Chateau Country

Loire Valley, France---Chateau Country

By now we were actually beginning to be able to use the built in GPS of our rental, a Renault Espace, great car. The GPS's have come a long way, and this one was actually functional, which was a new experience for me. So, in addition our local and regional Michelin maps we bought, there I was, out in the driveway in Megeve, trying to figure out just how far it was, and just how long it would take to meet my family in the Loire Valley (see last post, we were meeting my sister, brother in law, and their two kids, who were travelling in Europe, and coming down from Paris to meet us).

So, making use of a rare case of actual internet connectivity in Europe, and avoiding use of my 1.50 Euro per minute phone like the plague, I was actually able to use Yahoo Messenger to try and find a place to stay (I also have an account with another VoIP provider, but it's been pretty useless the whole trip, even though it's the one that gets all the press). This was tough, as the Scandinavians are all on holiday, so are the Brits, and the Dutch were entering the fray, albeit that they are mostly driving luxury cars with 15 foot "caravans" (campers for U.S. folks) in tow. It was TOUGH finding places to stay, both for the night prior to meeting my family, and the two nights following, prior to our reservations in Paris. But thanks to connectivity, we were able to find a home for our nomadic band without having to pay 500 Euros for phone calls, nor having to sleep in the mini-van.

So with that as a preface, we rolled up to a great little chateau in a small town called Montlucon, which was just over half way between the Alps and the Loire Valley. I'll skip the photo's but it was an unexpected treat called Chateau St. Jean. The rooms were not all that dramatic, but it was across from a beautiful park, and had a restaurant in a converted 16^th century chapel that was one of the best meals we had on the trip (easily in the top ten). Like many places of this ilk in France, the hotel keepers think nothing of folks (like us) who end up spending much more for dinner than we do on our rooms. Kim and I had a classic story like this from when we lived in Europe in 1992/93, and went camping with a tent in our car (a Mazda Miata no less). We would stay in 'luxury campgrounds' (and they were, spotless and great bathrooms) that cost $15/night, and the folks running the place thought nothing about recommending restaurants that cost 10-15x the cost of the camp site. La plus ca change, la plus le meme chose.

The town of Montlucon was a pleaure as well, with a medieval core with winding cobblestone streets and ancient half timbered houses. The next day we visited our first Chateau, Valency, which was nice as it was further south from most of the tourist route. For sake of brevity, I'll skip discussing Valency, except for this guy, who was strutting around the grounds like a peacock…

Valency also gave us a hint of the 'other side of the french'. On the manicured grounds of the Chateau was a big grass field. Instead of the traditional 'keep off the grass' which we have now seen in a dozen plus languages, there was a sign saying 'balls for play available free of charge at main ticket office'. There was also a great maze with electronic doors that you could only pass through if you keyed in correct answers about Napoleon's life, as Valency was the home for Napy's famed foreign minister, Talleyrand. Tallyrand seems like someone to learn more about, as he seemed like a penultimate diplomat, with backchannels among the Nobles, but also among the Noble's staffs. He kept one of the 'great tables of Europe', and believed that there was no such thing as a great plan for anything in human history that had not been discussed first at a meal. And he is right.

The next day we met my family. It was great seeing them, caught up on the past few months, and then had a dinner from hell. The Chateau was wonderful, called the Domaine de Beauvois, west of Tours, but it had probably the worst staff we have seen on this entire trip. Again, physical plant was beautiful, rooms were beautiful, but taking an hour plus to get kids bread at dinner and 2.5 hours to get kids their dinner was really lame. Not to mention forgetting to make my brother-in-law Todd's dinner after 2.5 hours as well. It was not a timing thing, as we regularly have 3+ hour dinners, but these folks were lame. But the Chateau and the area were wonderful.

So the next morning, we were off to see two of the "purple" (i.e. Michelin guide 3***) chateaus, Villandry, and Azay-le-Rideau. Villandry is about gardens.

Gardens so perfect that they don't seem real…

Azay-le-Rideau is 16^th century, a "Franky the First" (i.e. Francios 1er) production, and still spectacular. I really like this next shot, very postcardesque.

The next day, we visited Chenonceau, another 3*** chateau, also postcard perfect. By this time, however, the kids, now five of them, were starting to get a bit "chateau'ed out". So we headed back to our Chateau in Luynes. The "pile de cing mars" was in the book, so we had to go take a look. What is a pile you ask, in the middle of Chateau country?

This is a pile, a 100 foot high tower built by the Romans in about 200 AD. The archeologists think it was some sort of funary monument, but nobody is quite sure. Some of this is somewhat real time, as there were signs by the 'pile' that show that excavations in the past few years are showing more interesting stuff near the site. Kim and I broke off to try and find a place for dinner, as we did not want to eat in the Chateau's restaurant again (we ended up having one of the best Picnic dinners in history on the chateau grounds…long story), but on the way, walking around, Kim and Jeff the "rome spotters" saw a small sign on a wall that said "aqueduct romaine 2km" so of course we had to take a look. And sure enough, not in the book, in the middle of a bunch of active farmland…

Now think about it. Don't think folks do major engineering projects for fun, which means these aqueducts were servicing a pretty major area and town. No clue…so we had our great dinner, and were off to another Chateau in the AM…

Chenonceau has a good story, as it was the property of a favorite of Henry II, who when he died ended up at odds with Catherine de Medici, who was regent for Francios 1er (Franky again). And wherever Francois has hung out, you see salamanders, which probably tied into the dragon thing somehow…

However, in Chateau country, all roads lead to the Sun King, Louis XiV, and this is a great shot of him in the classic Louis pose…gotta love the hairdo…

Not ancient, but we really liked this sign, especially as the nine of us had a very pleasant lunch at the Chenonceau picnic grounds…

Unfortunately, that afternoon we had to bid adieu to our family, as they had to go back to Paris to catch a flight home. We decided that somehow we still had a few more chateaus left in us, and headed up to Amboise, to stay at truly wonderful hotel "Le Choisel". Physically just as nice as the prior hotel chateau, but as I've stated previously, service matters. So, he next day, it was off to Chambord. Chambord is another heavy hitter chateau, much larger in scope than our previous visits. At this point, Kim and I were starting to get the same feeling one gets when you visit too many Open Houses. Chambord gets to that fine line of 'is it a chateau or is it a palace?".

We started trying to identify the oldest graffiti carved into Chambord…

Our last Chateau hotel, Le Choisel, was located in Amboise, about 200 meters from the Chateau of Amboise, which we later learned was tied heavily into the same folks we had been running into since Florence and Tuscany, the Medicis and Francois 1er again. Franky's dad was Louis XII. His dad was Charles XIII (Chucky 8), who clobbered his head on a doorway at Amboise and died. A bunch of French Kings, including Francois, spent a ton of time at Amboise, which is interesting, as it is a huge nor ornate Chateau relative to the others we had seen. We got more of an education on all this one night, as we attended the "A la cour du Roy Francios". This is a song and light show by literally, the town of Amboise, as there are more than 400 people participating. It was in French, so I was able to pick up on some of it, which I would pass down 'telephone' style to my daughter, who would pass my lame translations down to my other daughter and my wife. Since sound and light shows can't really start until it is dark, and since it does not get dark until 10:30pm, this was especially tough on my four year old! There was a bit too much classic dancing, to few fireworks and horses, but we figured out that the wives of Amboise said that 'hey, if you don't let us have our stuff, there is no way you are going out prancing with the guys, nor are the kids going to be in the show". So, the guys of the two gave in, the show was long, a lot of dancing, but very quaint, and surprisingly, very high production values…

There is the young king Francois…along with his knights…

A king's gotta eat. So we have a pig.

Leonardo di Vinci, who was born near where we stayed in Tuscany, and whose model for the Mona Lisa was born near where we were staying, got into the act as well. Small world, he spent the last three years of his life at Amboise, and was buried about 100 feet from where we were watching the show…

His real tomb (not show)…

And the chateau itself, from our Hotel room…one of our best hotel window shots of the trip. As you can tell from all the Loire photos, the weather was helping a bunch, as the clouds add lots of drama to the building shots! So, with our open house tour of the Loire valley, we are off to Paris!

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[turtle ridge homes]

The rooms were not all that dramatic, but it was across from a beautiful park, and had a restaurant in a converted 16th century chapel that was one of the best meals we had on the trip (easily in the top ten).