Refreshed, Protected and Conserved Interiors in the Loire Valley Chateaux

Because the Loire Valley chateaux receive a steady stream of visitors, ranging from a couple of hundred thousand a year to over a million, it is inevitable that interiors need refreshing from time to time. After all, these places are hundreds of years old, and were never built to take these sorts of visitor numbers. In order not to disrupt the peak tourist season, renovations tend to be undertaken in late winter or early spring, which is when there are the fewest visitors. The Chateau of Cheverny, for example, has been restoring the parquet floor in their high status rooms over the past couple of years. These gorgeous honey coloured oak floors in the Versailles pattern now look beautiful, and the Chateau has enhanced them with a new specially commissioned drugget in the Arms Room. And we are here to talk to you about what a drugget is* and how or why they are used. Our background is heritage conservation, including the protection and care of historic interiors, so this is definitely something we will be presenting as part of your tour.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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*A drugget is a modern sacrificial carpet, usually a long neutral coloured strip, which is laid on an original historic floor along the visitor route, in order to protect the more important floor underneath. Because it only covers the areas exposed to wear it allows visitors to see the original without them being put at risk, and without creating a visual distraction.