Château de Cheverny — Attraction in Blois

Having visited some of the other incredible castles in the region, including Chambord, Villandry, and the stunning Azay-le-Rideau, I can confidently say your money is better spent elsewhere. I love this region, and have otherwise thoroughly enjoyed my time here, but I was sorely disappointed with our visit of Cheverny. Within ten minutes of entry, it is quite obvious that the current owners have set out to make as much money as possible, with little regard for the visitor experience. They could do with sending some of their profits towards the management of the property. The gardens were filled with dying flowers and the toilets were tiny and dirty. Very little efforts have been made to manage crowd flow, despite the enormous volume of visitors, as there is no possibility to purchase online tickets, let alone timed tickets, creating queues at multiple points of the visit. They have clearly aimed to maximize ticket sales. Inside the castle itself, visitors are forced to follow an imposed route through the building, and with the crowds, we ended up shuffling single file most of the way, with only a minute to spare to peek into many of the rooms before the queue moved forwards. Very little explanation or historical context was given for any of the castle features, both on the pamphlets or on the information panels in the rooms themselves (of which there were few). Finally, the beautiful historic interiors have been marred by an excessive amount of tacky Easter decorations (we visited end of April). Each room is overcharged with kitschy plastic eggs, giant Easter bunnies, and other knick knacks that look like they were purchased on AliExpress. There are also several silly Lego constructions throughout the castle. These contemporary additions overwhelm the otherwise impressive historic castle and really take away from the authentic experience. Upon exiting through the rear of the castle, the beautiful view of the facade is ruined with a giant tacky wrapped gift box, which has apparently been installed to celebrate 100 years of the castle being open to visitors. It is truly a shame that the current owners seem to be more interested in creating an overpriced theme park rather than giving a true platform to the history and culture...

If you love dogs start your visit at 12:00.

I'm a professional dog training and behaviourist, I have nearly 20 years of experience, I hope that many people will share my point of view and starts to say -no- to this daily abuse. Go to the castel, but just wait until the "dog abusing shows" is done.

The Castel is nice but sadly they ruined an entire floor putting a "lego" advertisement contest. You have the feeling of walking into a fake "funfair castel" or a "doll's house" but not in a "real" historical place; power of money (?) The worse part of the visit was the "dog's feeding show". They allowed the keeper to use pressure, force, intimidation and a whip (??!!??) just to put him in a "wow" situation in front of hundreds of people.

The dogs have to face a very stressful situation (every day of their miserable life) because the keeper put them out altogether and let the dogs "wait" until he decides that there is "enough" people for his personal show. Then he prepare the food, but still the keeper use pressure (no needed with just common sense, they don't have to be "professionals") to let the dogs "waits" his will (poorless man). I Know that many people react with genuine surprise, to this animal abuse, but I also saw the fear in the mummy eyes when they realize that the little hands of their childern were just few cm from the mouth of 100 very stressed dogs. I heard lots of shout: "be careful" , but still no mums come to protect them form the abusing show. All that mums just forgot who put the children in that situation. I know many of you are thinking that I'm exagerating the fact (I'm not and I'll post the entire video about it), but let see my point of view: if you are interested in the dog wellbeing your first step will be to prepare the food AND then you open the cage let the dogs eat quietly. If your kennel host 100 dogs you can afford 100 bowls and if you cannot, then you are aware about the abuse. But it is CRISTAL CLEAR that no ONE cares about the dog's welfare.

Suggestion for the Castel manager: Find a professional dog keeper because I've seen many dogs with fresh and old wounds, many of them were bleeding; how many pictures of enjury you need to stop this...

Worst experience of castle visiting. Most rude and unprofessional staff ever seen. Very bad attitude! We drove two hours to visit this castle but only got offended and humiliated. My one year old daughter was sitting on a chair which is for the visitors to have a rest, and then she stood up to look out of the window just for a few seconds. Her shoes are very clean because she barely walks. But suddenly a staff came and pulled her off the chair and didn’t even bother to explain much! We were very shocked. She was quiet and not naughty at all. We explained to the staff that he cannot touch our baby and drag her down the chair which is not forbidden to sit on. He was very rude and suggested our baby to climb up the furnitures in the other castles and called us unbelievable. This is even more rude and humiliating! We have visited tens of castles in France over the years and this is the first time we have been treated so badly! The castle owner should pay more attention on the training of the staff. Not recommended to the people who know France. Not a lot of history to see. Every room is locked behind the chains and too many tourists waiting in line to take photos...