City Of Endless Delights

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

- Sunil Mehra

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.