Bathing Luxury

Bathroom mosaic, Candé.

The bathrooms at the Chateau de Candé, on the outskirts of Tours, are fine exemplars of Between the Wars bathing luxury and elegance. When Charles Bedaux acquired the place in 1927 he was the 5th richest person in the United States. He subjected the building to a complete overhaul and extensive modernisation. The house was the first private residence in France to have a telephone and 60 tons of pipes were shoehorned into the walls for that very modern indulgence, hot and cold water on tap.

Fern Bedaux's bathroom.

Although Charles was French, he had made his money in America and was a big fan of American style plumbing. The baths at Candé could be filled and emptied in under a minute decades before the surrounding village houses got piped town water.

Charles Bedaux's bath.

Susan

If you are local and visit chateaux regularly, the Conseil Général d'Indre et Loire offers a very good value season ticket to all the sites they own and manage - Chinon, Candé, Prieuré de St Cosmes, the Logis Royal and Donjon in Loches, the Balzac museum at Saché, Hotel de Gouin, the Rabelais museum at Hotel de la Deviniere, the Museum of Prehistory in Grand Pressigny and the Parc de Richelieu. The annual ticket costs €14 and gives you and your guests a discount or free entry at each of the sites. The tickets are called Cartes Ambassadeurs and can be purchased at any of the sites included in the scheme.