The chateau at Villandry is probably best known for its gardens. And rightly so. The are very grand, very formal, and very French.
Villandry : Formal
Hay Bale Interlude
Lunch on the Farm (Before and After)
We stopped a little farm near Villandry for lunch. Talk about understanding where your food comes from.
A Very Short Tour of Tours
On our way to Villandry, we stopped in the city of Tours to take a quick look around. We had our lunch spot all planned out so we really didn’t have much time to explore. We did take a nice stroll through the cathedral there.
Staying in a Cave
There are many cave dwellings (or troglodyte dwellings as they call them) in the Loire. Some of the rooms at Le Chateau de Nazelle were troglodyte rooms. Our troggy was connected to Ron and Barry’s and they were kind of set apart from the other guest rooms. It was like we had our own little estate with our own little front yard.
Our "Hotel" in The Loire
I won’t bore you with pictures of all the places we stayed on our trip. But the lovely little place we stayed at in the Loire Valley was really amazing. Le Chateau de Nazelle is a few kilometers outside of Amboise and was the perfect spot for exploring the area. It was beautiful, quiet, and unique. The owners were friendly and young, and the pool was perfect for the end of a hot day of sightseeing.
Something Smelled Bad in the Barn
Chaumont-sur-Loire
Just up the road from Amboise, Chaumont-sur-Loire is what my friend Ron calls one of the cosier of the Loire Valley Chateaux.
Breakfast Radishes
This lovely bunch of radishes was at the Sunday market in Amboise. I have seen these at markets and grocery stores in the USA sometimes labeled breakfast radishes. Seems like an unlikely thing for breakfast. But if you slice them thin, saute in butter, season with a little salt and pepper, they are a really good side with scrambled eggs. I tried it once in olive oil but they aren’t half as good that way.
First Day in the Loire: Amboise
Last summer I lost steam recapping my summer vacation on MyPorch and gave up the chronicle about half way through. I think I was trying to include too much detail and tried to do a day by day chronicle. This proved more oppressive than interesting for me and probably for you all as well. So this year I will post as much or as little as I think you might find interesting. And I will intersperse it with other stuff so it isn’t like being forced to watch someone’s vacation slides.
After a flight that literally and figuratively flew by, we landed at Charles de Gaulle on August 22nd and hopped a fast train to the TGV station just outside of Tours in the Loire Valley. On the train there were two female backpackers that reinforced every stereotype Americans have about Europeans not showering enough. I have no problem with a little musk here and there, especially in the European context, but man oh man, did those ladies reek. Even the locals on the train were covering their noses.
We picked up our rental car without any problem and then drove to Amboise where we picked up our friends Ron and Barry at the train station. The weather was warm and sunny. Hot in the sun but really, really pleasant in the shade. We started things off with a little lunch on a lovely green garden terrace before we walked around town a bit and visited the chateau in Amboise.
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