Loire Valley

Our morning began with a delicious breakfast on the sun porch that yes, included a big croissant. Then we were off to our first chateau, the Chateau de Chenonceau.

This place was perfect! The flower arrangements caught my eye as much as the building and it's furnishings and the Copper pot collection is SO cool!






There was once a castle on these grounds and this was the guard house for that castle. It's way old. (that's technical, eh?) The castle was torn down and The Chateau was built in the 1500's. The chateau is built over the river.



Dave and I are going to make this our new symbol. It's a D, H, C combo. The H is for King Henry. The 2 overlapping C's are for his wife Catherine. The king made it look like a D and H for his girlfriend Diane.


Just one of many, many, beautiful flower arrangements. They grow all their own flowers for the displays.


Our favorite floor in the chateau. This is the grand hall that extends across the river. It was used for dances and balls for the queen, as a hospital during WWI, and the river divided occupied France from "free" France during WWII, and the hall was used to sneak many people across the occupied border. How's that for history.


Love this! In the kitchen.


Love this, too. There are many other kitchen/copper collection pictures, but I decided not to overwhelm this post with them. Just know, they are impressive.


On the balcony overlooking the mote and one of the gardens.



To the right is the main living area, to the left is the great hall extending over the river. The river is very low.





Jenn and I in the gardens where they grow all the flowers for arrangements.

Next we headed over to the chateau Chambord. This was built as a hunting chateau. Think hunting cabin for a king. He only lived there a total of 72 days! Many other people lived there and for a while it was deserted. It has over 400 rooms, and 365 fireplaces!








The potty.


Across the courtyard. (Dave, Gary, and Jenn are straight ahead under an arch.)


Zoomed in from across the courtyard.


Check out those clouds. I love clouds in photos like this.
Now we are off to the next chateau, Cheverny. The same family has owned this chateau since it was first built. That's unique. They like to hunt and have a lot of dogs. Everyday at five they feed the dogs.



Today the man in blue waited five extra minutes. At five o'clock a bell rang in the town. We could barely hear it, but the dogs heard it and then went crazy. They knew it was time to eat. He waited exactly five minutes, then released this group, which we can only assume are the best dogs.


This made the other dogs go wild! They were stacked on top of one another almost four dogs high at the gate. Howling, barking, whining.


He waited a few minutes and then opened the gate for the other dogs. They flooded out in one rapid mass, tails wagging. It was a feeding frenzy!



Some of the dogs, we think the best, had this branding on their right side. It is the initial of the family's last name.


Here is the chateau. Much more modest than the other two. The family allows you tour the first two floors and they live on the third. The home
and furnishings are the most well preserved. Very interesting.


The back stair case leading to the gardens.

Now we head back to our B&B.



Here is the view of the river out our window. Very different from Paris. The frogs can get really loud! It's truly lovely.

Dinner at the same restaurant as last night. It was still so good! Gary took a few pictures on his iPhone as it was to nice of a restaurant for me to pull out the big camera. I'll post those and hopefully the videos tomorrow when we reach our next stop.

Much love to all...

Bloggin' on the go. Bonjour!