France Guide
The Loire
Château de Chambord
The Château de Chambord (daily: April to mid-July & mid-Aug to end Sept 9am–6.15pm; mid-July to mid-Aug 9am–7.30pm; Oct– March 9am–5.15pm; July & Aug €9.50, Sept– June €8.50; 
02.54.50.50.00, 
www.chambord.org ), François I's little "hunting lodge", is the largest and most popular of the Loire châteaux and one of the most extravagant commissions of its age. If you are going to visit – and it's one of the region's absolute highlights - try to arrive early, and avoid weekends, when the crush of visitors can be both unpleasant and overwhelming. Its patron's principal object – to outshine the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V – would, he claimed, leave him renowned as "one of the greatest builders in the universe"; posterity has judged it well.
Before you even get close, the sheer gargantuan scale of the place is awe-inspiring: there are more than 440 rooms and 85 staircases, and a petrified forest of 365 chimneys runs wild on the roof. In architectural terms, the mixture of styles is as outrageous as the size. The Italian architect Domenico da Cortona was chosen to design the château in 1519 in an effort to establish prestigious Italian Renaissance art forms in France, though the labour was supplied by French masons. The château's plan (attributed, fancifully, to da Vinci) is pure Renaissance: rational, symmetrical and totally designed to express a single idea – the central power of its owner. Four hallways run crossways through the central keep, at the heart of which the Great Staircase rises up in two unconnected spirals before opening out into the great lantern tower, which draws together the confusion on the roof like a great crown.
The events and festivals calendar is a busy one, with evening lighting displays, guided nature walks, cycle rides and jeep tours in the forest, costumed tours for children and a twice-daily dressage display, among other attractions. A free leaflet available at the château gives details.