The gallery spanning the River Cher is Chenonceau's defining feature and most photographed image. Added by Catherine de' Medici in the 1570s above the bridge that Diane de Poitiers had built across the Cher, it stretches 60 meters from bank to bank with large windows on both sides looking out over the water and the surrounding countryside.
From inside, the gallery is elegant but surprisingly restrained — a long, stone-vaulted corridor with black-and-white chequerboard floors that reflects in the river below through the glass. From outside, either from the banks or from a boat on the Cher, the view is dramatic: the five bridge arches rising from the water, the gallery balanced above them, and the main château and its turrets behind. Boat hire is available at the château for those who want the water perspective; the rowing is gentle on this stretch of the Cher.