Chenonceau

I Another castle started in the 16th century by a noble couple is next up for us. The couple fled after an embezzlement scandal and King Francois seized it for the crown.  His son Henri II came here often and gave the castle to his mistress Diana de Poitiers (she's a cougar!). 

After he died in a jousting match in the Marais district of Paris, Diana is asked to leave and is given a different chateau instead which was too medieval and not nearly romantic enough compared to Chenonceau. His wife Catherine de Medicis took over the chateau and added on her own formal gardens and enlarged the castle.  It was her ultimate revenge for Diana stealing her husband. 

The castle was really feminized by Diana and she built beautiful French style gardens.  Catherine expanded from the castle over the river in a style that makes it so distinctive. Diana's gardens are French in style and Catherine's are Italian in style which always has a fountain and they are on opposite sides of the main castle. 

The chateau served as a war hospital during World War 1. In the gallery that was above the river bridge, the recuperating soldiers fished from their beds in the river below and a bell would ring when a fish bit on the hook. During World War 2 it was the dividing line between the Norrh occupied zone and the free Sourh zone which kept it from being dismantled in the war.