold heart As the coldest ice" "Remains stubborn" "And refuses to love" "The House of Valois fell under the spell of this place and decided to bring its Court here." "Young Charles VIII wanted to build a grand residence and chose Amboise, like amber and framboise (raspberry)." "From the Ile St. Jean, formerly known as the Isle of Gold, one could see on the hillside a castle that was at the time only a fortress." "Charles VIII wanted Gothic, and the chapel was soon completed." "He drove the workers hard, making them work by candlelight." "The King's abode was soon ready." "But the King was at war in Italy." "Impressed by the gardens and palaces of Naples, he brought back Italian artists and gave them free reign." "This marked the beginning of an important artistic movement which continued under Louis XII and François I," "The Renaissance." "Charles VIII died and his wife Anne of Brittany was legally required to marry the new King Louis XII." "Their daughter Claude grew up in Amboise." "She became Queen Claude, namesake of the reine-claude plum and wife of François I." "In Blois, architectural progress is visible." "In the early 1400s, Louis D'Orléans inherited a feudal castle." "His son Charles D'Orléans..." "The world is weary of me" "And I am weary of the world ...returned to Blois after 25 years of exile and imprisonment, added on the Charles D'Orléans wing and took up poetry." "The Blois poetry contest was famous." "François Villon took part it in." "I die of thirst beside the fountain" "Hot as fire, shaking tooth on tooth" "Charles' son Louis XII built the Louis XII wing in which Italianate design elements were created and incorporated in the Gothic style." "His son-in-law François I built the François I wing where Italianate ornamentation cover the walls in the Flamboyant style." "Among the resident poets at the chateau under François I was Clément Marot." "I am no longer who I was" "And no longer will I ever be" "My lovely spring and summertime" "Through the open window have flown" "Love," "You were my Master" "I worshipped you above all Gods" "If I were born a second time" "How much better I would serve you!" "Gaston D'Orléans, in the 17th century, built the Gaston D'Orléans wing." "Blois witnessed many historical events:" "ASSASSINATION" "OF HENRI DE GUISE" "Silence on the Guise dynasty." "Silence also on all the ghostly Ladies of Chenonceaux." "Pieced together like patchwork, this legendary chateau is a whimsical collection of oddities." "On an old dungeon tower, a pinnacle." "On the foundations of a water mill, a chapel." "On a bridge, a great hall." "If Chenonceaux is full of fantasy and charm," "Azay-le-Rideau is pure Renaissance, with no surprises." "This cedar turns silver at Christmas time." "Its towers and machicolations are decorative." "Symmetry reigns." "Chambord, a royal dream castle, is full of contradictions." "The decision to build on marshland meant costly foundations." "It's a hunting lodge, built on a vast scale." "In this place of perpetual rain, terraces and rooftops were built for social gatherings." "François I probably never imagined that the 365 rooms, complete with fireplaces, would be neither furnished nor inhabited except during brief Court visits." "Or that those who would most enjoy the palace would be three generations of caretakers." "Meet the caretakers' branch of the Chambord family." "They're back again, showing off." "From their terraces, the Ladies would watch their Lords leave for the hunt with their dogs, horses and falcons." "They sashayed in Court dress through perfume stalls and ribbon shops and the balconies of this fashionable place." "In Valençay, the architecture is similar to Chambord, built on a solid foundation." "Entertainment here wasn't on the rooftops, but was nevertheless lofty." "There were perching peacocks, perching cats, and perching ladies." "The dungeon tower still exists, purely decorative." "Deprived of its raison d'être it surrenders and becomes a corner pavilion." "Like this early example in Villandry dating from the first half of the 16th century." "But the medieval moats remain." "Villandry is a model garden, French style." "Artichoke and lettuce" "Asparagus and parsnip" "And the melons of Touraine" "Are to me more royal fare" "Than all the royal meats" "Heaped upon the plate" "The vegetable gardens are ordered and decorated with extreme care." "Every detail has a meaning." "The alleys are lined with lime trees." "The maze is hornbeam." "I love to be free And long to be captive" "As for love, tragic love with its daggers and swords..." "Flighty love, fans, love letters, butterfly wings." "Tender love, hearts and flames..." "As for mad love, that's another maze!" "At Chanteloup Castle, ghost of the marshes, all that remains is a pagoda." "The Duke of Choiseul, to show appreciation to friends who remained faithful to him in exile, built this temple in their honor." "He had it engraved with Chinese characters signifying gratitude, kindness, harmony and knowledge." "Because his father was a ship owner in Nantes and in his youth adventure beckoned him," "Mr. Siffet, a General under the Empire, romantic and rich, bought some land on the banks of the Loire in order to build..." "some ruins." "Those ruins ruined him." "He would stroll the stairways leading nowhere and the unfinished rooms overlooking the water." "His whim became the strangest Loire chateau of all, known as Siffet's Folly in memory of a General who dreamt of the sea."