Pétanque & Pastis

The Châteaux of the Loire – West of Tours

Château Luynes

Château Langeais

Château de la Cour du Berruyer

On our way to the village of Chinon, we passed a number of impressive châteaux; so many, in fact, that it was impossible to stop to take photos of them all.

Château d’Ussé - Château de La Belle au Bois Dormant

The Château d’Ussé is said to have provided the inspiration for Charles Perrault’s fairy tale classics.  The most notable of these fairy tales is “Sleeping Beauty”, which (according to Wikipedia) includes a Part II, which continues the story after Sleeping Beauty awakens from her 100-year nap.

Château de Chinon

The Château de Chinon, which is mostly in ruins now, sits above the village of around 9,000 inhabitants.  We noticed some renovation work taking place near the main entrance gate of the fortress as we hiked up to it.

Restaurant Les Années 30

We stopped in for a memorable lunch on the terrace of a wonderful restaurant in Chinon called Les Années 30 (78 rue Voltaire, tél: 02.47.93.37.18).  We fell in love with the 2005 Domaine de la Noblaie Chinon Blanc, which complemented our lunch of Cabillaud au Wasabi just perfectly.  After perusing a brochure of the winery that we picked up at the restaurant, we thought we would head out and do a little wine tasting.

Domaine de La Noblaie

It was pretty easy to find the Domaine de La Noblaie winery since the brochure had a map which gave us an idea where to head, and then there were signs along the way to guide us there.

Domaine de La Noblaie Cave

After a self-guided tour through the cave, we tasted a couple of their Chinon Rouge, and then bought a case of the aforementioned, gold medal-winning 2005 Chinon Blanc, and a half case of the bronze medal-winning 2002 Chinon Rouge.  It cost only 19 € to have it shipped to us in Antibes for arrival scheduled in three days.

Château d’Azay-le-Rideau

The last visit on our Châteaux tour was the 16^th-century Château d’Azay-le-Rideau, which seemed to float on the mirrored Indre River in the middle of a lovely park.

The Châteaux of the Loire – East of Tours

After a quick tour and a leisurely lunch in the medieval village of Blois with its own impressive château, we drove down the road to visit the largest of the châteaux in the Loire Valley, Château de Chambord.  The idea for this château was conceived in the 16^th century by François I, who had suggested redirecting the Loire River so that it would flow in front of it.  In the end he settled for diverting the Closson river to flow in front of his extravagant château.  The double-helix staircase inside keeps the people going upstairs separated from the people going downstairs, and may have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Château de Chenonceau

The next visit on our châteaux tour turned out to be our favorite, Château de Chenonceau, with its Italian-style gallery stretching across the Cher River.  A series of women are given credit for the way the 16^th-century château turned out, including the first owner’s wife, Catherine Briçonnet; Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of the French King Henry II, who actually bequeathed the château to her; Catherine de’Medici, who turned the bridge into the Italian gallery; King Henry III’s widow, Louise of Lorraine, the White Queen; et al., with halls, bedrooms and gardens named after each of them.

Château du Clos Lucé

Just down the street from the Château d’Amboise, is Château du Clos Lucé, the medieval fortified manor house where Leonardo da Vinci lived the last years of his life, as the invited guest of King François I.  The museum and the gardens of Clos Lucé display approximately 40 models which have been constructed from the drawings of da Vinci’s inventions.  These inventions were never constructed during da Vinci’s lifetime, and it is thanks to IBM that they have finally been built and displayed here at Château du Clos Lucé today.

Château d’Amboise

A short walk down the street from Château du Clos Lucé in the village of Amboise led us to our last château of the day, Château d’Amboise.  We arrived too late to take a tour inside, but got to appreciate its imposing presence from the exterior, and from the ambiance its domination brings to the timbered houses and winding cobbled streets of the medieval town of Amboise.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

By plane, by train, by automobile, we arrived into the city of Tours about 2 ½ hours after we left Nice.  Actually, the automobile was not a necessary component of the trip to Tours – it’s for visiting all the châteaux of the Loire Valley from our base here in Tours.  An hour flight from Nice got us into Paris Orly, from where we took the RER to Gare Montparnasse where we caught the one-hour train directly into the city center of Tours (not to be mistaken for St. Pierre des Corps).  Everything was very conveniently situated for our arrival in Tours.  EuropCar, where we picked up our rental car, was just across the street from the Gare de Tours, and the Hotel L’Univers was also only a couple of blocks away.  We only picked up the rental car today because EuropCar will be closed tomorrow (Sunday), and a car is necessary for searching out the Châteaux de Loire.

The Loire River

We spent our first day getting acquainted with Tours, a university town of about 140,000 inhabitants, which sits on the beautiful Loire River.  The river does not seem to provide the main focal point of the city, but rather, sits off the beaten track, and provides a quiet respite with nice areas for strolling.

Vieux Tours

One of the main centers of activity in Tours is the colorful medieval historical center, with its half-timbered houses, and lively terrace cafés.  It's a great area for people-watching while sipping on something cold to drink in the summer heat.