On Saturday morning, we rented a car for a weekend tour of the Chateaux on the Loire and the Cher Rivers. Catherine has a friend who lives just outside of the city of Tours that agreed to host us for the night.
Our rental car - A Renault Twingo
Ready for our trip!
Our first stop was in the town of Cheverny
Chateau Troussay
This was the road leading to our next Chateau
Next was the town of Fougeres, France. Since we don't speak French, we made up our own words for these towns and Chateaux. We called this one "Folgers".
Our next stop was in Blois - The Chateau below is called "Chateau Royal de Blois". We stopped in this town for a quick lunch and then back on the road.
We took this picture from across the Loire of Chateau de Chaumont
Our next stop was Bourdaisiere
Our next stop was the town of Montlouis Sur Loire. There were many "Caves" along some cliffs where they made and stored wine.
Our next stop was the city of Tours. The building below is "The Hotel De Ville".
Palais de Justice - or the Courthouse
Busy shopping street in Tours
Inside the Hotel De Ville in Tours
Gare de Tours - Train Station in Tours
We made it to our hosts house in the town of Azay de Rideau. Her name is Maryline. She had picked mushrooms in the forest that day and was cooking them for our dinner. We had mushrooms with eggs, cheese and a tomato salad with bread. Very nice!
The next morning we headed out and found our first Chateau in the same village we stayed in.
Our next Chateau was in Villandry. We actually stopped here and toured the gardens and was able to get several pictures.
Some carp in the moat
The Chateau was having some kind of harvest festival
Cabbage in the vegetable garden
We stopped in this little village trying to find a coffee and a pastry, but didn't have much luck so we just took a few pictures.
Our next town was Nitray on the Cher River
We then made a quick stop in Amboise to see Chateau du Clos Luce which was the official residence of Leonardo da Vinci between 1516 and 1519
Our next Chateau was in Civray
Our next stop was a Chateau on the Cher called Chenonceau
Isn't this an awesome pic! Too bad it's a pic of a poster since we couldn't get close enough.
Our next Chateau was a nice hotel and restaurant in Chissay
This next Chateau is was in the town of Montrichard, also on the Cher
Great day for the motorcycles but we were in our Twingo!
On to the Chateau of Montpoupon - Not "Grey Poupon"
Our next stop was in Loches. Loches was built around a monastery around the year of 500. Joan of Arc arrived in this town on 11 May 1429 to meet King Charles VII.
This must be Joan of Arc and King Charles VII
The church in Loches built in 965
On to the next - This is Chartreuse du Liget. It was an old monastery founded in 1178.
This field of wild flowers was nearby - had to get a few pictures!
This chateau was in Montresor
A cemetery outside the village of Montresor
A field of sunflowers at the end of thier life
We stopped by this field of Canola Flowers
Our little car could move! This "is" KPH and not MPH! And...it took about 4 minutes with the gas pedal to the floor to make it reach that speed!
On to the next Chateau in Lucay le Male
Our next stop was Chateau Valencay
This was our last Chateau and was in the town of Saint Florentin
