GUESS WHO FINISHED THEIR DISSERTATION?! I did. Three days early. I feel reborn.
Here is the super late but much-anticipated part two of my French sojourn that was definitely in December but I'm pretty sure the castle hasn't change any since then.
After our trek through Chambord, we moseyed down to Amboise to see the château. This one was at the top of a ridge with lots of lookout towers where you could feel high and mighty, looking down on your subjects. This ridge has been settled since the Iron Age, and became important as a fortified position in the 6th century when King Clovis of France met with the Visigoths there. I laughed when I first read that bit because Clovis is the name of a crawfish in a series of Cajun children's books I read as a kid called Clovis l'Écrevisse. There was also another fancy French noble called Gaston de France who was the duc of Orléans, Chartres, Valois, Anjou and Alençon, comte of Blois (where we also went), of Montlhery and Limours, baron of Amboise and seigneur of Montages, because if you're going to have a title you should have ALL THE TITLES. His Cajun animal counterpart is Gaston Grasshopper. GOOGLE IT.
It might as well have been mine because when I turned a corner in the castle there was a SURPRISE HARP! It was right next to a gorgeous rosewood-covered grand piano, and of course both of them were by Erard Frères because if you are the Duc de Chartres you can afford super fancy instruments. It's really funny that I found a harp here because in 1782, the Duc de Chartres hired the Comtesse de Genlis as the gouverneur to his sons, which was traditionally a role for a (military) man, so of course everyone assumed the Duc was having her for a live in mistress. The Duc was the cousin of Louis XVI and his sons were fairly close in line for the throne. One of the sons that Mme de Genlis tutored would actually become King Louis Philippe I during the Restoration after they booted Napoleon out of Europe (the first time). Mme de Genlis was really unpopular because she was really outspoken about education and harp playing, to the point that people would roll their eyes when she came into a room because she just wanted to talk about harps all the time. I actually read somewhere that a woman said people would avoid her because she just wanted to talk about harps. I can kind of relate because harps are hilarious but I don't think that's what Genlis was saying. Also, she was super pretentious and though she was pretty rad, and eighteenth century nobles were big on politeness and not a fan of her always congratulating herself on being awesome.
Anyway, one of the later Duchesses had a very nice Erard harp and an almost matching grand piano. MUST BE NICE.
Must also be nice to have a great big chapel on the other side of your ridge-terrace with stained glass windows and such. This one was very gothic-looking and stone-y, but it was also really cute because it was tiny and all by itself on the edge of the ridge. They seemed to be really into putting buildings on the edge, which I would not advise, but then I suppose if you want to look out onto your dominions you need a perch. Also may have something to do with the sun and those windows...who knows what are the whims of rich aristocrats.
This place was absolutely gorgeous, especially because there were zero tourists and the weather was nice. I like these stone castles; French people knew what they were doing when it came to building big houses on rivers. I was sad because I didn't get to talk about the harp in my dissertation because it's from the early eighteenth century and I was focusing on harps before 1789. Soon I might have an actual post with lots of pictures of ridiculous gilded Rococo harps with mermaids and roosters sculptures, but that's for another day. The next post, however, will be super fancy and French indeed: my wintery trip to Versailles! Furniture! Architecture! Napoleon! MORE GOLD THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE!
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