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Good morning, I am Mathilde and with me you will visit the interiors of the Wing Francis the 1st and also the Hall of the Estates General. First of all, I will give you some elements about the wing Francis the 1st, then we will enter in the Hall of the Estates General and after that I will introduce you the interiors of the wing Francis the 1st. If during the visit, you have any question don’t hesitate to ask me.

First of all, there are some elements you must know. For example that Francis the 1^st become king when Louis the 12th dies that is to say the 1^st of January 1515, when he is 20 and that at this time, he is married with Claude de France who was raised in Blois and who really loves the castle of her childhood. In June 1515, the king begins a new place of Renaissance inspiration with the famous spiral staircase that you have seen some minutes ago.  The works last until September 1518. It seems that Francis the 1^st gave precise instructions. It would have been probably Dominique de Cortone or Il Bocador who was consulted for the construction of this wing. This person also made a model for the castle of Chambord. However, the construction of the wing was made by Jacques Sourdeau who has been in Blois since 1502. From 1534 to 1535, it is the works on the framework which were undertaken. As far as the furniture and the book case are concerned, they were transferred in 1539 in Fontainebleau.

I will ask you to follow me in order to speak about the Hall of the Estates General. This room was built by the Count Thibaut the 6^th in 1214. It is the oldest part of the castle remaining but also the oldest gothic room of France. It was used for parties but it was also used twice as a hall of justice. Indeed, when Henri the 3^rd was king, the political action became really important and he convoked twice the Estates General during the religious wars. In 1576, it was ask to suppress the protestant religion and in 1588, it is here that the murder of the Duke Francis of Guise will be decided after the king pretended to reconcile with him. This room of 500m² was restored by Felix Duban from 1861 to 1866 who also restored the Saint Chapel of Paris, which is of the same period of this room. The room still has its original layout that is to say its two naves covered by a wooden barrel vault and separated by an arcade of columns with capitals. It also still has a stain glass window of the 13^th century, this one. Felix Duban restored also the painted decoration inspired by the 13^th century polychromy, the gable with the big stain glass windows of the 17^th century and the neo gothic staircase. As for the mullioned windows, they were made in the 15^th style.

We will continue the visit with the second floor and the bedroom of Henri the 3rd. First of all, you must know that is was not really a bedroom, that is to say that this room was used to receive persons, but that when they were left, the bed was unsettle and the tapestries picked up. So, after the passage of the persons the room was empty. The bed is a four-poster bed of the 16^th century which columns are painted with gold and which feet are lion’s feet. This bed is not the original one but the one of the Louvre. It means that if the Louvre wants to bring it back, it can. It is also said that it was in this room that the Duke of Guise was murdered in the 23^rd of December of 1588 and that he fell down next to the bed from his 2,06m after being purchased by 8 soldiers of the king. But it’s wrong; he was hidden in the new office, so he couldn’t be murdered here.

I will now show you a really special room, the Queen Office or « Chamber of Secretes » like in Harry Potter. This room is the only one of the castle to have conserved its original decoration which was a bit restored by Felix Duban for example the ceiling and the chimney. So, it is the only royal office of the Renaissance of the 16^th century remaining in France. We can see here a wooden paneling of 237 panels sculpted with candelabras and painted in a gold color, as it was really liked in the years 1520’s. This office hides 4 secrets cupboards with a secret mechanism and the cupboards themselves hide Renaissance books and objects. As Catherine de Medicis was not really liked, it is said that the cupboards were secret and were hidden poisons whereas they were hidden for esthetical reasons. It was possible to open them putting out the bottom of the furniture, here where there is a pedal which permitted the opening of the cupboard, that’s why this office was also known as the Chamber of the Secrets. Moreover, this office called the Queen Office was indeed made for Francis the 1^st.Finally, this door is the limit of the wing dedicated to the king.

Follow me. Here, we are in the bedroom of the queen Catherine de Medicis. This bedroom is also a decorative one, because, there weren’t bedroom at this time. The bed was here in order to sit down and was called decorative bed. You have certainly noticed this monogram: it permits to confirm that we are for sure in the rooms of Catherine de Medicis, wife of Henri the 2^nd because the two C are for Catherine de Medicis and the H for Henri the 2^nd. But there are two others hypothesis : the first is that the C reversed could be a D for Diana of Poitiers, the person that Henri the 2^nd preferred but it is difficult to believe it because Catherine de Medicis wouldn’t have appreciated the joke!! However, it could be a D which means the Second because in French Second is deuxième for Henri le Deuxième. It is also the room in which Catherine de Medicis died in the 5^th of January of 1589.

Now, we will pass through a room which corresponds to the queen’s gallery. We won’t stay a long time here but I will tell you a few words about it. The floor you see here, Francis the 1^st didn’t see it because it is a reproduction of the Middle Age’s one. During the reign of Francis the 1^st it was a floor of earthenware which was really damaged because it was covered by tar when the castle was a military barracks. I add that the rooms of this wing were used from 1515 to 1575. And then from 1788 to 1845 these rooms were used as barracks.

We will finish the visit with this last room: the king’s room. It is of Renaissance style and as the other rooms, the shapes and colors used on the walls were based on illuminations and tapestries of this period. The furniture you can see is of the 16^th century but is not of the castle of Blois because the castles hadn’t a lot of furniture and that the royal furniture was not as sober as that. They were covered by tissue, were incrusted with precious stones…etc. However, the throne that you can see here was made in 2007 in the style of the royal furniture of the 16^th century. The two chimneys were restored as the original ones. In this room, we can also see two letters: the C and the F as well as two animals: a salamander and an ermine. Indeed, Francis the 1^st is represented by his monogram F and his emblem, the salamander. As for the C and the ermine, they represent Claude de France, the wife of Francis the 1^st.