Loire Valley - Part 3 - Chambord

Saturday morning we were out and about at 8am, picking up a quick breakfast at the hotel, then driving east to Chambord our next chateau.  Again, we had to walk about 1 km to get to the chateau and then around it to the rear which was about another half km.  Sad part is there is graffiti and people have carved their names into some areas of the roof top. 

So huge but grand - 5 storeys



Roof top of Chambord

There was a large equestrian centre on the property and
it has its own police force.

Side view



English church near the chateau

Many people dressed in traditional clothing which
would have been worn at the time.

Garden near the English church

Actual rear entrance to the court yard

Rear garden area where horses  are kept

Loire Valley - Part 2

I have been extremely busy the past few weeks so I will make a few posts now to try to catch up! 
Today, my Dad arrived here and spent the day driving (its a 4-hour round trip from the Schiphol airport near Amsterdam to my home in Venlo).  But let's get back to my fabulous Loire Trip...

After we did Villandry on the Friday, May 8th, we spent the afternoon at Chenoceau which is actually located about 15-minutes from our hotel in Ambrois.  It is quite a walk to get to the chateau as you can see from the photo below.  It's about 1 km to the chateau but well worth the walk. 

 

Used to be the stables - now converted to restaurant and cafe



Once you get to the end of the 1 km walk, this is
a large open area which approaches the chateau
 

Moat and bridge to the chateau

The café near the Catherine de Medici garden



Catherine de Medici garden.  She built it once she removed
Diane (former mistress of Queen Catherine's husband, King Henry)
once Henry died.



Flowers along the garden wall



Catherine's garden with the main water feature



Chenoceau from Catherine's garden



My little summer place :-)



River Thee



As the chateau is in the river, you can rent
a small canoe and paddle about!

 On Saturday we headed out to Chambord.  It is about 60 km east along the Loire River from Ambrois.  I will post its photos next....

Nothing like the countryside in France -Part 1 of Loire Valley

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)...

Main room of the hotel

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. 

 

The chateau itself

 

Grounds were restored to their former glory in early 1900's

Cool looking shrubs, no?

Almost all chateaus with gardens have water features

I took this photo on the terrace above this garden

 

This is my favorite photo of Villandry - looks like a postcard!



I could walk these gardens all day - actually took about 1 hour to do them.

At the centre of the vegetable garden
were these little gazebos



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.

Rain, broken windows and the countdown begins

Well I have not been travelling on the last weekend the weather was terrible with tons of rain.  Not fun to go out and about when its like that but again the weather is turning around. 

About 7 days ago, a rock hit my windshield and a huge crack occurred.  It was replaced on Wednesday this week by Hertz.  Thursday morning, I went to the car to travel to work and found...

Apparently, someone vandalized the back window but there was nothing in the car to steal.  It was really strange as the rest of the car was untouched.  So I drove it to work, my assistant called Hertz again and they repaired on Friday afternoon.  This was a huge topic of discussion around the office including the security guard who came looking for me, stating it did not happen on his watch!  News travels fast here as numerous people came to ask me about it.  The nicest thing that happened was our QA manager asked 2 of his team members to fix some plastic to the car just in case it rained.  What a kind gesture. 

The past few days, Claire (my colleague) and I are planning our 4 day trip to the Loire Valley in France.  We have booked our hotels, determined which chateaus and sites we will see (we are planning on 6 chateaus over 3 days) and we are nearly ready to go.  We will leave on Wednesday, May 13th (late afternoon) then it's a long weekend (Thursday and Friday are statutory holidays in the Netherlands).  We will drive back on Sunday afternoon.  It is about a 7 hour drive back to Venlo. 

Then the following weekend, I travel to Munich on business, then I am spending 3 days in Salzburg, Austria which is about 1.5 hours from Munich.  Return home then the following weekend, my Dad arrives from home, and we go to Slovenia to visit his family.  He will stay for a while but I am here for only 5 days.  Then we are talking about visiting Paris for 3-days, but now I am wondering if we should go to visit Versailles, Fountainbleu, and a few other sites and cities around Paris. 

Now, the countdown begins...9 weeks until I return home!

Cheers for now!

Back to Lisse

This past week, a work colleague (Claire) visited Venlo and she really wanted to go visit the flowers in Lisse.  I was in Lisse a few weeks ago but I was just a little early as you may recall and nothing was in bloom.  So we decided to go to Lisse and what a site!  First we had lunch in the village and everyone was out soaking up the sun.  Then flowers galore...

Hemels is the café where we had lunch.

Tulips...



Daffodils





It was very windy but I managed a selffie!

When we walked near the fields, the air
was scented with hyacinths...

When I returned home, I looked out my balcony window and saw sheep right near the river Maas.  What a lovely day!  The weather is great here.  I don't need a winter jacket anymore.