Chateauing

Last weekend our friends Joel and Gosia came to visit us in Paris! They arrived on Friday and showed up around noon at our place. After only two visitors, we are figuring out the arrival routine for our guests. First drop the bags, take showers and change clothes, and then head out to the Rue Cler for a late lunch. Follow with a little exploring, usually the Eiffel Tower since it's close, and then return for a late afternoon nap or rest. I usually get home from work a little early and we all head to dinner somewhere in the 7th.

We had planned to go the Champagne and Strasbourg over the weekend, but changed our plans when we saw this on the news! We did some quick brainstorming and rearranged plans to visit the peaceful Loire Valley instead of chancing things with 10,000 hooded protestors.

The train from Paris to Amboise only took an hour on the TGV. It's difficult to get around the Loire Valley on public transportation (mostly buses in that area), so we had to rent a car. While we paid extortionist prices, we did walk away from the deal with a Silver BMW 3 series! Amboise is a medium size town that is in the center of the Loire Valley and central to it's most famous chateaux. We managed to find an amazing B&B with last minute rooms available for Saturday night. The place is run by a nice American couple who spend most of their time either talking to their guests or improving their beautiful gardens. As we pulled up to the 18th century B&B manor in our BMW, we felt like a couple of yuppies. In fact, we even invented a new verb for the occasion...chateauing; as in "we're going chateauing today in the Loire." After some initial guidance from the owner of the B&B, we headed into town for lunch and to visit Chateau Amboise which sits high up on a hill in the center of the town. As you can see from the photos, it's a really impressive chateau with views of the town on one side and the Loire river on the other side. As an added bonus, the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci sits inside a small temple adjacent to the chateau. Apparently, Leonardo da Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life as a guest of the King of France and lived in this town. While certainly not the most famous chateau in France, Chateau Amboise was definitely worth visiting. And, as it is in the center of the town, it was only a short walk from our B&B.

With the sun starting to break, we hopped back into our beemer and took a short drive to Chenonceau. It's probably the most famous and visited of all the chateaux in the Loire Valley. Maybe what makes it so famous is the fact that most of the chateau is built across the river Cler. It was built in the 1500s and has survived numerous wars and owners. In WWII, the river Cler was the dividing line between the Germans and La Resistance which meant that the chateau was a key bridge between the two sides. Probably the most famous owner was Catherine de Medici who had the beautiful gardens built outside. Since it was the most famous of the chateaux, we upgraded to the video Ipod tourguide. Jen and I often get the audioguides and museums and this was one of the best we've seen. I think you tend to get more out of a visit as often things are not labeled and if they are, then you're probably translating from another language. We headed back to Amboise in the early evening just as a bunch of hot air balloons were cruising high above for the evening sunset tours. We came back to Amboise and had a terrific dinner in town before calling it a night.

The next morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast of croissants, cheese, yogurt, fruit, coffee and hot chocolate. After breakfast while Jen and Gosia were getting ready, Joel and I walked down to the river where one of the biggest outdoor markets I've seen was set up for the Sunday morning crowds. Just about everything you could want was for sale. The only things stopping us was a full stomach and the pull of another day of chateauing. We had another famous chateau called Chambord on the agenda for Sunday and had about an hour of driving before we got there.

Chambord was built as a hunting lodge in the 1500s. Over the next hundred years, it continued to be "upgraded" as each King saw fit to make changes. A King's hunting lodge is the farthest thing from a log cabin that could have served the same purpose. Chambord has 281 rooms and over 400 staircases! It also has a double helical staircase (think of two intertwined ribbons) that is the centerpiece of the chateau. While the chateau was impressive, there wasn't a whole lot of furnishings inside. We learned that when Kings would travel, they would move all their furniture and decorations with them. I can't imagine how long the caravan was to fill up this place.

We must have been having too good a time that afternoon, because we noticed that we had run out of time and needed to quickly get back to the train station. Unfortunately, we had to leave behind so many other famous chateaus and vineyards this trip. However, with only an hours train ride and a beemer waiting at the other end, we'll gladly make this trip again.

Loire Valley

(click for the rest of our photos)