The Loire Valley

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was the annual August shutdown of ITER. This gave Joe a nice rest from work and gave our family the opportunity to do some exploring. Because of riots in England, we decided to stay closer to home and drive to the middle of France to visit the Loire Valley. Even though this is one of the most well-known regions of France, we had not yet taken the time to see the many Chateaux that can be found throughout the region.

Our first stop was the Chateau of Villandry. Known for its gardens, we skipped the interior and started touring the grounds. Julie spent her time trying to discover what each plant, vegetable, and fruit was while the kids raced through the labarynth of hedges and paths. They also had a nice hedge maze, though there were many small tunnels that made it easy too easy to cheat.

Chateau de Villandry

After our stop at Villandry, we drove to our home base in the town of Chinon. This small medieval village has a large fortress under which many tudor style buildings that date back to the fifteenth century. The village was the home base of the English for many years. In fact, Richard the Lionheart was born here. It is also the place where Joan of Arc came to visit the French King to acquire the troops and support necessary to retake France.

Village of Chinon

The following day, we visited the Chateau of Chenonceau. This is one of the most spectacular castles in France because of its unique location over the river Cher. Like many historical monuments, it has a colorful history and traded hands between kings, mistresses, and other royals. The chateau had an amazing interior, with symbols like the flor de lis in every corner as well as fresh-cut flowers from the grounds in almost every room.

Joe liked taking Nicolas and Elyse on a row-boat trip under each of the arches of the chateau while Julie buried herself in tales of Catherine d'Medici and Diane de Poitiers, the two rival women who owned the chateau.

Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel loved the hedge maze. Unlike the one at Villandry, there were no holes in the bushes to make finding one's way easier. In fact, when it was finally time to leave, Julie and Joe had considerable difficulty finding Nathaniel.

Chateau de Chenonceau

Prior to arriving at our next destination, we went to a local supermarche and purchased some food for a picnic. We then sat down for a lunch of bagettes, camembert cheese, and most importantly nacho-flavored doritos (we can't have too much culture, after all).

Our drive to Chambord took us along the banks of the Liore river and through many villages in the northern France style of architecture. As usual, Joe would occassionally become distracted and stop to take pictures (with Nicolas' Itouch no less since he had forgotten his new camera). This meant finding a parking spot, getting the kids out, and herding them back in once Joe's curiosity was momentarily saciated.

Unfortunately, due to Joe's stops and a misreading of the time schedule, we arrived at the largest of the Chateaux, Chambord, too late to go inside. Instead, we all walked the grounds. Other Chateaux that we visited on our trip but did not go inside for various reasons include Amboise, Clos de Luce, Usse, Montreuil-Bellay, and Montsoreau.  We also saw Chaumont sur Loire and Bloise while driving by them.

Chambord, Montsoreau, Montreuil-Bellay, Usse

We stopped by the ville of Amboise on the way back to our hotel.  There we indulged in some fancy flavored guimuaves (marshmellows) from a famous local choclatier and had dinner at a small restaurant overlooking the town square.  After dinner, we took a walk by the chateau d'Amboise, which was at one time the home of the king of France.  We continued up the street to see the troglodyte homes (dug out of the rocks) and Le Clos de Luce, where Leonardo retired for his last three months under the patronage of Francois the first.  Elyse and Nathaniel will remember this day fondly, including the chocolate covered marshmellow bears and a cat in the window up high.  Nicolas will remember this as the day he accidently touched something in the grass that stung for a few hours and made for a very long drive home.  Julie will remember this as the day that she made a navigational error on the autoroute that made an already long and stressful drive 35 minutes longer (oops!). 

Village of Amboise

The next morning we went to the chateau de Breze.  This castle had rooms and passageways underneath the castle that led in and out of one of the deepest moats in Europe.  We loved exploring the dark passageways!  However, Elyse did not enjoy crossing the moat at the main entrance. It was a little two high and you could see between the wood planks of the bridge!

Caverns of Chateau de Breze

The children were less impressed at the rooms that were on display in the chateau above.  Joe, however, felt they were very authentic and didn't look like they had changed since the chateau was remodeled in the early 19th century.

Chateau de Breze

Finally we enjoyed a visit to the Musee de Champignons close to Breze.  This was a look at all types of fungi, their properties, their uses, etc.  We learned that one mushroom that looks very much like our normal white mushrooms is extremely poisonous.  One could kill a whole family!  We also got to see how they produce the mushrooms in this underground cave.  And we brought home a bag with starters in composte to see if we can grow our own . . . we will get back to you about that!

Usine des Champignons

A bien tot!

Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel