October 23 & 24, Loire Valley, France to see Castles

Up early and off to the train station Saturday morning for another sight seeing adventure in France. Taylor loves European history, especially the castles, so this was kind of her trip weekend. I really enjoyed the castles I visited when in London, and was also looking forward to this trip. We have been a little nervous about our recent travels due to the striking here in France. It has affected the trains, airports and gas stations. So we packed books, snacks and bought playing cards in preparation of some possible sitting and waiting.

We just had one slight delay in our travels to Amboise, France. We arrived around 2:00 pm and made our way to our hotel. The day was a bit dreary which made me realize almost immediately as we were walking through the village that not a single house or building was painted or had color. A few had a colored front door or maybe some color on shutters but most were all grayish white. As we traveled through the Loire Valley this became more and more apparent to me and I just couldn't get over it. The architecture of this region goes back to the Renaissance and the Chateau d'Amboise mirrors the classic Italian style.

There were beautiful windows in this castle.

Our timing entering the castle brought us into an English tour group, so we were able to get in on some of the narration of the castle tour.

As we moved to the 2nd floor of the castle we saw the difference of 300 years in time. The second floor was more elaborate and felt warmer. The first floor felt dark and cold to me. The cold rain outside did not help any I'm sure.

After enjoying our step back in time in the castle we went into the chapel on the grounds.

Leonardo Da Vinci was laid to rest here. He spent much of his time at this particular castle as he was good friends with the king, and had asked to be buried here.

After the cathedral we took a quick look around the grounds, due to the rain and made our way into the gift shop.

From here we checked into our hotel and wandered some shops. The little city center was very clean and had some really nice little shops and restaurants.

We had read and heard that the wine of this region is very good and we must try the reds and whites. Oh, okay if we have to. We wandered toward the wine route and found Cave Duhard open. We went in and were served several tastings of reds and a white. Very, very good. We purchased a red, 2004 Chinon, and a white, 2009 Montlouis, both of which are very popular in this region.

Wine tasting here is so different than at home. The caves are huge, dim, cold and damp smelling, but very authentic. The area this cave was located was an adventure in itself. You find yourself wandering down little alleyways surrounded by homes from the 1500's all with no color. It was very serene and with the cool, rainy weather even more so. I thought it was quite fun and interesting.

After we had more than our share of wine tasting at this cave we were all starving, so we headed back to the little shopping area where we had spotted a couple nice places for dinner.

We all agreed on a very small little place named Ancree Artiste. It seemed to be run by a father and son and was very quaint and cozy inside. The walls were stone and wood and it was very inviting. The son waited on all the tables and was very friendly and efficient. We had a wonderful meal of Galette's. A Galette is like a thin buckwheat pancake wrapped around melted cheese and whatever else you want in it. Taylor had four cheeses, I had mushroom and cheese and Eric had a couple different hams, potatoes and cheese. Very comforting and good. We had three cakes for dessert, lemon, chocolate and coconut all of which were delicious with hot chocolate. The father who was the owner, played jazz and sang at the piano. He was just a bit flirty with me, which was okay, because after all I am only a week away from the big one and a little flirting now and then can't hurt the ego, that's for sure.

Sunday morning, up for our little hotel breakfast before we take a taxi to see Chateau de Chenonceau. We made a couple of touristy mistakes here. We got talked into the "buffet breakfast" at the hotel which was around 10USD each and consisted of bread, cold cereal, and tea or coffee and then we paid approx $100 USD for a taxi to get us to and from the castle which was about 15k from our hotel. Oops, we didn't do our homework to well on that one. The village of Amboise was really neat but turned out to be a poor location for travel without a car. The hotel also was not very nice and none of them in the area looked very nice, even though it is a popular tourist area. I think it is just so old.

Anyway, I got over it and as the sun was rising in the sky we made our way to the fabulous Chateau De Chenonceau. It was built in 1513 and was the home to many famous french women. The Chateau is surrounded by beautiful Renaissance gardens.

Ah yes, home sweet home. Could you imagine!

The Chateau is built on the River Cher and surrounded by beautiful grounds.

I never much thought I would have wanted to live in a castle long ago, but this one was bright and inviting. Typically they feel cold and harsh to me.

This castle was very impressive with it's 16th century tapestries, fireplaces, paintings, sculptures and furniture from the Gothic and Renaissance periods.

We were able to see most of the castle which was wonderful.

There were beautiful, huge bouquets of  fresh flowers and plants throughout the entire castle. All of them grown and arranged on the castle grounds.

In between touring the splendid castle and walking the beautiful grounds we had lunch in what was once the stables. It was very neatly turned into a cafeteria style eatery and was very nice.

We had a beautiful cool but sunny day to wander through all the remarkable French-style gardens which are kept perfectly to this day.

Taylor seemed to thoroughly enjoy her step back into the French history of the 16th century.

Before we knew it, it was time to get back in the taxi to go to the train station in Amboise, to take the train to Paris Austerlitz, to take the metro to Paris Est, to take the train back to Strasbourg, to get to our car in the parking ramp to drive back to our little temporary digs in Holtzheim. Another enjoyable weekend just flew by! We were feeling very lucky to have gotten through this time of strikes and travel with barely any hiccups.