Sep 26, 2012 - The Valley of the Castles

The reason to come to the Loire Valley is the great Chateaux that are all over this part of the country. We've spent the last two days in and out of 5 of them. Of course there is the one we are staying in too, but it is just a guest cottage compared to the others. They are all beautiful in their own right and each of them has some reason to leave you filled with awe. The one thing in common with all of them is that they were (and in the case of one of them still is) the homes of the very privileged. In some ways I would want to say that the...

Sep 24, 2012 - French Country

Just a short update today! From the full out hustle bustle of Paris to a really delightful stay in a country chateau. We're in a house dating to the 1600's in the countryside. The house was formerly owned by the Baron Latour. It has now been operated as a hotel for 30 years. We arrived here by (a) TGV or the French version of a bullet train with speeds up to 320km. We then rented a car and drove here through some pretty neat country. After a bit of touring around we hit the local supermarket for some supplies for in room dining. What a...

Sep 12, 2012 - Chateau Villandry

Left the hotel at 8:30 to meet our bus at a town square for a day of 2 chateaus. (This Loire Valley claims to have 1,000 chateaus!) After 1 ½ hr. ride through pretty rolling countryside we came to the village of Villandry with its chateau with the same name [Ville an dree]. The chateau, built in 1536 with little remaining by 1906 when Joachim Carvalle bought it and restored it, was nice...but...the attraction is the marvelous 16th century gardens he created! They rival Versailles (we think) in beauty; these have colorful flowers in many of...

Sep 12, 2012 - Chateau Azay-Le-Rideau

It was only a 25 min. ride to the town of Azay-Le-Rideau [Aahzay ler ree dough] to see its chateau by that name. We toured the 19th century Renaissance structure, starting with an audio guide we soon stopped using and just walked through. (The numbering in the chateau was confusing and listening to it slowed down the traffic flow so a lot of us gave up.) This chateau was a bit of a let down after having seen Villandry earlier. We had time in Azay Le Rideau to walk the tiny village to find a tiny boulangerie [boo launger aay] (bakery) for a...

Sep 11, 2012 - To Chinon

With some sprinkles on the bus windshield we headed into the thick of Paris rush hour traffic at 8:30. What a mess! So fortunate we are headed out of the city; we passed miles of crawling traffic trying to go in. Our first stop was the village of Amboise [aah boiss] for lunch before traveling on to see the beautiful Chateau Chenonceau [Chen on sew] which we'd seen before. (We stayed on the bus and read.) From there to Chinon [She no] and our quaint hotel for 2 nights. The bus could not negotiate the narrow street leading to Hotel Diderot so...

Sep 3, 2012 - Chenonceau

Ali and I had saved possibly the best chateau until last. We woke up this morning to head to the chateau known as the "Château des Dames", or the ladies chateau. The chateau was only a short drive from where we were staying, about 10 minutes. Our hosts at Manoir du Parc had told us how magnificent the place was, but advised us to either get there for opening time, or 1 hour before closing, as they get over 6000 people a day. This may not seem a lot, but when we actually saw the size of the chateau, 6000 a day could make things very...

Sep 2, 2012 - Amboise & Chambord

Today we are going to head out to look at Chambord, and drive along the Loire to see what is in the other direction. However, firstly in the morning, I took a quick walk to the open air market by the riverbanks whilst Ali took some time to recover from a bit of a bug. It was quite an interesting sight to behold, looking at all the fresh produce. There were lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as fish. Every 5th stand seemed to be either selling sausages (special local varieties) or cheeses (mainly goat, specialty of the region). I walked...

Sep 1, 2012 - Cheateaux Chambord & Cheverny

Ali wanted another day of rest today to finish off a book, so I hopped in the car (again!) and took a drive downstream. Along the way I passed several famous chateau of the Loire. The first of which was Chateau Chaumont-Sur-Loire. The chateau sits nice and high above the town below, and looked resplendent from the opposite side of the river. I was tempted to go pay it a visit, as the opposite side looked very interesting in a documentary I saw. The chateau used to belong to Catherine de Medici, wife of Henri II. However, when he passed...

Aug 31, 2012 - Villandry and Tours

Ali wanted to have a quiet day today reading in the Loire, so I grabbed the car and decided to go see a few things which we didn't get the chance to yesterday. The first place I wanted to head to was a chateau called Villandry, which is renowned for it's beautiful gardens. The chateau itself is tucked away on the south side of the Cher River (a tributary of the Loire) by a km or so. There isn't very much to the town, a few shops and a very long car park. The chateau was originally built on the land where a fortress once stood. The new...

Aug 29, 2012 - Arrival in Amboise

Our drive from Vitre to Amboise was a fairly long haul, taking about 3 hours all up. I grabbed the wheel out of Vitre, and we were soon back on toll roads and doing 130km\h. The tolls in France are avoidable, but you tend to go a very long way out of your way to travel almost no distance, so we had given up on the idea before we really traveled anywhere of skipping them. We were basically going through some small hills, and some wooded areas (still no deer though!), on our way. The countryside is very pretty, but it didn't really seem all...

Aug 25, 2012 - Vaux le Vicomte to Chartres

Today we woke up early (4.30am for Kirk, and 5am for me), and played on our laptops uploading pictures from the day before. We left the hotel by about 9am and started to head towards Vaux le Vicomte. Stopped off about halfway and grabbed a baguette from a service station (actually not bad. Freshly made that day onsite). Vaux le Vicomte was the inspiration behind Versailles and was instigated by a young (26 yr old) parliamentarian. He contracted the best architect, decorator, and landscaper for the design and construction of the chateau. It...

Aug 25, 2012 - Chartres

After we left Vaux it was about a 2.5hr drive. As we’re both getting used to the car, and driving over here, Ali suggested we break the trip up so that it wasn’t left to one person. She took the first shift, which was great as that meant she got most of the tiny roads. The road out of Vaux for example is just wide enough for 2 cars, and its 90km\h. What the locals tend to do is drive right down the middle of the road, and they only move out of the way when it’s time to pass another vehicle. This makes things nerve wracking for both of us,...