Trevor Huxham

While in France’s Loire river valley in December, I visited the châteaux of Chinon and Azay-le-Rideau in the western side of the region. The fortress in Chinon really impressed me as it had some great historical connections to Eleanor of Aquitaine, a medieval ruler of southern France and a queen of England. I had intended on seeing Eleanor’s final resting place in the nearby royal abbey of Fontevraud, but I wasn’t able to visit the abbey in the off-season without any public transit connections there from Chinon. Devastated (okay, just disappointed…), I scrambled to find a replacement to fill up the day I would have spent at the abbey. Château d’Azay-le-Rideau Enter Azay-le-Rideau (pronounced “ah-zeh luh ree-doe” [a.zɛ lə ʁi.do]). Rick Steves ranked it first on his list of “Châteaux West of Tours” in his France guidebook, not even mentioning Fontevraud and putting Chinon third, so I decided to trust his recommendation and take the train bus there the next morning.

Let me preface this post by saying I am the biggest history nerd out here on the blogosphere, or at least the Spain expat one. So my turn south from Normandy and Brittany into France’s Loire river valley took me not to those stunning châteaux  (“castles”) like Chambord  or Chenonceau or but to a corner of the region that has more to do with a certain medieval king and queen of England than any Renaissance king of France. Royal Fortress of Chinon This post’s title refers to  Eleanor of Aquitaine , who was duchess of that same region in southwestern France in the 11th century, and wife of King Henry II Plantagenet of England, for a time. They had eight children together, including the crusader king Richard the Lionheart and the disastrous king John of England, you know, the one who was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1212. Eleanor herself was involved in her fair share of political and romantic drama and traveled across Europe and Palestine. She even governed Eng...