The Loire Valley & Bordeaux area

23 September (Tuesday):

Well, breakfast was much better than I had anticipated.  They had baguettes and cheese as well as some cereals so I was happy.  We spent the morning seeing the inside of the Chambord Chateau.  My first glimpse of it was as we drove through the forest yesterday.  The roof and all its towers stood well above the tree tops and looked like the most impossible fairy palace.  You will understand when you look at the pictures.  It is enormous - one source says it has 440 rooms and 327 fireplaces.  Construction was started in 1515 by Francois I.  It kept being added to over the centuries.  They even changed a river to run by and provide a moat.  We spent a couple of hours seeing everything we were allowed to - they have quite a collection of paintings and furniture in it - the French State owns it now.  

We checked out of the hotel then drove to the town of Blois, not very far away, to see the Chateau there.  We drove into the town following the P (parking) signs.  We kept arriving at Bus only parkades.  We actually went around one area three times thinking we had missed  the right road but finally gave up the in-town parking and went across the river where we parked on the street.  The walk across the bridge to town was short.  We found the restaurant Hans and chosen for dinner and eliminated our frustration with a very nice meal in a very old hotel near the river Loire.  We then walked up the hill and three quarters of the way around the Chateau before we found the entry.  It is about a third the size of Chambord.  It was built over many centuries and has four distinct wings, each of a different design.  The pictures show some of the styles.  Again the place is owned by the government and has lots of major paintings and furniture.  We then proceeded to our next hotel reservation in the town of Amboise.  It also has a chateau but not one worth us going in.  We were in this town because of the very nice hotel.  We had an excellent dinner in a restaurant a block away, found the road we wanted to take in the morning, and had a wonderful nights sleep.

24 September (Wednesday):

Two more Chateaus to explore today.  We went to Chateaus Chenonceau and Azay le Rideau.  They are both built IN rivers.  The first spans across the entire river, anchored on one side and with a short bridge to the other side.  The second is on an island and was originally a fort to protect goods being transported up and down the river but is now a very pretty Chateau.  They are both fairly small but elegant.  The Chateau Chenonceau is still privately owned and has an operating farm attached.  It is our favorite after Chambord.  The last one had a lot of tapestries in it and the rooms were kept quite dark to protect the colours.  This made it difficult to see pictures and things.  We went from one to the other using back roads to see the country side.  We were using a map that had a fairly small scale so most of the roads and towns were not on it!  This made deciding which way to go very difficult.  It took us about 2 hours to get from the first to the second.  We got a good map from the Tourist Information office in Azay le Rideau and followed the main roads back, returning to Amboise in 40 minutes. 

25 September (Thursday):

After breakfast we walked the few blocks to town and bought some cheese and a baguette to have for lunch with our apples, then checked out of our hotel and started driving southwest to Bordeaux.  With a decent map and some help from the GPS when we were near the Motorway, we had no problems until we were through Bordeaux and on our way up the west side of the Garonne River.  We were heading for a small town, Margaux.  The GPS took us on the nearest main road, then said we were at our destination when we knew we still had about 30 kilometers to go.  We have a good map of the area so continued with out difficulty until we were actually in the town and couldn't find the hotel!.  We drove around and finally found it, on the coast road we would have taken on our own.  After checking in we drove up the coast road to see a couple of interesting places.   One was a Winery that had a collection of carriages from the 19th century.  They had one from London that could take up to 15 people!  Most of the passengers had to sit up top, exposed to the weather.  They had wax figures in appropriate dress for each carriage.  It was the best part of the tour.  We returned to the hotel for a nice dinner in the restaurant, then a good nights sleep.

26 September (Friday):

This morning we slept in a bit as it doesn't get light until nearly 8:00 am.  (All of Europe - the continent - is on the same time, one hour earlier than London, 9 hours earlier than Pacific time.)  We enjoyed breakfast in a sun-lit room looking at the peaceful fields of grape vines waiting to have the red grapes harvested.  We checked out of the hotel and drove north up the peninsula again, this time to the Estate called Chateau Mouton Rothschild.  They had a tour in English starting at 11 am, about half an hour away.  We walked around the grounds enjoying the variety of plants then went on the tour.  It was excellent, much better than the one yesterday for the same price!  Part of the tour was to the Museum of Wine there.  Everything in it is related to wine in some way.  They have an amazing collection.  From there we drove a couple of kilometers when we found a small park with picnic tables and had our bread, cheese and apple lunch.  We carried on down a back road to see an 11th Century Romanesque church, modified in the 15th century.  It was quite plain but very impressive as it was built in cathedral style.  From there we drove back to Bordeaux.  We didn't even try the GPS.  With some written explicit instructions from the hotel, we managed to get to the hotel without an error and are now set up for the night.