Dates – June 11th – 12th 2005
While Nadya’s parents were in town, we took a weekend trip to the Loire valley. We rented a VW Passat (free upgrade from Europcar) on Saturday and headed off for the Loire on Saturday morning. Our first stop was Chambord chateau (picture) , which has a beautiful double-helix staircase. We also walked the grounds of the chateau which is situated in the middle of a huge estate and national forest/park. Chambord has been used as the hunting grounds for the Kings of France and heads of state (Presidents) for years; President Chirac has decided not to take advantage of his right to hunt on these grounds.
After visiting Chambord, we headed off to the town of Chivernay (picture) and did some wine tasting and picked up a couple of bottles of wine. We then drove on though Chenonceau and to Amboise. We were planning on spending the night in Amboise, but there were no hotels available. So instead, we continued on to Tours where we did find a nice little hotel and then went for dinner at an Italian restaurant (picture).
As luck would have it, there was a classic car show in Tours on Sunday (picture); this was quite a pleasant surprise and we spent the morning at the show before driving to Chenonceau. Chenonceau (picture) is an absolutely beautiful chateau located on (literally) a river. It is basically built like a half-bridge and half-chateau. It is also well adorned with furniture so a tour of the chateau give you a pretty good feeling as to what life was like living in the Chateau.
After visiting the Chateau, we then headed back to Paris to end this lovely trip out into the Loire Valley.
Some of my thoughts from abroad. You can also have a look at my photos from abroad.
