Last Wednesday, I visited the Loire Valley in France. It was wonderful and full of adventure. I will publish the photos and the details of the 4 day trip over the next few posts. We visited 5 chateaus plus took tons of photos of the valley and other chateaus on the Loire River. I will start with Villandy today. Tons of walking and sore feet were the norm.
First, my colleague Claire and I left for Cambrai on Wednesday afternoon and the traffic was incredible. Tons of roadwork as well as several accidents and the traffic of an extra long weekend and what was a 3-hour road trip turned into nearly 5. But we arrived in Cambrai and stayed at a chateau (see below)...
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| Main room of the hotel |
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| Main staircase in the hotel |
Dealing with tolls in France is expensive and not as easy as you may think. The cost of tolls (in both directions) was about 70 euros ($100) and the toll booths are not really clear as to where you are to go for payment. Also you cannot use your credit card so better bring lots of cash or hear a lot of honking horns. Roadway system is very good in France and drivers are quite good (with the exception of Paris). Everyone is driving between 120-130 kms per hour so traffic moves steady and safely in spite of the speed. Hard to believe but they actually signal!
On Thursday morning, we headed out towards Ambrois (the heart of the Loire Valley) and arrived around 3:30pm. We visited the Tourism Centre to pick up our "Front of the line" tickets for the chateaus. Then we went to our hotel, checked in, did a quick drive around Ambrois, and then returned to the hotel for dinner at 7pm. You should note we learned dinner is not served anywhere before 7pm and is over serving around 9pm. When we did not understand something in France, Claire and I could be heard saying "It's a French thing". There were many French things over the 4 days...
Friday morning, we visited the chateau known for its fabulous gardens - Villandry.
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| The chateau itself |
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| Grounds were restored to their former glory in early 1900's |
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| Cool looking shrubs, no? |
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| Almost all chateaus with gardens have water features |
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| I took this photo on the terrace above this garden |
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| This is my favorite photo of Villandry - looks like a postcard! |
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| I could walk these gardens all day - actually took about 1 hour to do them. |
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At the centre of the vegetable garden
were these little gazebos
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I will send photos next from Chenoceau and Chambord in the next few days. This upcoming weekend I am heading to Munich on businesss then a few days in Salzburg Austria.
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