CHENONCEAUX, FRANCE – Château de Chenonceau is recording more than 5,000 visits a day during France’s fifth heatwave of the summer, even as other Loire Valley châteaux report sharp visitor declines this season.
Heatwaves test Loire Valley tourism
More than half of France was placed under orange heatwave alert on 15 August, with a fifth consecutive heatwave pushing temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius in places. Loire Valley châteaux have felt the strain since early summer, with some sites down 15 to 20 percent according to the Indre-et-Loire department. Château de Chenonceau, one of the region’s best-known privately owned estates, has fared better, still drawing large numbers through the height of the heat.
Visitors weigh the heat against the heritage
Not every visitor is convinced it is worth it. Elsa, a tourist from Grenoble in shorts and a t-shirt, stopped at the misting stations before leaving and said bluntly that visiting Chenonceau in such heat was a bit mad, even “completely stupid.” Others made a more deliberate trade-off. Hélène and Philippe, from the Alps, were en route to a holiday in Normandy and paused at Chenonceau despite some hesitation about the heat. Fan in hand, Hélène said it would have felt wrong to pass up such heritage without seeing it, so they packed water, planned to sit down when tired, and pressed on with the visit.
No air conditioning, but Chenonceau has other tools
As a protected historic monument, the château cannot install air conditioning. Instead, several windows are left open along the gallery spanning the River Cher to create a draught, and a number of rooms are fitted with fans. Hélène said she and her husband had researched this in advance and found the rooms noticeably cooler than expected.
Outside, Chenonceau benefits from 60 hectares of woods and forest that visitors are free to explore, according to Caroline Darasse, the château’s head of communication. She points to natural shade as one of the estate’s real advantages during heatwaves, noting that standing beneath a canopy of trees, the temperature drops noticeably.
Visitor numbers recover after a difficult June and July
Darasse says June was the hardest month, with visitor numbers down more than 10 percent. July was, somewhat unexpectedly, less severe, down around 8 percent. August has since brought a return to the château’s usual seasonal figures, though she is cautious about how long that will hold. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, more than six in ten visitors to Chenonceau have come from within France.
About Château de Chenonceau
Château de Chenonceau is one of the most beloved and iconic castles of France. It spans the river Cher in the Loire Valley with its gallery resting on five stone piers. Construction began around 1513 under Katherine Briçonnet, wife of royal official Thomas Bohier, and the château was largely complete by 1521. King François I brought it into the Crown Estate in 1535 to settle Bohier’s debts. In 1547, Henri II gave the estate to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who had the bridge across the Cher built. After Henri’s death in 1559, Catherine de’ Medici took the château from Diane and added the two-storey gallery on top of the bridge, an 18-window room some 60 metres long, completed in 1576.
The château is nicknamed the Château des Dames, the ladies’ château, for the string of influential women, Briçonnet, Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de’ Medici and later Louise Dupin, who shaped its architecture and history. It remains one of the most visited privately owned monuments in France, second only to Versailles among the country’s châteaux.
sources: FranceInfo,
