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Europe » France » Centre » Tours April 12th 2018

Yesterday we laid low, and licked our wounds, following the châteaux marathon of the day before. We did, however, make a grocery run using Dee's carry-on bag (with wheels) to help haul the goods back from the store, which is about 1/4-mile from the villa. Meanwhile, I took some pants, shirts and a suit jacket to a nearby dry cleaning establishment (called "PRESSERS" here). Today, we received and accepted a very gracious invitation from our villa's owner (Sophie) to take us on Saturday to visit the Château d'Azay-le-Rideau, which is located 15 miles southwest of Tours. This morning we decided to visit a local garden park, the Jardin des Prébendes d'Oé, before taking the bus into the downtown area. This garden shows up on the city map as a green rectangle, bordered on the north and ... read more
Jardin des Prébendes d'Oé
Jardin des Prébendes d'Oé
Scallop and mushroom bisque

Europe » France » Centre » Tours April 10th 2018

Under cloudy skies and intermittent rainfall, today we enjoyed a full-day, semi-guided tour of three famous châteaux in the Loire Valley. We met our driver/guide, a very pleasant and knowledgeable young French lady, and a retired couple from, Vancouver Canada, in front of the tourism office at 9:00AM. In a matter of 20 minutes or less, we'd reached our first destination, the Château de Villandry. The Loire Valley, often referred to as the "Garden of France”, is studded with over a thousand châteaux, each with distinct architectural embellishments, from the early medieval to the late Renaissance periods. The châteaux were originally created as feudal strongholds, over the course of centuries past, during the power struggle between southern and northern France. Initially built for defensive purposes during the upheavals of the Middle Ages, the Loire châteaux gradually ... read more
Gardens, Château Villandry
Rapeseed field
Salon area

Europe » France » Centre » Tours April 9th 2018

This past weekend we took some time to relax, and to catch-up with such mundane tasks as grocery shopping, laundry, and a much-needed session with my hair stylist (Dee), who has by now cut my hair in so many different places (around the world) that we've lost count! The weather continues to be mild during the day, still chilly in the evening, but the rain has stayed away. We also made arrangements for a day trip, on Tuesday of next week, with a local tour operator to visit several of the châteaux for which the Loire Valley is so renowned. In another travel-related matter, we've decided to depart Tours a day earlier than planned, and to fly via Ryanair from Tours to London (our final stop), instead of from Nantes. We did this to avoid the ... read more
Our closest street market
Local street carnival
Our meal at La Petite Pause des Halles

Europe » France » Centre » Tours April 6th 2018

Spring has finally sprung! The temperature in Tours reached 73 degrees by mid-afternoon, under mostly sunny skies, and we made the most of our good fortune. We decided to walk to the nearby Botanical Garden, and afterwards ride the #4 bus to reach the Château de Tours on the south bank of the Loire river. The Jardin botanique de Tours is a municipal botanical garden and arboretum, established in 1843, that occupies a plot of land along the western side of the Boulevard Tonnellé. Admission is free, and it turned out to be quite a bargain, because we spent more than an hour admiring the diverse array of flowers and plants, representing some 2000 taxonomic groups, which are spread out over 12 acres of lush lawns and gardens. There are also more than 150 kinds and ... read more
Up close and personal
Chocolate mousse
View of cathedral facade

Europe » France » Centre » Tours April 5th 2018

Today, which marks the 50th-day of our journey, we finally enjoyed some Springtime weather, with comfortable temperatures and mostly blue skies throughout the day. Vive la France! We struck out on foot at around 10:30 in the morning, with our first priority being to locate one of the stops where we could catch a public bus into the center of the city. After a 10-minute walk we found the bus stop, and a few minutes later boarded the #5 bus for a quick ride to the stop near the main train station and tourist information office, where we picked-up a few brochures and made some inquiries. We paused for a few minutes at the plaza in front of the impressive, 19th-century train station, where fountains and Japanese cherry trees are in full bloom; then walked inside ... read more
Musée des beaux-arts de Tours
Tours Cathedral
Stained glass in Tours Cathedral

Europe » France » Centre » Tours April 4th 2018

It was a long day, but our trip from Bruges to Tours went according to plan, without any surprises along the way. Our pick-up at 7:00 AM in Bruges, the drive to the Brussels airport, and the flight from Brussels to Nantes were uneventful and on-schedule. We were met by our taxi driver at Nantes, who delivered us to our apartment in Tours following a 2-hour drive through the countryside of the Loire Valley. Unfortunately, the wet weather that dogged us in Belgium followed us into France, as it rained throughout the drive to Tours. However, the rain did not dampen the warm welcome we received from our charming hostess, Sophie, who greeted us with fresh flowers and a bottle of champagne! After entering the gate into the grounds of her property, named by a previous ... read more
Loire River
French provincial living room
Courtyard, Villa Medicis

Europe » France » Centre September 21st 2017

Sat 9thSept 2017 Drove, uneventfully, from Newport to Newhaven – a distance of 202 miles. Caught the ferry and arrived in Dieppe at 10.00pm and bunked down in Quai de la Marine - turn left out of Port and its literally 500 metres on the left and well worth the 12 Euros for its convenience and facilities!! (202 mile Sun 10th Sep A cloudy / sunny day on the Sunday and basically a belt down the normal route, Rouen, Evereux, Dreux, Chartres, Chateaudun – a well tried and tested route – but fairly fast! At Vendome we branched off to Montoire-sur-le -Loir where we had a lovely walk around the quaint old town, including a visit to an old historic train Station where Philippe Petain met Adolf Hitler in 1940. Not sure why!! (194 miles. Montoire ... read more
Cadouin
Penne D'Agenais
Old villages near St Lary

Europe » France » Centre » Gien September 21st 2017

Bob had warned me that we needed, unusually, to use the motorways a lot today as otherwise the drive would take too long. Still avoiding the toll roads though as we rarely need to use those. A most uneventful drive. Nice to see the sun shining all the way as we drove through the countryside, through a few small towns and villages and bypassing others. The valley of the Dordogne river was filled with very white mist as we drove over, as we've often seen it but once over the other side we were into clear blue sky for the rest of the day. I shouted murderers at a few tractors which I saw beheading the sad looking sunflowers and firing their seeds into waiting trucks. As we got a bit further north we came to ... read more
Starlings practicing for a murmuration at Gien
Lovely buildings along the west side of the North bank at Gien. Didn't get chance to explore as the light was going fast..
The Loire is wide at Gien. This is the little beach at our campsite

Europe » France » Centre » Blois June 26th 2017

"Tänään mennään Tintin linnaan!" Cheverny on kaunis ja hyvin säilynyt linna, jossa omistajaperhe edelleen asustelee. Linna on vain pari kertaa käynyt suvun ulkopuolin omistajan hallussa, muutoin sama suku on pitänyt linnaa hallussaan. Ranskan vallankumouksen aikanakaan linnalle ei tullut vahinkoa, koska omistaja oli jotenkin arvostettu vallankumouksellisten piireissä. 1600-luvun sisustus on säilytetty todella kauniisti! Näkemistäni linnoista Cheverny on ehdoton suosikkini, koska se on niin kaunis ja jopa vähän kodikas. Cheverny oli myös Tintin piirtäjän Hergen suosikkilinna. Siksi Herge on käyttänyt Chevernyä esikuvana Tintti-sarjakuvien Moulinsartin linnalle. Cheverny on nähnyt markkinaraon ja erottuu siis alueen kymmenistä linnoista sillä, että ulkorakennuksessa on Tintti-näyttely, johon on rekonstruoitu kohtauksia Tintin seikkailuista Moulinsartissa. Roland ja Léna olivat aivan ... read more
Mustajoutsenia Chevernyn puutarhassa
Blois'n renessanssisiipi valaistuna
Tintti-näyttely

Europe » France » Centre June 25th 2017

Toinen linnapäivä alkoi kaahailemalla pikkuteitä elonkorjuuta odottavien vehnäpeltojen poikki. Vielä loppumatka kierrettiin suurta yksityistä metsäaluetta, jonka keskellä Chambordin linna sijaitsee. Metsät eivät tällä seudulla näytä olevan oikein talousmetsää, vaan peurojen ja villisikojen metsästykseen tarkoitettua lehtipuupöheikköä. Jo aiemmin mainittu kuningas Frans I oli ihastunut italialaiseen arkkitehtuuriin, taiteeseen ja ruokaan. Hän yritti valloittaa jotain Milanon seutua Italiasta huonolla menestyksellä. Hän seurusteli italialaisten taiteilijoiden kuten Leonardo da Vincin kanssa. Pari kuukautta ystävänsä Leonardon kuoleman jälkeen Frans alkoi rakentaa italialaistyylistä linnaa, jonka piirteitä löytyy da Vincin piirustuksista. Tämän renessanssin helmen varsinaiset arkkitehdit ovat jääneet hämärän peittoon, koska rakennusaikaiset dokumentit ovat tuhoutuneet aikojen kuluessa. F... read more
3,5 miljoonan euron puutarha
Aurinkokuninkaan vastaanotolla?
Se ranskalainen ratsumies <3




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