Chateaux in the Loire Valley

Azay le Rideau
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We used Tours as a base for 5 days, to explore the chateaux (castles) of the Loire Valley. Tours is about 1/2 hour to 1 hour from most of the chateaux. There's not that much to do in Tours itself, although it is a pretty town with beautiful parks and even better patisseries! Richard and I had a delicious strawberries and cream eclair one day, but never got around to trying one of the huge meringues they sell everywhere - they were seriously the size of a rockmelon!

Anyway, back to the castles.

For now we are all chateau-ed out!

Gardens of Villandry
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We decided to go on an organised full day tour, as the chateaux are quite spread out and difficult to reach via public transport. We saw 5 chateaux in total, all amazing. We got to spend about 1 hour or so at each.

* Azay-le-Rideaux: this castle was built in the middle of an island and was like something out of a fairytale, with turrets and pretty gardens. I think this was one of the prettiest we saw.

* Villandry: this castle is famous for its gardens, which are definitely spectacular. There are forests, beautifully laid out hedges, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, a maze, fountains and a herb garden. You have to see it to get the full effect!

Chenonceau
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* Chenonceau: this was our favourite one. It is built over a river, with impressive gardens and a maze, but the inside is amazing too with elaborate furniture and paintings. French royalty used to live here.

* Clos Luce: this was a smaller chateaux but what makes it famous is that Leonardo Da Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life here. We saw his bedroom, study and a very cool underground tunnel where the king Francois I used to secretly travel through from his nearby castle, to visit his friend Leonardo.

Clos Luce
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* Amboise: this was another royal castle (the one connected to Clos Luce by the tunnel), medieval in style. We also saw Leonardo Da Vinci's tomb in the chapel at this church. Amboise is a very pretty town and we also did some winetasting here. Plus we visited a famous chocolate shop - I had a cluster of almonds coated in chocolate and Richard had this Belgian chocolate ball. Yum!

The next day, we did another tour to see a few more chateaux. This time we saw:

* Cheverny: this castle is still lived in by the owners. The castle has been in the same family for 500 years or something. It was funny seeing family portraits inside the castle, I couldn't imagine living in a castle! The castle was amazingly furnished and also has a kennel of about 100 dogs for hunting. The castle in the Tin Tin comics was inspired by Cheverny.

Amboise
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* Chambord: this is the second biggest chateaux in France. From the outside, it was incredibly detailed but inside it was quite run down and empty of furniture. Still amazing though! It contains a famous double helix staircase, supposedly designed by Da Vinci, where there are 2 separate staircases that wind around eachother but never meet. We did some more winetasting here, and some biscuit tasting!

On another day, we visited the town of Blois which contains another royal chateaux. This one was also amazing but for now we are all chateau-ed out!