Blogs from Blois, Centre, France, Europe - page 2

Castle number two - tick. Although it was castle number one on our list. This is the supersized most extravagant and most visited of them all. And it did take our breath away from our first glimpse of it during one of our many u-turn manoeuvers on narrow country roads. It really is impressive with it's size and whole cityscape of turrets domes and sculptures on top. We were pleased our early morning start got us half way up the number one carpark rather than the other parks a couple of kilometers away. This place certainly was geared up for the tourists with markets restaurants and souvenir shops forming a little village within the grounds. The grounds were very unimpressive. Little more than badly kept paddocks. Although the large forest surrounding the castle is of note ... read more

Today we went to chambord. It's a fancy castle. It's one of the biggest ones in France. It is known for it's staircase when two people can go on it. They can see each other but they won't pass each other. As we went in all the rooms there wasn't much in it compared to the one we went to before.  After we had lunch we went to hudins magic house. The first floor was pretty cool. We went into this coffin shaped hallway that had mirrors on all it's sides and it looked like it when on forever. As we went onto the last level a man us some kind of like glasses but they've got a mirror by your nose so that you can see what is above you. Then you walk down a ... read more

We started our day by visiting Leonard De Vinci’s house. The house located in Amboise, is where he passed away. The house has been turned into a museum; IBM funds the house and also created models of all of his inventions from his drawings. From Amboise we headed toward Chateau De Chenonceau. Lori read all about this chateau and recalls it from her French classes at UCF. It was a short drive, we were there in 15-20 minutes. Lori was surprised it was such a short drive. I told her Francis I didn’t want to be too far from Amboise because this is where his mistress lived. It’s always good to be King. We thought we’d eat lunch but it was early and we decided to head on over to France’s hunting lodge Chateau de Chambord. ... read more

Blois is a pretty little town on the northern bank of the Loire. The 'Chateau de Blois' is in the centre of town. Each of its four wings, arrrayed around a central courtyard, reflect a style from a different pepriod: Gothic, Flamboyant Gothic, ealy Renaissance and Classical. Old City - a spiderweb of twisting medieval streets dominated by the Cathedral St-Louis. Behind the cathedral are the pretty 'Jardins de l'Eveche' (Gardens of the Bishop's palace). From the terrace is the best view of Blois, the Loire and the Pont Jaques Gabriel. Towering over the gardens is an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, which marks her passage through Blois in 1429 prior to the Orleans siege. It seems every French town is eager to lay claim to Joan in some way. There is a hop on ... read more

I promised to start this time with Puppy, so here she is in all her summer glory outside the Guggenheim Museum in Balboa. As she lives there permanently I’m not sure how she is clothed in winter but she was a beautiful sight the day we were there. After visiting with her (and the rest of the artworks in this wonderful museum) we headed north to Guernika. By expressway it was about 50 kms but we took the slow way through torturous coastal mountains and it took us nearly 3 hours to get to this small valley town. Guernika is the Basque town that was unexpectedly bombed heavily by the Germans in 1937 on a market day as a practice run by Goerring. The bombing was targeted on the market, the school and the town not ... read more