No matter how many visits you may have made to the eternal City, it will always have surprises up its sleeve. Sunil Mehra rediscovers paris
You’d think it would be hard to top a Nice-Cannes- St Tropez experience. Sun, sand, beach, exquisite wines, fresh seafood, leave you basking in a golden after-glow, purring with contentment. Then again, there’s Paris! Flying in from the South of France, we landed in Paris but immediately drove out to spend the night at the 1547-built Château de Chambord, a sprawling French Classical edifice which, with its profusion of towers, cupolas, gables, lanterns and chimneys, reminded Henry James more of “the spires of a city than the salient point of a single building”.
The 177km drive from Paris to Chambord through the picturesque Loire valley, favoured destination of castle-building French nobility, took just two hours. We drove in through the extensive grounds—the château is surrounded by a 52.5km/13,400acre park and game reserve encircled by a 31km wall. I gasped as the sprawling Hansel and Gretel-esque castle loomed into view.
In the foreground: four black feathered Fell ponies yoked to toy carriages giving joy rides to shiny-faced kids; in the background the massive 440-room castle which my guide told me had 282 fireplaces and 84 staircases including a unique double-spiralled staircase designed, legend has it, by Leonardo da Vinci, which allowed two people to climb up three floors without seeing each other! We walked up a simpler but quaint medieval stone staircase to our rooms in the tower for a quick wash before dinner.
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