A Magical Moment

Author’s NoteWhen I visited the Castles of the Loire Valley in 1990, I had forgotten that Château Chaumont was the most perfect Fairytale Castle. In the sunshine, it looked as if it might disappear at any moment. Because it had been spared by the French Revolution, it is without exception the most exquisite Castle in France. One can well believe that the work, which began in 1519, by King François I was said by his rival, Charles the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor, to be, ‘a summary of all that human industry and belief can achieve’. Some of the rooms like the King’s Bedroom, which are furnished and unchanged, make it all the more thrilling. The successors after François’ death showed little interest in Chaumont, preferring their Royal Palace in Paris. Louis XIII made several trips to Chaumont before leaving it and the country to his brother Gaston d’Orleans. The Prince, we are told, enjoyed showing his daughter, the future Grande Mademoiselle, the tricks of the famous grand staircase whose double spirals enabled two people to go up and down at the same time without ever crossing each other’s paths. There are so many Castles to see in the Loire Valley that it is impossible to mention them all. Chaumont gave me this story and some years ago another Castle built on the edge of the dark mysterious forest of Chinon in the Indre Valley gave me another. I was inspired to write The Castle Made for Love about it, just as Perrault was inspired to write The Tale of the Sleeping Beauty. The Castles of Usse and Chaumont are the two most beautiful Fairytale buildings I have ever seen. I am sure that the other Castles one by one will become centres of romance as the years go by. We look more eagerly than we have ever done before for the real love, which seems, for the moment lost in the obsession of the media with s*x, which is not the romance for which men have fought and died for over the centuries.