Chateau de Vilandry

There has been so much to see and our time very limited but we decided today to go to Chateau Villandry, not so much to see inside the castle but because the gardens are world renown. It was another hot day and when we arrived we were not thrilled to see that hundreds of other people had had the same idea. I am sort of allergic to tour buses, and there were a lot of them, but we persevered and made our way in the gate. This chateau has a five hundred year history but the part that interested us is the love story between the couple who bought it in the early part of the twentieth century, A Spanish doctor, Joachim Carvello who had been doing research in Paris when he met a young American heiress, Anne Coleman, fell in love and in 1909 bought the Chateau and decided to recreate the gardens in the Renaissance style and the result is wonderful. They poured their hearts and resources into the project and in the late 1920's first opened the chateau to the public and by doing so encouraged other chateau owners to do the same. 

There are a number of gardens within the walls; the magnficent flower and vegetable garden which changes three times each year,

the garden of love, rich with symbolism, very some of the 52 kms of perfectly manicured boxwood can be found,

the water gardens, where canals feed off a lovely lake and provide water for the dozens of fountains and irrigation for all the plantings, and a welcome relief from the heat (as one naked little girl in a fountain seemed to have discovered)

the fairly recently added sun and cloud gardens, a mass profusion of colour, more English in style than French where the cloud garden is all blues, whites and purples (my favourite of all) and the sun garden is yellows, oranges and reds.

There was also a maze, a medicinal herbal garden and long, long walkways through vine arbours and bordered by more than 9000 yew trees and even a lovely wooded area with views over the gardens and the valley. Even though there were so many people there the property is very extensive and we could never felt crowded. The property is still owned by Henri Carvallo, the grandson of Joachim and Anne, and it is obvious by the care and attention that he is still working on new additions to make it an even more spectacular place while still maintaing the intrinsic value of the original design. His grandparents would be proud of him. We loved our time there and could have spent all day. 

Flying over the Loire

 I should have learnt by now - after all we have been married 30 years, but this year for our anniversary I surprised my sweetheart by arranging for us to have a flight over the Loire Valley with our host from the gite that we were renting. Firstly, Gord doesn't like surprises - I do! I guess I keep forgetting that fact and secondly, I had not learnt that you do not arrange for a seasoned pilot to fly in any old airplane. Gord wanted to know all about the plane and the qualifications of our pilot before he was happy to put his trust in a stranger and his machine and the only answer I had was that he "seemed" like a nice fellow. Anyway, all doubts aside, well maybe not aside but ignored anyway, we put our lives in the hands of the nice fellow and took off for a ride in a little, tiny, tinbox  Cessna for what turned out to be a most enjoyable hour.

Gord - less than sure about this idea!

It has been hot and very windy this week and our host suggested that we leave early in the morning. We arrived at the airport, the only other car there was our pilot's and we got there in time to see him up a ladder with the gas hose. The windsock at the end of the runway was pointing straight out and we were told that there would be a fair bit of turbulence at the take off but once we were up it shouldn't be too bad. The Loire Valley is huge and the Cessna was slow so we only got to see a little part of it but it was so much fun. The valley is very fertile and I loved looking at all the patchwork of the farms spread below.

France has been experiencing a drought and over the last couple of months they have had practically no measurable amount of rain - a delight for the tourists but getting to be a desperate situation for the farmers. We had been struck earlier in the week with how low the river is but flying over we got a clear picture of how bad it is.

The very low Loire

 The whole of the sand bank on the left side of the river should be filled by now. It is not a very deep river but even so it is in a crisis situation and water rationing abounds. Watering restrictions have been in place for some time and now the swimming pools are not to be filled. Surveilance aircraft check to make sure that the law is being followed.

It was fun too, to see the little villages and to even fly over the hamlet that we are staying in and have our hostess come out and wave as we buzzed the site.

Montreuil Bellay

Of course the highlight for me was to fly over the chateaux, to see ones we had visited on the ground and to see a few more that we wouldn't have had a chance to see.

Chateau de Brissac

Chateau de Saumur

As expected, many of the grand country homes are impossible to see from the road as they are well protected from the trees - but not from small low flying aircraft!

A small private (!!!) chateau

It was a wonderful experience and it could prove to be quite expensive because I was captivated and now think that in addition to starting my new business, adding french windows, shutters, wrought iron gates etc to the house, gardening (I will tell you about that tomorrow), we also need to get a small plane. I can't believe that Gord isn't just dying to get one after all the fun we had today!

20 down - 980 to go!

There are apparently over 1000 chateaux in the Loire valley. We have been blitzing them but Friday is our last day and I think that the next two days are going to be really, really busy. Here is a sample of what we have seen:

Chateau de Montgoffrey

Chateau de Langeais

My favourite! Chateau de Chevenceau

Chateau de Saumur

Chateau de Chiverney

Chateau de Chambord

Chateau de Serrant

... and that is just a sample of some of the chateaux that we have seen! I know what you are thinking and you are right - Gord has been incredibly patient! The amazing part is that he seems to have really enjoyed it too. The chateaux are not close! That means a lot of driving and trying to navigate busy twisty roads, but we have had a lot of fun. We haven't gone in all of them but a lot more than I expected. What we have learnt is that chateaux come in all shapes, sizes, conditions and settings. The earliest date back to Medieval times and the biggest and most popular are still working on improving and upgrading the buildings. In addition to all the castles that are national monuments and are open to the public we constantly come across other little chateaux that are private homes or this one, a lovely hotel.

Chateau Hotel de Crissay

This is where we will have to stay next time!

From cars to castles.

In an effort to balance our chateaux viewing we set off this morning for Le Mans, the home of auto racing in France where the first 24 hour endurance race took place in 1923. During the 24 hours the cars will travel a distance of over 5000 kilometres with a rotation of three drivers. It is an enormous strain on the car to keep up that pace and they not only race specially made cars but also high performance cars that are available to the general public, though not in our budget! The race is about to start with the qualifying rounds taking place at the beginning of next week and the race itself on the following Saturday/Sunday so there was lots of action around the track as they are getting ready. Gord spent a wonderful hour in the museum, one of the few museums that he enjoyed more than me. We actually drove a portion of the track as the race is held both on the closed Bugattit track as well as the public roads. Actually we drove the Monte Carlo track just before the start of that race too - maybe there is something to this?!? but I think that the tours of the chateaux this week may prove to be a greater endurance for Gord than the Le Mans race!

Le Mans actually has a fascinating old centre complete with roman walls and a spa. There are dozens of half-timbered houses that date back to the 15th century and lovely cobbled streets and lanes, with the magnificent St. Julien's Cathedral in the centre of the town.

On the way home from Le Mans, we happened to drive past another chateau (remember who the navigator is!) Le Lude is on the banks of the Loire and is still the home of the Count and Countess of de Nicolay and has been owned and lived in by descendants of the Talhouet family for over 250 years. It was fun to go around this one as it is a real home and we were very much aware of the occupants. The principal rooms were the only ones on the tour but they were magnificent and rich in history and interest. The gardens were lovely and very extensive and I particularly enjoyed seeing the stables and some lovely old carriages. Everything felt very much as it would 100 years ago and it was easy to imagine visitors arriving through the cobblestone village streets, through the impressive gatehouse and up the gravel driveway to the chateau.

Another good day, and a balance of interesting things for both of us!

Life in the Loire

I woke up this morning to the sound of a rooster close by. He heralded the morning for quite a while and I finally gave in and heeded the call to rise. It wasn't long before he was replaced by a cuckoo. We have heard them in the distance and love the sound but this one was very close and I now know why someone decided to stick him in a wooden box and only allow him to come out on the hour! Actually, I am loving listening to the sounds of the birds, it will be all to soon before we hear the sound of buses and cars and an overenthusiastic cuckoo is certainly an improvement! 

We had breakfast in our lovely little cottage and then set out to see the sights.

The fields around here contain the expected vineyards but there are also acres and acres of wheat which is just now turning golden. It is a beautiful sight in the sunshine with the red poppies growing at the edge. Unlike the praries where the fields go on forever, here they are quite small and a small cornfield may very well be next to a vineyard or a field of potatoes.  We are continually surprised to see how much of France is rural and there are pretty little farms everywhere.

The Loire valley is vast, both long and very wide and the river splits and merges with numerous tributaries and throughout the whole vast valley are sprinkled the most amazing chateaux, country cottages for the once rich and famous. Every town and village has its own chateau. We started on two today, first Le Chateau Azay-le-Rideau built on the quiet river Indre and said to be the most romantic chateau in the valley. It is very pretty and sits on a little island in the sleepy river but it was smaller than I expected. It has been carefully restored and while there is little in the way of furnishings, the grounds are lovely.

Le Chateau Azzay-le-Rideau

Then we went to Le Chateau de Usse, a fantastic confection of a storytale castle rebuilt in the 15th and 16th century on the site of a medieval castle and said to have influenced Perrault to write The Sleeping Beauty. It is so large that it was hard to get a photograph. It is an enormous white palace that backs onto the dark forest of Chinon which makes it all the more impressive. Both Gord and I were mesmerized by the perfection of the place.

Le Chateau de Usse

We came back to our humble little cottage but it wasn't long before we too were feeling like royalty.  Our hosts had prepared an amazing dinner for us and served it to us in the privacy of our own dining room. It was wonderful! We had a great four course meal in our own place and all we had to do was sit and enjoy it - they even did the washing up! We may not be living in a chateau but at least we are being treated as though we were! It was a perfect way to celebrate Fetes des Meres, Mother's Day, here in France.

A picture perfect picnic place!

Well we ended the day yesterday deep in the country, about half an hour north of Limoges. We had booked into a hotel that was an old farmhouse that had been carefully restored with exposed stone walls and timbers. It was very charming and we had a delicious dinner served in the former orangerie before falling into bed. Today we set out for the Loire and had lots of time to do the rest of the trip so we took a cross country route. It was a glorious day, bright blue skies and sunshine though much cooler than it has been in Provence. We followed the Vienne river and visited several picturesque towns along the way getting out for a little visit at each.                        . 

The Mill in La Trimoulle

The Church in Montmiron
But the best was the little town of Angles-sur-l'Anglin. Here the town tumbles down the hill to the river from the ruined castle at the peak to the watermill on the river at the base of the hill. Narrow cobbled streets lead up the hill to the haute village where the local specialty is lace, a centuries old tradition that is still very much alive. As it was lunch time (always a 3 hour closure) I had to be content to look at a few window samples and brochures but it certainly added to the interest of the place. We had a picnic lunch by the stone bridge by the river, looking up at the town and the castle and I could not imagine a better spot for a picnic.

The lovely Angles

 We were alone too, at the start. When we were just finishing our lunch a wedding party arrived to take photographs, not the traditional style but in medieval costumes! We left them in peace and then went on towards our new home for the next week, another converted farmhouse just outside of Saumur. This time we are living in the barn, actually just one end of it, but again, it has been very tastefully restored. It is a charming place, completely surrounded by roses with the vineyards just over the fence. It is very comfortable furnished and has all we need and will be a great base for our visit of the Loire Valley this week. 

The happy couple

The Lot Valley

This morning we left Meyreuis under cloudy skies (what is this wet stuff?? we haven't seen rain for weeks!) but the sun soon won over and we took the road through the Gorges de Gargilan on our way to the Lot Valley. One of the benefits of the cooler weather as we are a little farther North is that we are getting an instant replay of some of the lovely flowers that I have been enjoying this past month in Provence. There the roses and poppies are really over but here they are still in full bloom and I will never have enough of of either of these two lovely flowers. This is an area of France that we saw briefly when Dean and Kathy were here but it is one area that I really enjoyed and even after today I feel that I would love to come back to explore further here. We drove from along the river to the picture perfect village of Estaing, which nestles beneath its  massive chateau on the riverbank. We had a picnic lunch by the 13th century stone bridge that crosses the river and felt that we could not imagine a more perfect setting. Truly the highlight of the day! 

From here we drove to Conques, one of the most important sites in France. (It should come with a warning that "you can't get there from here" as it is so deep in the countryside that it took an hour to get there and an hour to get out and while extraordinary, we were not sure that it was worth the trip. Again it is a picture perfect village with cobblestone streets lined with half-timbered cottages that seem to lean precariously inwards but the centre of the village is a massive church and abbey , part of which dates back to the 9th century. Here the treasury holds the most important collection of medieval gold and Renaissance gold work in western Europe. The place was swamped with school and tour groups and we were content to look at the highlights displayed in the postcards and move on. In oder to enter the town we had to purchase an annual pass which is affixed to the window of the car, a clever marketing tool when there is no way that most of the people who go there would ever find it again in a lifetime much less a year.

The church in Conques

 By the time we made it to the autoroute we were actually happy to pay our money and make some much needed progress up north. Sadly we had to hurry past Limoges, famous for china, and Aubusson, known for its rugs to the little place that we had chosen to stay the night. I was sad anyway, Gord is not really interested in china except as a place to put his food or rugs except as something to wipe his feet on and he had done more than enough driving for one day.