DAY 17, OCTOBER 2, 2022 continued

Château de Cheverney

Cheverny, unusually for one of the Loire’s great châteaux, is still in the same family that builtit in 1634.. The owner’s hunting dogs are kept on the estate,

Cheverny is gloriously symmetrical with a central façade flanked by square pavilions.

The park stretches out into the distance to a canal, and at the back of the château you’ll find some serious gardens, including a potager (kitchen garden), formal walks and the ornamental pleasure garden.

Many people come to the château for the Tintin exhibition. Cheverny was the model for

Herge’s Moulinsart, so you might recognize the facade of the building from the comic strip. The

permanent exhibition is delightful, and follows the events in the books, with plenty of discoveries to be

made. It’s perfect for small children.

Walking up the main wide stone staircase and you enter a decorated world of elegance and luxury. Tapestries on the walls; painted wooden ceilings; ornate gilded fireplaces, Old Master paintings, portraits, over-stuffed chairs, ornate cabinets by Boulle so beloved by Louis XIV, half tester and four-poster beds covered in red and gold silk, and armor on the walls

its interior design and furnishings were created by a local craftsman hired by Marie de' Medici. Wallpapers feature exquisite patterns, while curtains and drapes shimmer from the natural light let in by the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Other highlights include a 17th-century Gobelin tapestry, a Boulle style chest of drawers, and a

museum dedicated to Tintin. (The estate was a model for the cartoonist Hergé, who created the popular

character.)