Tours France and the Loire Valley

Some friends and I took a one-day trip to Tours, France. We wanted to try some of the wine from the Loire Valley, visit the Château de Chenonceau and the gardens of the Château de Villandry. The first stop was Château de Chenonceau. This is a cool castle which extends across the River Cher. Apparently, outside of Paris, this is the second most-visited site after Mont Saint-Michel. Below is my ticket and some random shots.

 

Above: The view as you approach the from the side of the grand garden and looking over its wall.

Above: The view from the same side, next to the river. Looked fantastic with the sun.

 Above: The only remaining corner (of four) protecting the castle's entrance

  Above: The farm and the farm buildings on the grounds are

really cool and the vines were just starting to blossom.

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Our next stop was a vineyard. The idea was not simply to visit, but to have lunch with the proprietor. This turned out to be a really cool experience. They made the meal themselves and we ate in their house! I had never done anything like that and we found out it was their first time doing it, too.  Pretty cool. The food and conversation were great and it was great French practice. Below is the gate to their 'compound' (house, yard, barns, etc).  It is Chinon wine of the Domain de Beausejour.

Monsieur Chauveau's house (which is the group of building

in the lower right of the picture on their website)

Here are two of their labels, 2009 (l) and 2005 (r).  As you can see, it is the father-son team Gérard and David CHAUVEAU. It's cool to have eaten with David CHAUVEAU.

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The next and final stop was the Château de Villandry and its gardens. We didn't even visit the castle because the attraction is, without question, the gardens. You can see a glimpse on the ticket below, but it's better to visit their website (above) or actually visit the gardens. The area is broken down into seven areas: 1) Le Jardin d'Ornement, 2) La Forêt, 3) Le Jardin d'Eau, 4) Le Jardin du Soleil, 5) Le Labyrinthe, 6) Le Jardin des Simples and 7) Le Potager.  Definitely a collection of immaculately groomed gardens.

My ticket with a picture of Le Jardin d'Ornement

A shot of the castle across le Potager massif