Saturday, 24 July 2010 -- Day 216 (229)

Yet another adventure, and we got to share it w/ Cory and his family. We set off at 6:30 this morning to visits chateaus in the Loire Valley, which is about five hours north of Toulouse and two hours south of Paris. Our first stop was in a lovely village for croissants, chocolatines, and cafe au lait before arrive at Chateau de Chenonceau, which spans the River Cher. This chateau allowed us views of the bedrooms, wardrobes, and antechambers we well as the kitchens located beneath the castle. This video shows a rendering of the entire chateau.

The gardens (jardins) here impressed me more than anything that I saw in England. I think Mom would've enjoyed France more than England, mostly to see her grandchildren and great grandchildren but also b/c of the flowers. This video shows the Jardin du Diane de Portier.

I've also noticed that the French tend to be more ornate on the outsides of their castles and more plain inside. The British architecture impressed me as being plain and almost mundane in repetition of structure while the treasures lay inside. Both royal cultures certainly have had numerous usurpations and struggles to maintain that throne. At some point, however, the French decided it wasn't worth the cost and renounced the monarchy.

Leaving Chenonceau we drove through Amboise seeing the Chateau only from the car. We spent the late afternoon and early evening in Bloise seeing a church w/ an interesting 3D sculpture that indicates the continual presence of Jesus. It was a place of silence and solace. Lexi and I lite a candle for St. Maria. As w/ my attendance Westminster Abbey service, I hope this didn't offend anyone here on earth or in heaven.

We ate dinner at Hippopotamus Resttauranti, and I was tempted to take a napkin as I saw Mom do at every place we vacationed when I was growing up. I resisted the urge since I lack her devotion to organizing them all into scrapbooks. These blog entries of my European vacation will be the closest I come to a scrapbook.

Cory purchased a tent and air mattresses in case we couldn't find a hotel, which we didn't. We then drove around for another hour and a half trying to find a campground. We had an interesting conversation w/ a drunk Frenchman on a bike as we tried to communicate our needs, and he kept repeating that the campground we had just found was closed. This was obvious since when I checked the gate it was locked. We finally settled on an out-of-the-way site near some recycling bins. The pop-up-tent truly did pop-up quickly and easily. I used the foot pump to fill the air mattresses; this was a very good leg workout, although all the walking I've done over the last week-and-a-half has strengthened my leg muscles. Cory and his family slept in the tent while Ron and I slept in the van. Ah, more adventures! Thank goodness that we had a little more control thanks to Cory's driving and the assistance of his Tom Tom named Alice.