Our castle exploration didn't quite work out as expected - since Tours, despite being a tourist centre, doesn't have car hire places open on Sundays. Hmmmm! So, no wheels meant a revision of our plans and the booking of a minibus tour for the afternoon at the cost of €26 each (and on top of that we had to pay to get into each of the châteaux!!!) but we did get the chance to have a look around Tours in the morning, including the beautiful Old Town with its rickety wooden buildings and the OTT 'flamboyant Gothic' cathedral. It's nice here - and to paraphrase Rachel, quite French! After a baguette lunch at the station we set off on our tour, driven by Julien and accompanied by two other Australians, two Americans and an Italian woman who predictably was late for each meeting point.
Château #1 - Amboise
Da Vinci died here, and so coincidentally did King Charles VIII who expired after hitting his head on a door frame on his way to watch a game of tennis. Despite this bad luck, the castle itself was rather lovely, with beautiful views over the town. It also had the requisite vaulted ceilings, manicured gardens, stained glass windows, gargoyles, guard towers, spiral staircases big enough for the horses (or honkeys) to clatter up and down...needless to say, Rachel is getting lots of ideas and is quite taken with the Flamboyant Gothic style.
Château #2 - Clos Lucé
Home of da Vinci in his final years and where he came up with many of his inventions. Apparently he brought the 'Mona Lisa' here too. It was much more homely than Amboise with a pretty Renaissance garden.
Château #3 - Chenonceau
Stunning! The one with the arched bit over the river and formal gardens on each side, as well as Rachel's preferred driveway (ie gravel, archway of trees, long run for Gretel to greet guests). It's the picture perfect, quintessential French château. It was also the home
of nasty pasty Catherine de' Medici who demanded it on the death of her husband, evicting her husband's mistress on the way. The only negative was the jostling crowd inside (and out come to think of it), and the fact that I was suffering from caffeine deprivation by the time we had finished.
Château #1 - Amboise
Da Vinci died here, and so coincidentally did King Charles VIII who expired after hitting his head on a door frame on his way to watch a game of tennis. Despite this bad luck, the castle itself was rather lovely, with beautiful views over the town. It also had the requisite vaulted ceilings, manicured gardens, stained glass windows, gargoyles, guard towers, spiral staircases big enough for the horses (or honkeys) to clatter up and down...needless to say, Rachel is getting lots of ideas and is quite taken with the Flamboyant Gothic style.Château #2 - Clos Lucé
Home of da Vinci in his final years and where he came up with many of his inventions. Apparently he brought the 'Mona Lisa' here too. It was much more homely than Amboise with a pretty Renaissance garden.
Château #3 - Chenonceau
Stunning! The one with the arched bit over the river and formal gardens on each side, as well as Rachel's preferred driveway (ie gravel, archway of trees, long run for Gretel to greet guests). It's the picture perfect, quintessential French château. It was also the home
of nasty pasty Catherine de' Medici who demanded it on the death of her husband, evicting her husband's mistress on the way. The only negative was the jostling crowd inside (and out come to think of it), and the fact that I was suffering from caffeine deprivation by the time we had finished. Here ended our bus tour, so we set off back to the cute restaurant square in the Old Town for gallettes (with raclette, prosciutto and potato - yummo!) and beer while enjoying the interesting translations on the menu - check out the pics and spot them yourselves. Having missed opportunities to overload our arteries since the feta in every form overdose, we then chose to indulge in dessert - I had a crêpe with
raspberries, with nougat gelato and half a can of chantilly cream, Cathryn had one with chocolate and banana (and the other half of the can of cream) while Rachel ordered a banana split since it came with a sparkly thing - well, really, how could she resist?Photo tally for the day - Rachel wins with 105, Cathryn took 75 while I somehow managed about 80!
The next day began with the hiring of Hugues, our Ford Mondeo for the next few days. Yes, yes, we did want to Renault (preferably a Migraine aka Megane), Citreon or a Peugeot, but it was not to be, and at least all the baggage fits in the boot. It also has a fandangled on board computer which we are a bit too scared to play with (given the lack of a manual or anything useful) and very senstive sensors which beep alarmingly whenever anything comes too close, particularly when you are reversing. After our introduction to continental driving on Santorini, with Rachel driving and me navigating, we set off for....
Château #4 - Villandry
Famous for its vast formal gardens following the axis design rule - I'm sure it would have sent Mr Meich off into a frenzy. Apparently it takes four gardeners four months just to keep the lime trees in line, and the garden beds must all be weeded by hand since the box hedges have delicate roots. Cathryn predictably was in yet another frenzy snapping away at anything green/plantish, while Rachel decided that she needed to get 'her people' onto sorting out her garden ready for her return.Château #5 - Azay-le-Rideau
This is a cute moated castle - not too big and not too small. If one had to live in a castle then this would be adequate. Although it does bear to keep in mind that the pantry alone was probably the same size as the whole kitchen/dining area in my house.
Château #6 - Le Château de Montriou
This castle happened to be our accommodation for the night, fulfilling Rachel's dream of staying in a real castle, and this family owned one fit the bill. 500 years old and quite lovely. To get there though we had to negotiate the peak hour traffic on our first jaunt around the périfèrique which was a bit scary, but we obviously made it in the end. Nicole, the châtelaine, left us instructions to ring the bell near the chapel to let her know we had arrived since she was busy planting out her famous pumpkins in the gardens, and she rode up to the castle on her bicycle to meet us. Before long we were settled in our attic suite with enough time to have a stroll around the impressive gardens before dinner. This we had in the bistrot in a nearby village, dining in their oak beamed dining room. The food was presented beautifully, and Rachel decided to end her meal with a bit of cheese, St Nectaire as it turned out. I guess the cheese
could have been quite nice but her €3.90 slice minus bread or anything else was a little on the stingy side. We drove back in the mild twilight in time for one last stroll in the gardens before retiring to our suite to plan the next leg of the journey. It's nice here!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment