Chambord

Dave and his mother got a chance to check out the chateau Chambord after Louise finished her two-week immersion course in French. As you can see from the picture, Chambord is quite an impressive place. One thing that we find striking is how different it is from the other chateaux we've visited so far, Chenonceau and Ferté St. Aubin. It is certainly not the case that "if you've seen one chateau, you've seen them all"!


One of the most impressive features of Chambord (which is suspected to have been designed partly by Leonardo da Vinci) is its central staircase, shown here. It forms a double-helix, so you are in fact looking at two separate staircases -- the top railing in the picture belongs to a different staircase than the bottom railing. They open into a narrow cylinder in the middle, which means that two people can ascend simultaneously and see each other the whole time even though they are on totally different sets of stairs. Molly and Betsy didn't accompany us on this visit or else we'd still be there.