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Mark & Robyn's Travels
Today we have the plan (?) to see three chateaus. After yesterday I know it will be only two but I will give it an attempt to get Robyn to three. I am now driving with my tail between my legs however I know that there will be no toll road today. If I ever find that couple from Colorado again I am slapping them in the back of the head (my fault for believing them).
The chateau's to visit are Cheverny, Chamborg, and Blois (pronounced Blah - where did your stay? Blah. How was it? Blah). We decided to start with Cheverny, they have a feeding of the hunting dogs at 11:30 and Robyn wanted to see that. After a few wrong turns we found the chateau. Once again we were there on field trip day so we had to avoid a few tour groups of school children. Cheverny dates to 1624, but the land it was built on has been owned by the same family for over 6 centuries. Please think about that for a moment, this property has been owned by the same family prior to any Europeans setting foot on North America (not including the Vikings). I am just trying to put this into perspective. The best thing about this chateau are the hunting dogs that are kept in a kennel near the main house. There are approximately 70 dogs and they are taken out at least once a week in the summer for a hunt. But the real fun is the feeding of the dogs at 11:30 in the summer, I will go into that in a minute but first I am posting pictures from inside the chateau. Outside of the chateau I did notice that there was a giant sequoia planted, it was dated 1870 and it was huge.
The feeding of the dogs was absolutely amazing. At about 11:20 the trainer shows up and the dogs all start going wild and barking. He puts them in one are of the kennel where they can look down on what he is doing. He then cleans the area where he is going to feed the dogs and then lays out a large amount of raw meat mixed with a dry kibble. The whole time various dogs are barking. At exactly 11:30 he lets the dogs back into the feeding area but keeps them back from eating by command, then he gives the command to eat and they pile after it. I have attached a video it is pretty funny. In the summer each dog is fed approximately 400 grams of food, in winter it is 1 kg per dog.
After the fun of Cheverny we headed over to Chamborg which was the one chateau Robyn wanted to see. Earlier it had been closed because of flooding and after seeing the photos we were not sure it would be opened while we were in Amboise. However the flooding receded and we were able to get there with no problem. Chanborg was started by Francis I in 1519, Francis had invited Leonardo da Vinci to come live in France in 1516 and da Vinci's influence is seen in the design of the chateau. Francis died before the chateau could be finished but everything he envisioned was eventually built. Louis XIV spent time at the chateau, using it as one of his summer homes. The chateau itself is impressively big, but in my opinion is too big and ostentatious, I prefer the simplicity of Ambois or Chenonceau. Here are some of the pictures.
After we finished with Chamborg we headed back Ambois. Robyn realized we had no time to go through the Blois chateau. All things considered we did a pretty good job getting to the 5 chateaus we did visit in only 2 1/2 days. The next two days are travel days, I will only do one more post combining what happens on those two days into one. Our trip is over and we now look to plan the next one, we will see if that is a possibility, it is all up to Robyn's ability to get around.
The chateau's to visit are Cheverny, Chamborg, and Blois (pronounced Blah - where did your stay? Blah. How was it? Blah). We decided to start with Cheverny, they have a feeding of the hunting dogs at 11:30 and Robyn wanted to see that. After a few wrong turns we found the chateau. Once again we were there on field trip day so we had to avoid a few tour groups of school children. Cheverny dates to 1624, but the land it was built on has been owned by the same family for over 6 centuries. Please think about that for a moment, this property has been owned by the same family prior to any Europeans setting foot on North America (not including the Vikings). I am just trying to put this into perspective. The best thing about this chateau are the hunting dogs that are kept in a kennel near the main house. There are approximately 70 dogs and they are taken out at least once a week in the summer for a hunt. But the real fun is the feeding of the dogs at 11:30 in the summer, I will go into that in a minute but first I am posting pictures from inside the chateau. Outside of the chateau I did notice that there was a giant sequoia planted, it was dated 1870 and it was huge.
The feeding of the dogs was absolutely amazing. At about 11:20 the trainer shows up and the dogs all start going wild and barking. He puts them in one are of the kennel where they can look down on what he is doing. He then cleans the area where he is going to feed the dogs and then lays out a large amount of raw meat mixed with a dry kibble. The whole time various dogs are barking. At exactly 11:30 he lets the dogs back into the feeding area but keeps them back from eating by command, then he gives the command to eat and they pile after it. I have attached a video it is pretty funny. In the summer each dog is fed approximately 400 grams of food, in winter it is 1 kg per dog.
After the fun of Cheverny we headed over to Chamborg which was the one chateau Robyn wanted to see. Earlier it had been closed because of flooding and after seeing the photos we were not sure it would be opened while we were in Amboise. However the flooding receded and we were able to get there with no problem. Chanborg was started by Francis I in 1519, Francis had invited Leonardo da Vinci to come live in France in 1516 and da Vinci's influence is seen in the design of the chateau. Francis died before the chateau could be finished but everything he envisioned was eventually built. Louis XIV spent time at the chateau, using it as one of his summer homes. The chateau itself is impressively big, but in my opinion is too big and ostentatious, I prefer the simplicity of Ambois or Chenonceau. Here are some of the pictures.
After we finished with Chamborg we headed back Ambois. Robyn realized we had no time to go through the Blois chateau. All things considered we did a pretty good job getting to the 5 chateaus we did visit in only 2 1/2 days. The next two days are travel days, I will only do one more post combining what happens on those two days into one. Our trip is over and we now look to plan the next one, we will see if that is a possibility, it is all up to Robyn's ability to get around.
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