Château de Chenonceau

Thomas Bohier bought the estate in 1513, kept the fifteenth-century keep and built a new residence over the foundations of a mill, the work largely overseen by his wife, Katherine Briçonnet. King Henry II later gave Chenonceau to Diane de Poitiers, who built the arched bridge across the Cher and laid out her garden; after Henry's death in 1559 his widow Catherine de' Medici obliged Diane to exchange it for Chaumont, and added the gallery on the bridge, completed in 1577. Louise of Lorraine, widow of Henry III, spent her mourning years here until 1601.

In the eighteenth century Louise Dupin held a literary salon at the château and, according to tradition, helped protect it during the Revolution. Marguerite Pelouze bought and restored it from 1864, and the Menier family, the chocolate makers, acquired it in 1913 and still own it. During the First World War Gaston Menier ran a military hospital in the gallery, and during the Second World War the Cher marked the line between occupied and unoccupied France, so the gallery became a discreet crossing point.

Chenonceaux is a small village in wine country between Amboise and Montrichard, where the Touraine and Chenonceaux wine appellations produce whites from Sauvignon Blanc and reds from Cabernet Franc and Côt. Goat's cheeses, rillettes from Tours and river fish are local specialities, and the area's tuffeau limestone caves are used for wine cellars and mushroom growing.