A Lovely Morning in the Loire Valley

It's early Thursday morning, and the sun is coming up over the mountains to reflect on the snow on top of Mont Blanc and Aiguille du Midi.  We are heading up the Plan Praz lift to Paraglide at 10am, and then jumping into the glacier water of the raging Arve river today for a sport the Euros call "hydrospeeding" and known as "riverboarding" at home in the States.

Mrs. Iron Tourist reluctantly agreed to sign up for both a few weeks ago.  Now she's really having second thoughts.  Of course, she hated the idea of snowmobiling in New Mexico and ziplining in Costa Rica, and ended up liking both.  She'll be fine -- that's what I keep telling myself!

Anyhow, going back to Monday, the first full day in the Loire Valley, I had forgotten to mention we stopped and had lunch in Blois (pronounced blwah, but on that day, pronounced blah).  We had lunch at a nice restaurant on a square, but when we walked through the rest of town, it was pretty well  closed.  Hard to tell if it was closed for the mid-day break, or closed for August while shop owners were on vacation.  Not much to blog about -- although we did not go to the chateau, so withholding judgment on that, obviously.

Tuesday is the day I personally really enjoyed the Loire Valley.  After quickly switching hotels, we changed plans after setting out and went first to the Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau.  The drive was short and beautiful as we wound our way along the Indre River through the hometown of Balzac and to the Chateau.  Built in town along the river, you start the tour up in the very cool attic, and work your way down.  The house is well-furnished, so there is a lot to see in each room.  We passed on the audio guides this time (still big fans), but there were English write-ups in each room.

The chateau was very uncrowded, and looked beautiful reflected in the water (I will post a couple of reflection pictures).  I like the description in the DK Travel book: "the interior is equally delightful, an airy, creaking mansion smelling faintly of cedarwood and full of lovingly re-created domestic detail." 

We walked all around the chateau and the river.  The shade, the trees, and the beauty of the river -- combined with a chateau with neat decorative towers -- was kind of more what I was expecting from a Loire Valley Chateau.  Think almost as nice as Chenonceau, but without the crowds.  It doesn't have the important history that Chenonceau has, but it's not like French history was my major (Carol and I both did something useful -- political science!).

After that, we walked into town and each got a delicious snack at a patisserie.  It was delightful walking through the small village, dodging cars and looking into shop windows.  The French know how to live, and how to eat, even if they don't know how to work or pronounce words (just kidding)!

From there we went to Chateau de Villandry, which has the most spectacular gardens of any chateau in the Loire Valley.  The gardens even make our friends, the Metters, impressive garden look underwhelming (and they have the most impressive gardens of anyone we know!).  It's telling that you can buy tickets for the gardens for 6.50 Euro, or tickets for the chateau and gardens for 9.50 -- so the chateau is only three Euros more. 

We did buy the combined tickets, and the chateau was worth it.  The best was the keep -- the top of the tower looking out on the gardens.  The story of the chateau is interesting -- it was bought by an American wife and her Italian husband back in the early 1900s (her money, not his) and they worked to restore the glory of the gardens in the Renaissance style.  It is still owned by the same family (great-grandson), so there are pictures of the current family throughout the chateau.  I read somewhere that chateaus that are open to the public receive a massive tax break, so I believe the family lives in one of the two large other buildings on the property.

There are also ten gardeners working every day -- the garden is perfectly designed, shaped, and weeded.  Between the flowers, the shrubs, the herb garden, the very cool water features (hard to describe), the gardens are spectacular, although the maze leaves a lot to be desired (a bit too easy -- American corn mazes are far more fun and challenging!)