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Bon soir mes amies! :) Today has been yet another beautiful day in France, with lots of sunshine & warmth. Esther & began our day in true French style with complimentary croissants et baguettes et jus d'orange from the lovely hotel man here at Hotel de Renaissance. We then set out to see the countryside of the Loire valley, renowned for it's huge chateaux that exemplify the extravagance of the French aristocracy prior to the revolution. In French there is really no word for manor or mansion or palace…it just goes straight from house, to chateau! And there are a LOT of chateaux in this part of town…
We first took a bus out to the chateau of Chambord, which is one of the largest in the region & which began to be built in 1519 by King Francis I. It has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, & 426 rooms!!! Hmm…seems like somebody might be overcompensating for something…haha Suffice it to say that it's really, REALLY big & grand looking. A very impressive place to walk through it's mostly big, relatively empty rooms with very decorative wall hanging & a lot of portraits of very important look people.
From Chambord we continued onto chateaux de Cheverny, which is much "smaller" by comparison, but far more extravagantly decorated. It is also the chateau that inspired the Moulinsart castle in the Tintin comics! Cheverny is also surrounded by exquisite gardens which lead you down to a café situation in an old orange grove where Esther & I sat (let me just say that I just heard a horse & carriage going by on the street outside my window - how cool is that!?) after wandering the grounds to have a cup of tea.
We then spent half an hour lying in the sunshine (well, Esther did, I lay in dappled sunlight/shade to protect my albino skin!) in the gardens before heading back to Blois on the bus, all sleepy & relaxed after another wonderful day of French sunshine!
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