Here's a few pics and brief narative of our tour of the Loire Valley in France in March-April 1998.
We landed in Paris and drove to Chârtres the first day. We stayed at the Novotel outside Chartres. This would be the only "modern" accomodations that we would use as we wanted to enjoy the traditional French hotels that we [Danielle and Scott] used to use when we were traveling without children. Zoë and Kyra are now old enough to enjoy and remember the the experience ... and they did enjoy it! That evening we went into the center of Chartres where we made a short visit to the cathedral and ate dinner at a "Salon du Thé" just across the street from the cathedral. The girls discovered "les diabalos" - a combination of limonade and flavored syrup.
Day 2 - Chateaux of Chateaudun and Blois and the city of Orléans - In the evening we moved into Hotel Grand St. Michel on the grounds of the chateau of Chambord. Danielle and Scott had stayed here in 1982. Danielle had stayed in the same hotel in 1971 with her friends the Bidets. A view out one of our hotel room windows is shown at right. Dinner was in the hotel dining room and included fresh local game dishes - wonderful!
Day 3 - Chateaux of Chambord and Cheverny - Zoë and Kyra loved the huge double-helix staircase and the large rooms at Chambord.
Day 4 - Chateaux of Amboise and Chaumont on the way to Chenonceaux. Moved into Hotel du Bon Laborateur. We dined at the hotel - a real gourmet experience!
Day 5 - Chateaux of Chenonceaux and Loches. The gallery over the river Cher is always spectacular.
Day 6 - Chateaux of Tours and Villandry - Dinner was savory and sweet crêpes in Chenonceaux. - yum!
Day 7 - Chateaux of Langeais and Azay le Rideau - We moved to a country hotel in Chinon where Danielle and Scott had stayed in 1982 - Hotel La Giraudiere. The hotel was very much the same as we remembered it, in a quiet country farm setting and still with a wonderful restaurant.
Day 8 - Chateaux of Chinon (ruins) and Ussé.
Day 9 - Abbaye of Fontevraud, and chateaux of Saumur and Candé-St.-Martin - We squeezed in a tour of the Gratien-Mercier wine cave in the natural and excavated caves of the Loire valley. Zoë and Kyra were very impressed with the time and space consuming process or making sparkling wine.
Day 10 - Chateaux of Anger, Brissac and Montreuil-Bellay - The weather was terrible for sightseeing, especially in the morning with pouring rain. Luckily one of the major attractions at Anger is the Apocalypse tapestry which is high and dry in a specially constructed display auditorium.
Day 11 - Chateau Le Lude - Tried to visit chateau Gizeux but it was not open for the season yet. As it was another rainy day we toured the small country roads instead of more chateaux.
Day 12 - Returned to Chartres - Visited Beauregard chateau - this was another return visit for Danielle as she had been there as a baby with her parents and this chateau is one of Danielle's father's favorites.
Day 13 - On Monday morning we took a short tour of the cathedral with Malcolm Miller, the acknowledged expert on Chartres Catherdral. Visited chateau Anet and the local village.
Day 14 - On to USA
Tech. Note: These pictures were captured from our video camera for posting with this article.
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| View of Chambord from Hotel Grand St. Michel window. |
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| Chambord |
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| Cheverny |
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| Chenonceaux |
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| Villandry |
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| Langeais |
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| Zoë and Kyra on bridge in garden of Azay le Rideau |
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| Azay le Rideau |