Today we visited the Château de Chenonceau, a castle extended on water from its original plan in the 11th century. Examining its lifeline, it seemed to accumulate a succession of extremely clever, strong, beautiful ruling women. Something I had not come across in France’s many castles. As I traversed through the dense shifting crowds of tourists, I came across this explanation by a female French academic. It seemed to encompass lingering thoughts, (especially since our home now was a castle too) in a descriptive short manner that would have potentially taken me several months or several pages to execute.
My favorite line – Let’s give a thought to some other successive occupants of the chateau, anonymous inhabitants who are far more numerous than those we know or believe we know…