Dear Subscribers, my apologies if you received my last blog post twice in your email. I was testing out my new subscription delivery service with Feedblitz.
Last month when I was in the Loire Valley, I had the good fortune to visit three smaller, less known chateaux. I am writing about each one in a separate blog post this week and calling it Loire Valley Chateau Week.
The first chateau I visited was Château de Troussay, which has the distinction of being the smallest of the Loire chateaux. Located in Cheverny, it sits in the shadow of the mega Chateau Cheverny, which I wrote about in 2017 (CLICK HERE to read).
First built in 1450 as a simple manor house for Robert Bugy, a councilman of the town of Blois, the first recorded property deed is from 1545. Later descendants of Bugy expanded and improved the house, turning it into a chateau.
The first sale of the chateau was in 1732 to the Pelluys, a well-respected family from Blois. Part of their daughter’s dowry when she married the knight Christophe de Réméon, a descendant of a companion of Henri IV, was the domain of Troussay, hence the name of the chateau. In 1900, the chateau was sold to Count Maurice Delamarre de Monchaux, which he bought for his wife Isore Hurault de Vibraye, and it is still inhabited and owned by the family. Major changes were made to the chateau in 1900, giving it the current look.
I liked the architectural quirkiness of Château de Troussay, especially with the formal chateau juxtaposed with the manor house buildings, which housed a winery, horse stables, and food storage. Also, the chateau has English style gardens rather than the formal French, symmetrical gardens. However, there are four formal garden pavilions made of stone from the 1500s that stored gardening tools and in another quirky feature of the chateau, is the “museum”, which in fact was a tiny room inside one of the towers which displays a collection of antique dolls.
Another distinction the chateau has, is that it has the best-preserved porcupine carved out of stone in France, which is proudly displayed on rear part of the chateau.
The rooms inside the chateau were a mix of period furniture and antiques from the 17th, 18th and 19th century, and a round room which was a mixture of a salon and playroom was the most interesting.
The chateau also sells honey form their own beehives, and other local food products plus they can prepare a picnic basket to have lunch on the grounds. You can also stay at the chateau which has two suites and two cottages for rent.
Chateau de Troussay is open weekdays and weekends at 11with guided tours only, but you are free to explore the grounds after the tour.
https://chateaudetroussay.com/?page_id=1225&lang=en
CLICK HERE to watch the video on Facebook I did for Atout France last month that includes footage of the chateau.
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