Loire Valley Sketchbook

Book excerpt: Few places in the world have captured visitors' hearts like France's mythic Loire Valley. Here, the shimmering limestone chateaux constructed by the powerful Valois monarchs in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries rise like mirages above Europe's most sublimely beautiful river. Not merely stone and mortar realizations of daring architectural design, these are palaces of the imagination, the grand triumphs of Renaissance Dreams. They include the hunting chateau of Chambord, and the magnificent Chenonceau, resting on graceful arches across the Cher River--and once home to Diane De Poitiers, Catherine DeMedici, and the mysterious Nostradamus. Capturing this singular mixture of natural and manmade beauty in loving brushstrokes, Fabrice Moireau collaborates with writer Jean-Paul Pigeat to bring this magical and enamoring land into the living rooms of American readers.