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The Renaissance kitchens, built into the piers of the bridge

The short version: the kitchens at Chenonceau are inside the stone piers that hold the bridge up. The operator’s guide leaflet places them exactly there — “the Renaissance Kitchens, built into the piers of the bridge” — which means the household cooked inside the foundations of a river crossing, directly below the gallery. They fall between the Gallery and the François Ier Salon on the visitor route, and the standard ticket covers them.
WhereInside the bridge piers
Directly belowThe gallery
On the routeAfter the Gallery
FloorGround
In the ticketYes
Adult admissionAbout nineteen euros

What is unusual about them

Most great-house kitchens are in a wing, a basement or a separate block, at a distance from the dining rooms calculated to keep the smoke and the smell away. These are in the middle of a river. The piers that carry the bridge are substantial enough to hold rooms, and the rooms they hold are the working ones.

Stand in them and the structure of the whole building is legible in a way it is not anywhere else: the same masonry that takes the weight of a 60-metre gallery takes the weight of a kitchen range, and the water is on the other side of the wall. Everything that came into that kitchen crossed either a bridge or a river to get there.

A vaulted stone kitchen with copper pans ranged along the wall
The Renaissance kitchens are built into the piers of the bridge and they are on the standard route, at no extra charge.

Where they come on the route

The operator’s leaflet takes you through the Green Cabinet and the Library, into the Gallery, and then down into the kitchens before bringing you back up through the François Ier Salon and the straight staircase. So the gallery and the kitchens are consecutive, which is the right order: you cross the bridge, then you go inside what is holding it up.

The full sequence is on what to see, and the kitchens count as one of the seventeen interior spaces the leaflet names — the working is on how many rooms there are.

Why this is the part people describe afterwards

The operator names the kitchens and locates them in the piers of the bridge and stops there, which is the right amount to know in advance. They take about ten minutes on the route, they are on the standard admission, and they are the rooms visitors talk about when they get home.

Insider tip

Do the kitchens on the way through rather than doubling back. The route runs one way and the stairs are narrow, and on a busy afternoon in July the flow through this part of the house is the slowest in the building.

Book the admission
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

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Frequently asked questions

Where are the kitchens at Chenonceau?

Inside the piers of the bridge, directly below the gallery. The operator’s guide leaflet describes them as the Renaissance Kitchens, built into the piers of the bridge.

Are the kitchens included in the standard ticket?

Yes. They are on the operator’s own visitor route, between the Gallery and the François Ier Salon, and the standard admission covers the whole route.

Why are the kitchens in the bridge?

Because the piers carrying the bridge across the Cher are substantial enough to contain rooms, and the household put its working rooms in them.