Loire Valley

One of the coolest things about this trip was the unplanned sights that we just happened upon while driving. We tried to avoid the freeways as much as possible so we could get the feel of the different villages and regions. This huge chateau from the 1700's is a perfect example of what we saw that we didn't plan to see. We were on a small 2 lane road driving toward the Loire Valley (to see a coupe of the famous castles there), and voila...... this beautiful estate appears. So we drove down the tree-lined gravel drive to check it out. All we could learn from the sign on the gate was that it was built in the 18th century and it is called "Chateau Montgeoffroy." It was so grand and beautiful, we became even more excited about seeing the castles we had planned to see later in the day. But first, here's one more of me in front of this one:





We were spending the night in the town of Chinon, known for its wine and its close proximity to several of the most famous castles. We decided to actually tour only one of the castles, due to both time and cost constraints. We chose the one that seemed to have the coolest history which was the Chateau de Langeais. Louis' son, Charles, secretly married Anne, the 14 year-old Duchess of Brittany in this castle in 1491. She was already married, but that marriage was annulled to make room for this political marriage, which caused the eventual joining of the Brittany region into France. It was so fun to tour Langeais because it was fully furnished with actual antiques from the era and it was in such good condition, I felt like I had been transported to the mediaeval era. It still has a working drawbridge that they raise every evening after closing. Behind the castle is a beautiful garden and park area that features the tower of the original structure, which dates back to 994. Here are some pics of "Langeais."



The drawbridge:

The tower



The view of Langeais from the original tower:



And.... here's a funny one of Peter. What can I say? We couldn't resist!



After touring Langeais, we went by a winery to taste and purchase some wines from the region. We had never done this before and it was a lot of fun. The proprietor knew enough English and we knew enough French that we were able to converse and understand her explanations of the wine. Unfortunately, when I saw the hotel room where we were staying for the night, I thought maybe we should bust open a bottle immediately. Here is a pic of Peter in front of the vineyard.



We were very fortunate throughout the entire trip to stay in places that were clean. The place in Chinon was the exception. This is ironic because the guide-book called this place "simple, but immaculate." Simple it was; immaculate it most certainly was not. I won't go into the details, but lets just say I decided that taking a shower here would be defeating the purpose, as I would probably feel more dirty after the process than before. I inspected the bed and found that the sheets were clean, but I knew that I was going to have a hard time sleeping because of the fact that the sheets were the only thing that was clean.

Luckily, we had already picked out our dinner spot for the night and it was an all-inclusive meal that included wine. This meal was probably our favorite of the trip. The owner is a man named DeDe and he is hilarious and loud. He speaks no English and prepares the entire meal himself. He has huge barrels of wine in the dining room and his friends started strolling in during our dinner, obviously on their way home from work. They would take a glass, fill it up, and head to the kitchen to chat with him while he worked. And the food was delicious! Every course came with his special fresh-from-the-oven bread and after delivering each course, he would help himself to our bread basket and sit down for a chat. He kept our wine glasses full the entire evening and refilled his several times as well. I've included a pic of Peter with one of DeDe's wine glasses. It is obviously just a joke, but he really does drink out of one that probably holds an entire bottle of wine. We had so much fun talking to DeDe and his friends. We were there for over three hours and it was so much fun practicing our french. We talked politics with him for a long time, which was especially interesting because he was one of the only Sarkozy fans that we met on our trip. More than the food or the conversation though, I have to admit that I appreciate DeDe the most because he fed me enough wine that evening to ensure that I would be able to sleep in the horrible hotel room.



Next stop: A paddling trip on the Dordogne River