Says who that one can never get sick of holidays? I never imagined that I will be tired of planning all our trips when I was in S'pore. But here, we have so many vacations that I'm really getting sick of planning them. So we decided to go somewhere near Paris with minimal planning...10 days at The Loire Valley!
After this trip, I wouldn't say that we have seen everything in Loire, but I suppose we have enough to not return again.
We started off with Château de Chateaudun, Residence of the "Bastard of Orleans". I wanted to visit this château from the promise of medieval cuisine and medical herbs. Seriously, we felt rather cheated after the visit. The architecture is interesting with a mix of Gothic and Renaissance touch, we took away most from the chapel, with a comprehensive description and explanation on the usual sculptures we see in religious monuments. The prison wards were also scarily interesting. However, we felt that the entrance is not worth for what we experienced. The interior is bare of furniture, and has nothing much to roam about. The promised medieval kitchen was empty with no explanations on what went on, and the herb garden was struggling.
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| Château de Chateaudun housing 3 staircases illustrating the architectural developments from Gothic to Renaissance. |
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| Double doors to a prison ward, with a small window to pass food and items to the prisoner. |
After Chateaudun, we made our down to town of Vendome. To my surprise, this town is really charming in its own way. Further, it has just the right amount of buzz for a lazy summer afternoon. The town is pretty small, half a day is more than enough to appreciate the place. Key places to visit are the Abbaye de la Trinité, Tour de L'islette, the varied architecture of the buildings and the houses by the river.
It was stated in the leaflet that the Abbaye holds an important relic, the tear of Jesus. But looking at the indications in the map, it is merely a sculpture of an eagle.
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| Abbaye de la Trinité (Vendome) : Free entry with a leaflet in English to explain the history and items in the Abbaye. |
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| Interior of the Abbaye |
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| Loved the sight of the houses here by the river, surrounded with tranquillity behind those willow trees. The sounds of the wind made me really sleepy in this scene. |
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| The ruins of the feudal castle of Vendome. Great place to get an aerial view of Vendome, and sleep under the shade in a hot and sunny afternoon. Deck chairs are free for use from the office on top of the ruins. |
Our destination to root ourselves for 6 days: Amboise.
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| View of Chateau d'Amboise from Le Shaker at the Ile d'Or |
What is better than having a cold icy beer on a hot summer day? We had a bonus to do this with a chateau view..:)
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| Battle between Leffe and 1664 |
We rooted ourselves in Mosnes, a town 10 mins away from Amboise. We love our hosts so much, that although we might not go back to Loire for a holiday, we will find time to visit them again. The name of the B&B is La Lice. Book directly with the owners to enjoy a discount from the 3rd night onwards.
http://la-lice.pagesperso-orange.fr
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| La Lice has a huge garden, this is the garden shed behind the garage. |
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| The drive-way into the garage |
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| The owner has green fingers and is a perfectionist when it comes to cleanliness and order. |
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| A 16th century house, our room is the one on the right, at the attic. |
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| The house and rooms are fully decorated with medieval collections. |
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| Very spacious room with wooden beams and wooden pegs to kill a Dracula with. |
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| The owners are so thoughtful with small details such as scented sachets and sanitary trays. |
There is an annual garden festival at the Château de Chaumont during summer, honestly, we think that the reviews were exaggerated. We were expecting colourful blooms covering the château grounds, and get drowned in the sea of flowers. But the more we expect, the more disappointed we got. Perhaps the sun was too scorching for this summer, that even the sunflowers are shying away. The colours of the blooms have all faded, it seemed that the focus was more on the artistes' work on their individual pieces to showcase their subjects with the help of plants.
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| I was trying to experience the seduction of freedom when one is trapped in the cage. The artist made this cage as such, so that the en-caged can see, smell and feel the air of freedom portrayed by the red flowers. Verdict: I felt really hot! |
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| This piece portrays the royal kitchen, with mist and pots lying around. Looking through this peep-hole, one is supposed to see an image of a person. Verdict: I only saw smoke. |
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| This piece shows the dwarfs on strike against exploitation of the earth's resources and terrorization of their underground world. |
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| This room has a theme for relaxation, and so I was relaxed! |
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| I have no idea what this room wants to say, but we did have a chance to take a picture together. |
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| The château is pretty small, and can be seen very clearly from the grounds if you pay to enter the gardens. Hence, we did not bother to enter it. |
Château de Chambord is a masterpiece for a reason. Many believed that the architecture was influenced by Leonardo when he was at the Loire, and I chose to believe this by intuition. After our château hopping trip, I would say that it is definitely a shame to miss going into the castle for anyone visiting the Loire.
The grounds of the château is humongous...comprising a vast forest for hunting purposes and a large canal for water leisure. The grounds are free, but parking is not. Access to the château is difficult if you do not drive, as it is IMPOSSIBLE to walk from civilisation to the château's entrance by foot.
We got 2 audio guides for the visit, but if given a second chance, we will take just 1. The device can be attached to a earpiece, so 2 people can actually share the same device. Further, it did got a little dry with history towards the end of the visit. There is a very informative film in the château, in various languages, explaining the brief history of the castle, and the architecture of the building. So really, we could do without the audio guide in a way.
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| The iconic double spiral staircase at Chambord. The idea is for people to SEE, without the need to MEET. Simply said, this is akin to 2 spirals intertwined together to form 2 independent staircases on different landings. |
We went to Château de Blois for a night show, and only admired the château's square without going into the rooms. On summer nights, there are quite a number of activities going on in the château. Visitors can opt for a renaissance dinner in the château for 75 Euros/pax. It is a full menu with luxurious ingredients, wine included. Though we opted out, I do think that it will be an experience indeed.
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| Entrance to the château |
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| Maison de la Magie - Robert Houdin: Facing the château at the place. The dragon show at fixed time intervals did its marketing role well by attracting people to the entrance of the house, but I would think that the show is a little too silly to get me to pay for the entrance fee. |
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| A rare exception to take pictures of food: a platter of goat cheese with herb rind |
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| The town of Blois during sunset is really pretty with those tinges of violet. |
The light show displays the history of Blois through a storyboard using the walls of the château as the background. In the darkness, the chateau did come alive.
It is hard not to notice these troglodyte dwellings in the Loire, which are traditional houses carved into tufa (the soil terrain of the Loire). Due to their ability to maintain a constant temperature, most of the troglodytes are now used as mushroom farms or wine caves. There are also some tourist regions that converted these dwellings into B&Bs
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| A troglodyte village re-created in a mushroom farm |
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| After the tour, we now know that the white mushrooms in Paris are of the lowest grade! |
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| Endless fields of sunflowers in the Loire, so much that we can't resist stopping by the road to take a picture. |
Since we took refuge in Amboise for 6 days, we kinda felt obliged that we should support the château of our region. This is the one château where we spent most time in. Not only did we enter the château, we took the special tour in French, that brings a maximum of 10 visitors each day to explore corners of the château not opened to the public. We slept a good 1 hr under the big tree and returned for the night show. This is what loyalty is about I suppose.
Verdict for what we did here: The best part of the château is the view from Le Shaker. Unless you understand French, the special tour is meaningless, otherwise, this tour is really insightful and interesting. A normal tour around the château is not worth it. The night show is entertaining with fireworks, but it is not a pity to miss it either. The château grounds is pretty relaxing, and we slept well under that big oak tree...:)
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| The chapel at the château grounds that houses the tomb of Leonardo de Vinci |
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| The spiral walkway meant for horses to access the ground level from their stables |
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| I found some acts lingering too long...making it a little boring...but to give it some credits, the show was put up by the people in Amboise to showcase their heritage, and they have been practising the entire winter to put up this show in summer. For non professional actors, I would think that the show is pretty well done. |
The Chateau of Villandry is known for its gardens, so we did not opt to visit the interior of the castle. Of all the chateau grounds that we've visited, Villandry did live up to its name with such a well-kept French garden. There are also benches around a lake and in the forested area for picnickers.
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| The ornamental garden |
While at Amboise, there are 2 people that one will not be able to miss: François I and Leonardo da Vinci. François I invited Leonardo to France, and brought in the influence of the Renaissance. While in France, Leonardo lived in Clos Lucé, where he later died in. Clos Lucé is only 400m from the Chateau d'Amboise, and legend has it that there is a secret underground passage for François to visit his friend in secret. Having seen the hidden passages in Chateau d'Amboise, I believe that the legend has its grounds indeed.
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| In Clos Lucé, visitors can see the private chapel in the residence, Leonardo's working room and the views that have inspired his works. In the gardens of the château, there are also displays of his designs and life size models of his inventions. |
Tours is supposedly the place to be in when one is in the Loire, and we decided to give this town the ultimate challenge by visiting it on a Sunday. The verdict: Nothing moved except for the square at the old town.
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| After visiting so many Cathedrals, we still find a need to drop by one in every town we visit. The funny thing is that each looks the same but feels so different. |
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| Loire is very well-connected by the cycling routes, and there are many who choose to explore this beautiful region by vélo. This cyclist is certainly well-equipped. |
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| The castle of Tour: Looks like a venue for exhibitions and didn't entice us to enter anyway. |
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| The old town at Place Plumereau |
Vouvray is a well-known wine growing region in the Loire, specialising in sweet white (traditional method ie. sparkling or tranquille ie flat) The level of sweetness is usually graded by sec, demi-sec or moelleux, where sec is the least sweet and driest. However, wine from each maker differs; a demi-sec from 1 maker may taste sweeter than from another maker's moelleux. There is also a fromagerie at the entrance that sells the region's goat cheese and tasting packs to accompany your tasting experience. We prefer the tranquille demi-sec as these are more versatile on its own as an aperatif, and pairs really well with foie gras and goat cheese.
We kind of regretted not buying more, as we could not find anymore tranquille demi-secs from Vouvray in Carrefour after we returned to GIF.
The expo was held in a troglodyte, housing about 20 makers from Vouvray. Although it was 35 degrees outside, the interior felt like 15 degrees...amazing on how the temperature can be constant in such a natural environment. It is at such times that I really appreciate what mother nature has given us.
This is what it is like to pay 200 euros/pax for an hour's ride....(as according to our breakfast talk with an Italian couple...:p)
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| Hi Amboise! We are back again.... |
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| Leonardo may look like he is judging my drunken stint, but his body language seems to suggest otherwise. |
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| And so, we bought a bottle from Vouvray and shared the joy with Leonardo... |
Chateau de Chenonceau is known as the ladies' château for a reason. The main reason is that the château was owned by a line of women, with Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici as the first 2 owners. Diane was Henri II's favourite lady, while Catherine was his widow. Although it was not explicit in our reading materials, I can totally sense the competitiveness and pettiness of these 2 women, from the fight over the château, to having 2 separate gardens of different styles. This is a rare castle to be built across the river Cher, I suppose it is not by coincidence that water is often used as a metaphor for women.
During the WWII, the river Cher corresponded to the line of demarcation, the entrance of the château was in the occupied zone, whereas the exit across the river made it possible to evacuate large numbers of people into the free zone.
It is not possible to view the château without entering the grounds, so visitors can forget about the idea of getting a glimpse of the château from the exterior. However, this is one château that we did not regret entering, euros well spent!
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| According to our B&B hostess, this is the oven to have for baking bread. Those electronic ovens in her opinion are "fake" ovens, and she'll be better off using a bread maker.\ |
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher, musician, scientist and many more. He was the teacher of Madame Louise Dupin's son, fell in love with Madame Dupin who was a very intelligent lady, but got rejected big time by her after he confessed his love. Moral of the story, women doesn't like men to express love so explicitly, especially intelligent women. Nonetheless, smart pants Rousseau may not be smart with matters of the heart, but he does have some truth in nutrition and inspirations, and we are so glad that we are believers even before reading the below.
Louise of Lorraine retires to Chenonceau to meditate and pray after the assassination of her husband, Henri III. Her room is unusually dim unlike the rest of the rooms, there are also objects of mourning like feathers (penne = sorrow), grave digging shovels etc.
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| Louise de Lorraine's Bedroom |
This is a staircase al right...for any visitors in Loire, one would have notice that most of the châteaus have spiral staircases in either Romanesque, Gothic or renaissance style. This flight of straight stairs is one of the first in France, inspired by Italian architecture.
The vegetable and flower garden is very well organised and enjoyable in summer with the various blooms.
Loches is a small and sleepy town for a summer holiday. We've seen the old medieval towns in Dordogne and was not at all awed by what we saw in Loches. Nonetheless, it is a great place to laze around for an afternoon tea, since there aren't many people to fight over seats and carparking.
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| Town hall and Picois gate of Renaissance style |
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| St Antoine's Tower |
Be warned fellow travellers to the Loire, unless you've got so much time to waste like us, you can actually
skip Berry altogether. We were misled to think that Chateauroux will be interesting, but we were fooled! In summer, the residents vacate the town, and the shops are mostly closed for summer. Worse, we went on a public holiday, and there was nothing! But...I'm not complaining, in fact, we kinda enjoy such a holiday. Our holidays have been too hectic, rushing itineraries to see as much as we can. This time round, we could really sit down with an ice cold beer, to reflect, read, write and take things as it comes. Sometimes, we really need a holiday to do nothing I suppose.
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| Our routine visit to the cathedral of the town. |
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| Chateau Raoul |
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| Château Valençay |
We realised that we had enough of châteaus by now, so we took this picture of Château Valençay without visiting the grounds and interior, and went for some hot chocolate at a chocolaterie.
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| The patisserie Jacky Chicery at Valençay, with various models made of sugar in the salon de thé. |
In Berry, we found that the place most worthy to visit is Bourges, owing to the grand Saint-Etienne Cathedrale, and their night walk in the town.
Saint-Etienne Cathedrale is another UNESCO monument, and is the most spectacular cathedral that we have seen across the various region we've been to so far. This is the first cathedral we've seen with 5 naves, so much that it is almost impossible to take a good picture of the front. On the door of the main nave, the sculptures depict judgement day, a familiar scene seen in many cathedrals, whereby one will see Christ on the top most level, the arch-angel weighing souls on the 2nd level, and the 3rd level showing the dead rising from their graves.
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| Scene from Judegment Day |
In the cathedral, there are 2 instruments that awed us. The meridian and the astronomic clock. There are 2 viewfinders in the cathedral to calculate the exact time based on the position of the sun, explanations are available in English on site. This astronomic clock is also really amazing for an instrument in its era. This baby tells the time, zodiac, summer and winter time difference, sunrise and sunset and I can't remember what else...
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| I got to know a new friend by picking her hair pin.... |
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| Place Gordaine, a lively Place to laze around before dinner. Au Sénat along rue de la Poissonnerie offers value for money regional cuisine. Just round the corner from the Place. |
Bourges by night is a summer event that starts at night fall. Just follow the blue hanging lanterns on the streets and you won't get lost.
Bourges in the day portrays the town in a different colour.
Musée du Berry housing artefacts from archeological findings. Including a collection of grave tablets and coffins.
Musée d'Or, literary museum of gold. The museum tells the history of gold mining, and the techniques from mining to making gold jewellery and ingots. Verdict: It is not worth it to pay that premium for gold jewellery my friends. It is ultimately plastic in the interior.
Yup...we were so free to go for a canoe on the Loire River. In actual fact, I was fooled to go for canoeing at Nevers, when we could have also done it in Amboise. The story goes that we read in a old travel guide that the company Loire Nature Découverte has a very experienced guide, Yvan Thibaudat, who is credited with all kinds of credentials on water sports, camping and being an environmentalist, whereby one can appreciate nature on the Loire with him. After which, I realised that the company changed its website and name to
http://www.l-o-i-r-e.com/ . The Student did suggest whether did they get a bad reputation to change their name and place of embarkation (they used to camp at Sancerre). After our experience, I conclude that we were totally fooled, they are only a canoe rental company, you canoe on your own/with other people in the group whom you do not know, and the "guides" pick you and the canoe up at a fixed time and a pre-discussed landmark further down the river. So what if the owner has billions of credentials? He is NOT guiding the group, he just EARNS the rental of the canoes.
But oh well...we still enjoyed the peace on the river though...so peaceful that one can strip naked and sunbathe on the canoe (disclaimer: we didn't do that).
And...that's all for our summer holidays---HOME SWEET HOME---
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