The Loire Valley...A Dream Comes True

I have wanted to see the Loire Valley since I was in the sixth grade and did a report on the french chateaus. Chenonceau, Chambord, Cheverny were all real life fairy tale palaces. And this month I got to wander in some of them. Magical.

(You can click on most images to enlarge.)

We left the champagne country and headed for a day/night in Paris. Some of the ladies left and a few new ladies joined us! We had an afternoon walking tour of the Latin Quarter, the Luxembourg Gardens and out to eat at a really lovely restaurant.

Two favorite cafes in St. Germain on the left bank

cafe au lait - the real thing

The 50 ft tall stained glass of the Sainte Chapelle

the luxembourg palace built by King Henry IV’s widow in the 1600’s

taken at 7:00 pm crossing the seine - the sun doesn’t set till 10:00 pm in the summer

We were then on to Amboise and the Loire Valley. We went by way of bateau with a picnic lunch on the river shores. We stayed in the town of Amboise, in Le Pavillon des Lys. Just such a lovely place.

We saw the Chateau d’Amboise, which was the home of King Charles VIII, until he hit his head and died. :/ We saw the Chateau du Close Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci lived his last years and died. Quite amazing.

Stephan, our captain

Le Pavillon des Lys

my room was at the end of this little walkway, to the left

The Chateau d’Amboise from the river

Chateau Clos Lucé - filled with da vinci drawings and inventions and beautiful whimsical gardens down the hill…

* le sigh*

Oh look - it’s me at dinner…

We traveled to the Chateau de Villandry, built by a minister of finance in the 1500’s, and known for its’ spectacular gardens that were just incredible and rival any I’ve seen.

We had lunch in Tours and a quick walking tour and onward to a cooking class where we learned how to bake croissants. I will never put butter on them again. They ARE butter.

Chateau de Villandry

there are over 1100 of these lime trees on the property

The formal garden

the kitchen garden

Our guide Simon, in front of the Simon display! 🤣

Market dinner on our patio

We then saw Chenonceau. The ladies’ castle on the Cher river. Just incredible. I could’ve stayed there for days and wandered. There were fresh flowers all over the place. It was lighter and more romantic than any of the others.

Lastly we saw Chambord. This is just a masterpiece. The fact that there was scaffolding all around portions of it, did not deter from its’ splendor. It was a gigantic hunting lodge built for Francis I and basically stayed empty when he wasn’t there. There is a little village of spires and towers built on top of the chateau. Just magnificent.

Our guide through all of this was the wonderful and hilarious Simon. In three days, he taught me more about French history than I ever knew. (And some I didn’t want to know, like some of the royalty’s physical issues …)

Chateau de Chenonceau ❤️

how current does that look? like it could’ve been built this year. classic beauty is constant.

fresh flowers everywhere!

The original painting of Louis XIV - frame carved from 2-3 pieces of wood. Yeah.

Another wonderful lunch and wine tasting

Chateau de Chambord

the amazing double helix staircase, going up through the center of the chateau, designed by da vinci

The empty halls - the chateau stayed empty for much of the time. If the walls could talk…

Oh look! It’s it’s the king’s cod piece…

The sun king was a visitor

This “village” awaits you on the roof. This was all. made. in. the. 1500’s. by. hand.

The black ornaments are made of slate.

Last dinner - until next time ladies!

in my suitcase…

I had to pack for up to 22 changes of clothes in one suitcase. Many nights, if we felt sweaty and tired, or if we had reservations at a special place, we would shower and/or change for dinner. Several times I just dressed up what I had on that day, but much of the time, I changed for dinner.

That’s a lot of clothes. or is it?

I took a jumpsuit, and 5 bottoms, 12 tops, 2 dresses, 2 jackets, 3 Turkish towels, 2 hats and 5 pair of shoes. And I wore it all. Here’s a taste of what I packed. (This post is too long to go into all of it, and I didn’t think it was interesting enough to do a separate post.)

I wore this on the flight over and the first day. the pants are the Athleta Brooklyn pant.

The other four bottoms I took - cut off skinny jean, black straight leg jean, denim flares, dressy black palazzo. I didn’t take white jeans, because I didn’t think I could wear them multiple times, but I could’ve.