Loire Valley to the South of France
With Allan and Carla
On the way to the the famous chateaus of the Loire Valley we stopped at Amboise which was the final home of da Vinci as a guest of King Francois Ist. The chateaus we visited over the next two days were Chateau de Chenonceau-this is the one that straddles the river, Villandry which is famous for its french style gardens and then Azay-le-Rideau with English style gardens. Imagine St. James park near Buckingham Palace.
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Wow! The bees buzzing at Villandry...It was the
3rd week of May and so the flowers were starting to bloom and as Carla and I were walking down one path far from the chateau I heard a humming sound like you might hear from overhead electrical lines, but there were none in sight. Then we realized it was bees. Hundreds of bees just going about their business collecting pollen from the flowers. I'm not usually so philosophical but it was so cool just to stand there quietly and listen.
Probably of interest to nobody but me...we stayed overnight in Chinon and the highlight for me was the ruins of the castle. I'm like an 8 year old boy gone wild when I'm in a castle and I need to climb every turret and search every dungeon. What blew me away was the graffiti in the dungeon that is preserved and displayed. It is thought to have been carved into the wall by the leader of the Knights Templar while he was a 'guest' during the 100 years war. There have been a few posts on the RS Forum on this website about idiot tourists defacing historical treasures, but here we are, displaying and celebrating historical graffiti.
