Chateaus, Chateaus, Chateaus

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Geo: 47.4104, 0.981122

We left St. Malo and stopped at Fougeres to see the St. Leonard church and the public gardens. We walked the ramparts and took photos of one of the largest medieval castles in France. We drove to Chinon in the Loire valley to visit some chateaus.
All we have been seeing so far in the countryside is corn, no grapes. They grow a lot of corn here. We asked a local where all of the corn went and he said it was feed for the animals.
We drove over to Langeais Chateau. It is a fortress like chateau with 16th century furnished rooms. After that we drove to our B&B for the night. A very nice B&B in a French house. The owner spoke pretty good English, so we had some good conservations. He also owned a Porsche!
Speaking of driving, the GPS has been a god send. It has gotten us to our destination every time. I'm not always happy about the roads it chooses, but we have made it to our destinations. One minute we are on the freeway going 130 kph and the next minute we are on a lane and a half road in the middle of nowhere going 90kph with bicycles, scooters, hikers, cars, trucks and cows to dodge. It took us down this skinny street so narrow that I had to pull the mirrors in. If it had been 2 inches narrower, we would have been stuck. When we pulled out of that street an old French man was staring at us like he had just seen the second rising of Jesus. We asked him if we could continue down the street and he said we. So off we went.
We left Chinon in the morning and headed over to Amboise. We visited the Azay-Le-Rideau chateau. It had a lot more period furniture in it than the last one. It was set on a nice reflecting pond. Then we did a load of laundry. We stopped at a laundrymat that the Rick Steves book had mentioned, only to find it closed down. Luckily, the TI was just down the street and he showed us where another one was. Then on to another chateau.
The Chenonceau chateau is the most popular chateau in the area. It is built over the river Cher and has some beautiful gardens around it. Very nice. After that we checked in to our hotel. Later a trip downtown for some dinner.
Tomorrow, two more chateaus and then we head farther south.

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Photos

Part of the original wall
This wall has survived for a 1,000 years.

the grand attic
This wood is original, no nails, held together with wooden pins. 15th century

Comments

[Mom]

I like that picture Stacy . Helen

[bfsize15]

Yep, looks just like my attic!!

[bfsize15]

Now THAT is a beer!!

[deb]

this one has seen better days...he is meeellltttiiinnngggg!

[Deb]

Cute, Bob, love it. I hope you bought one of these.