Loire Valley, France
Thursday, October 6 - Friday, October 7, 2011
We had a good sleep in before hitting the chateaus. There are over 300 of them in the Loire Valley, so we were up half the night selecting the ones that we wanted to visit. We had already done Chambord, so we narrowed down our next top 4 to Chenonceau, Clos Luce, Cheverny and Blois Royale. Chenonseaux was magnificent, the second most visited chateau in France, after Versaille. We spent the morning there and had lunch in the gardens. The biggest surprise for me that it was used like a checkpoint Charlie during WWII where many French tried to escape occupied France by crossing thru the Chenonceau gallery to get to freedom.
Clos Luce was full of Da Vinci artefacts, and Cheverny was full of hounds. Both were well of the main roads. I cannot understand how the holidaying nobility from Paris, of centuries ago, managed to find these places without a GPS. We wanted to go to the La Maison de la Magic, which was a magic museum, where Robert Houdin was born. Robert Houdin was the father of modern magic shows. He inspired a young magician to change his name from Erik Weisz to Harry Houdini. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for two weeks, so we missed out. It would have been fun to have a guided tour by an illusionist. Instead we visited the Royale Chateau of Blois, and took some amazing photos. This Chateau was built in the 13th century and had some amazing architecture including a beautiful spiral staircase in the courtyard. We returned to the hotel for an early night, because tomorrow we are up early to drive 400km to Bordeaux at the centre of the wine region…
We had a good sleep in before hitting the chateaus. There are over 300 of them in the Loire Valley, so we were up half the night selecting the ones that we wanted to visit. We had already done Chambord, so we narrowed down our next top 4 to Chenonceau, Clos Luce, Cheverny and Blois Royale. Chenonseaux was magnificent, the second most visited chateau in France, after Versaille. We spent the morning there and had lunch in the gardens. The biggest surprise for me that it was used like a checkpoint Charlie during WWII where many French tried to escape occupied France by crossing thru the Chenonceau gallery to get to freedom.
Clos Luce was full of Da Vinci artefacts, and Cheverny was full of hounds. Both were well of the main roads. I cannot understand how the holidaying nobility from Paris, of centuries ago, managed to find these places without a GPS. We wanted to go to the La Maison de la Magic, which was a magic museum, where Robert Houdin was born. Robert Houdin was the father of modern magic shows. He inspired a young magician to change his name from Erik Weisz to Harry Houdini. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for two weeks, so we missed out. It would have been fun to have a guided tour by an illusionist. Instead we visited the Royale Chateau of Blois, and took some amazing photos. This Chateau was built in the 13th century and had some amazing architecture including a beautiful spiral staircase in the courtyard. We returned to the hotel for an early night, because tomorrow we are up early to drive 400km to Bordeaux at the centre of the wine region…