Château de Cheverny

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 of the castle.