Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Saturday 10 May - this morning we cruise along the River Cher to take in the wonderful view of the magnificent Chateau Chenonceau (see main picture for today's blog) - HIGHLIGHT !!!!! spanning the river on a series of arches. We were told that this the most photographed of the Loire chateau and was the former home of Diane de Poltiers and Cafherine de Medici.
The château was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before its first mention in writing in the 11th century.
The original château was torched in 1412 to punish owner Jean Marques for an act of sedition. He rebuilt a château and fortified mill on the site in the 1430s. Subsequently, his indebted heir Pierre Marques sold the castle to ThomasBohier (fr) Chamberlain for King Charles VIII of France in 1513 (this leads to 2013 being considered the 500th anniversary of the castle: MDXIII–MMXIII.) Bohier destroyed the castle, though its 15th-century keep was left standing, and built an entirely new residence between 1515 and 1521. The work was sometimes overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet,[2] who delighted in hosting French nobility, including King Francis I on two occasions.
Brr a wee but nippy this morning but sailing between the arches of the magnificent chateaux was a highlight for me. It was a 30 minute ride and the photos we took, I must say, were brilliant !! After the ride we drove to the chateau for a visit and here is where we said goodbye to Christoph who is going on holidays himself and hello to Daniel our new bus driver. We had 1 and a half hours here so we picked up the iPod English voice commentary as we went room to room. It was far grander on the inside than the outside. The gardens were good, there was a wax museum & a coffee shop.
Lunch was at the charming village of Azay-Le-Rideua with its elegant chateau.
Later we visited the gardens of Chateua Villandry - inspired by the classic gardens of the 16th and 18th century, different levels of the gardens include ponds, topiary, ornamental hedges and an extra-ordinary kitchen garden covering 12,5000 sq metres. When we hopped off the bus it was pouring rain and very dismal indeed and not many of us were looming forward to spending over 1 hour wandering through the gardens in the wet. Slowly we walked around admiring these gardens and then the sun shone, umberella down, camera up LOL. It's not until you climb up all those stairs on the outer walls to get the overall view of these gardens that your jaw drops with the view of their sheer beauty and breathtaking gardens.
Another day in beautiful France is over, we are really enjoying this tour and having a good group of touring companions certainly goes a long way in making or breaking your trip. The tour leader Simon however is a prat and is getting on more and more peoples nerves as the days go by - very condescending to say the least. He has already copped an earful of his lack or organizational skills but we are not going to let this prat spoil are trip !!
- comments