Western
Europe continued
Tour of France continued
Sat 9/29 Day 8 Tours. Visit more castles along the Loire. Stay in same private Chateau de Montgouverne for second night.
We awoke in the Chateau, Laura was feeling okay, so we went out Chateau gazing. The first castle we went to was Amboise and the views were great. You could get a feeling of all the aristocrats that used to use the Loire River Valley as their playground, and why they would go about beating the hell of out each other. We wandered around the ramparts and the walls, took pictures, and gazed down on the medieval town below. The river snaked through the countryside, and I kept thinking about World War Two movies. There was always a bridge to either blow up or save, and now I can see what was so important. The Loire river is a wide river. If you blow a bridge, well, you'll have to keep on going, maybe even to a bridge too far. Small joke.
We stopped in the town and ate a quick sandwich, then took off to probably our favorite chateau, the Chateau Clemenceaux. The gardens were fabulous, but the neat thing is that the castle was built over the river… Right over the river. We weren't sure if we really wanted to pay or not, but we decided, what the hell! I'm glad we did. We walked through the rooms, through the kitchens, and we even saw where the boats dropped off supplies for the kitchen, right off the river. Again, World War Two came up. The river was the border between free France and German controlled France. Many a refugee sought safety by going through the Chateau to the other side of the river. Imagine that? We wandered around and admired the views, then went back to our Chateau.
When we asked the managers of Chateau de Montgouverne about where to eat, the woman said, "At my restaurant, of course!" So we drove past Tours and ate at her restaurant, a full French dinner. The food was outstanding, and we knew the cook! My mother had a wine she liked, my father had the lamb which he loved, and all in all, it was one of our best meals. After McDonald's or eating leftovers in our room, well, I joked that we were slowly weaning my parents off food. We went from a large dinner, to a smaller dinner, to no dinner, and then we'd start on phasing out lunch. Well, Saturday night ended that! My father was right. He said that Laura's problem wasn't her stomach, because we ate a huge French dinner at ten o'clock and she felt fine!
Sun 9/30 Day 9 Tours - Verdun. Leave early for the 5 hour drive to Verdun. In Verdun in the afternoon we'll visit a famous museum about WWI and we should be able to see the old trenches. We'll stay in one of the few hotels in town, nothing exciting.
Well, we didn't make it to Verdun. We thought we'd seen enough of war with Normandy, so we opted out of the Verdun trip. Also, I was worried about Laura and the drive, and all of us were a little tired of driving. Madame LeSaffre warned us that going to Verdun would be too much, but we're Americans, we overplan and then flake out at the last minute. Instead, we stayed one more night at Chateau de Montgouverne! Hurray! Sunday, it was a lazy day. We went to Chateau Villandry, renowned for its gardens but I also enjoyed the inside. Our Lonely Planet told us to skip it, but I'm glad we didn't. We ate in the town of Villandry proper, had Saucisson and Pomme Frites, yum, then tackled the Chateau.
The inside was nice because it really captured what the Chateau would have been like, and there was even an art exhibit with some wonderful, if pricey paintings. If I didn't get my watch, we don't get no stinkin' paintings. The paintings were still very nice, even though we didn't buy them. The gardens of Villandry were a vision, finely clipped hedges in a variety of patterns, fountains, flowers. Though the garden was best viewed from above, it really was spectacular. One hands-on part of the garden I did was a hedge maze. Luckily, there was no Jack Nicholson chasing me down with an ax. Luckily. We left Villandry and went home and relaxed. My mother and I watched Toy Story Two, with Thai subtitles (had a copied it onto the laptop) while my father and wife rested. That night, we had more sausages and french fries (Belgium Fries?) at a shabby little bar down the road. Once the drunks started singing, we left and spent our last night at the Chateau de Montgouverne. One of the best things about staying there were the awesome breakfasts. They had these miniature pain au chocolat that were to die for. Also, cereal, eggs, cheeses, meats, bread, oh, it was a little Germany in France. But we had to head on out.
Note: It was hard to choose pictures for this
section! We have so many fantastic ones.
This is at the first castle,
Amboise, we visited. The view of the Loire river & surrounding
town was great.
Aaron, Tom & Dianne at the top of this castle
We had to do it, yet another gargoyle. This one is from Amboise.
Tom & Dianne looking out onto the river
The grand garden at Clemenceaux, very formal
Another view from inside the gardens
The beautiful covered walkway on the way to Clemenceaux
Here's the Villandry castle from the gardens
We weren't sure when dinner would be served but Tom was ready
Has a vegtable garden ever looked so good?
Ok, I'll stop now. I could go on and on and on with pictures!