Friday 2nd October. (Rosie’s birthday!!)
We wandered around Villandry and as usual took in the church. This one, St Stephen’s was in a poor state of repair but like Vouvray it had the 14 stations of the cross so I’ve decided to make a photographic collection counting downwards and today I have the 13th! After that we moved on to the chateau which is quite small – but perfectly formed and really enjoyed it as it was far more like a country house than a museum and had a very interesting history – too long to go into. The gardens re created by M Carvallo, an impoverished Spaniard who got lucky and married an American in about 1900 – Miss Coleman (but we don’t think the English mustard variety) are in the municipal gardening style, lots of topiary and box hedges interspersed with magnificent colours and plants. Everywhere there are avenues of trellis festooned with hanging bunches of grapes and the vegetables have to be seen to be believed with cabbages the size of footballs and all the colours of the rainbow. We didn’t know you could do that!
So we left there collected the bikes and headed west along the Vienne (a tributary of the Loire) and eventually crossed it to have a look at the medieval chateau in Langeais. We didn’t go in but sat on a bench outside reading the guide book and eating a lovely picnic and as it was Friday we allowed ourselves a bottle of wine too.
Interestingly Anne of Brittany who has turned up married to a different king at every chateau we have visited also lived here as wife of Charles VIII aged only 14.
After lunch we re-crossed the river and continued west stopping at 5.15pm to look at the fairytale Chateau at Rigny-Usse. Sadly too late to go in.
So back we went to the river, full of birds golden plover, crested grebe, kingfisher and masses of ducks we’ve never seen before plus the anticipation of perhaps seeing Johnny Depp (see picture of boat) in Chocolat mode (not as Capt Jack Sparrow,) rounding the river bends ahead of us. We finally made it to Chinon by 7pm and found a Chambre d’Hote immediately so almost stress free! (Very steep hills into Chinon)
We wandered around Villandry and as usual took in the church. This one, St Stephen’s was in a poor state of repair but like Vouvray it had the 14 stations of the cross so I’ve decided to make a photographic collection counting downwards and today I have the 13th! After that we moved on to the chateau which is quite small – but perfectly formed and really enjoyed it as it was far more like a country house than a museum and had a very interesting history – too long to go into. The gardens re created by M Carvallo, an impoverished Spaniard who got lucky and married an American in about 1900 – Miss Coleman (but we don’t think the English mustard variety) are in the municipal gardening style, lots of topiary and box hedges interspersed with magnificent colours and plants. Everywhere there are avenues of trellis festooned with hanging bunches of grapes and the vegetables have to be seen to be believed with cabbages the size of footballs and all the colours of the rainbow. We didn’t know you could do that!
So we left there collected the bikes and headed west along the Vienne (a tributary of the Loire) and eventually crossed it to have a look at the medieval chateau in Langeais. We didn’t go in but sat on a bench outside reading the guide book and eating a lovely picnic and as it was Friday we allowed ourselves a bottle of wine too.
Interestingly Anne of Brittany who has turned up married to a different king at every chateau we have visited also lived here as wife of Charles VIII aged only 14.
After lunch we re-crossed the river and continued west stopping at 5.15pm to look at the fairytale Chateau at Rigny-Usse. Sadly too late to go in.
So back we went to the river, full of birds golden plover, crested grebe, kingfisher and masses of ducks we’ve never seen before plus the anticipation of perhaps seeing Johnny Depp (see picture of boat) in Chocolat mode (not as Capt Jack Sparrow,) rounding the river bends ahead of us. We finally made it to Chinon by 7pm and found a Chambre d’Hote immediately so almost stress free! (Very steep hills into Chinon)
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