Renaissance Castle--Château de Chenonceau

We decided to head out Friday after school for the Loire Valley for a quick week-end of discovering castles from different historical periods.  After a five hour drive north we finally arrived at the Castel de Bréhémont along the left bank of the Loire River.  On Saturday morning we visited the Château de Chenonceau on the River Cher.  In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful castles and almost impossible to describe in a few lines. It is a Renaissance château but with interesting innovations:  a straight staircase instead of a spiral one and, for the first time, rooms designed around a central vestibule.  It has been called "The Château of Six Women" (two of them queens) who lent to it their womanly virtues of "beauty, charm, elegance and grace" for 400 years.  Diane de Poitiers, duchess of Valentinois and royal mistress, created a garden for royal visits and had a bridge built across the Cher to link the castle to the left bank.  Upon the death of Henry II, Diane de Poitiers was forced to give up the château to Catherine de Medici, who had a two-story gallery built on the bridge and  added a park and several out buildings.