Most of Loire Valley châteaux served as vacation palaces and hunting grounds for French royalties. Some of these traditions are still on display today, and Château Cheverny exemplifies it by keeping its hounds.
The hounds are fed daily by their trainer, and it is quite an attraction. Get there early as the crowd can easily get four or five person deep (especially on weekends and summer). After sending the dogs to wait at the kennel rooftop, the trainer carts out dinner and spreads it on the floor.
The hounds are made to wait patiently for 20 minutes to half an hour until they are calm, well, as calm as hungry dogs can be, and the trainer guides them down with a whip and only allows them to eat on command.
Château Cheverny’s website (click here) has good descriptions of the kennel and a great map of the overall château complex; however, the website currently indicates 11:30am as the feeding time, but we witnessed it at 5:00pm in 2015. Therefore, you may want to call or email them ahead to confirm the actual feeding time (and please email me if the feeding time has indeed been changed and I will update this blog).
Getting there
Google Maps location for Château Cheverny is here. The best way to visit châteaux in Loire Valley is by car, as they are miles apart and public transportation can take much longer than driving.
However, if public transpiration is your only option (or if you want to visit 2 or 3 châteaux as a day trip from Paris), it is still possible. Route41 operates a châteaux circuit bus (see link here for fare and schedule; if this link no longer works, open www.route41.fr and look for link to “circuit des châteaux” or “navette châteaux”). This route originates from Blois train station and takes you to four châteaux: Blois, Chambord, Cheverny, and Beauregard. Chambord is a large estate, so it is advisable to budget sufficient time there. If you want to see the hound feeding at Châteaux Cheverny (at 5:00pm), you will likely miss Beauregard.
Train from Paris to Blois takes approximately 1 hour 30 min to 2 hours, some with connection in Orleans or Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, depending on your departure train station in Paris. It will be a very long day, but if seeing châteaux in Loire Valley has always been your dream and you only have one day, definitely go for it!