Chateau de Chambord

Up bright & early for the best breakfast I've ever had! Ham & Camembert croissant & crepes with jam. I can feel my jeans getting tighter! Straight on the bus to Bordeaux. There's heaps of gossip on the bus, one girl got her things stollen and one girl is missing! Apparently an iPad and credit cards were stolen from the room of one of …

Once again the rain that had been falling through the night eased by morning, and after a breakfast of coffee and pastries (traditional I'm assured, but potentially very dangerous!!) we set off to visit a couple of chateaux. The first in Chaumont, was privately owned and with beautiful grounds, featuring sculptures and installations scattered …

Hello again! I write you this time from the Swiss Alps, at least, I think it's the alps. I never was very good at Geography, or directions and maps in general. We're in Interlaken, Switzerland, surrounded by snowy mountains, so I guess that's the Alps, right? Last time I wrote to you, we were in Paris, surrounded by excellent public transport, …

The region of the Chateau and white wine grape check photos out by clicking photo …

I'm lost in French history but I do know this, some people had serious money in the 1500's and built incredible fortified digs. We toured chateaux Chambord which was incredibly huge with 400 rooms and enough fireplaces for every day of the year! Chambord is owned by the state of France and because it was used primarily for a hunting lodge, it sat …

On Monday we undertook another pretty long drive – this time from San Sebastian in Spain through to the Loire Valley in France. This means that we are now about 200km short of Paris.

The Loire Valley is the home of many large French Chateaux. This is where French royalty have lived and played for centuries.

Tonight we are …

After collecting our rental car in Versailles (with 5minutes to spare) we decide to head to Blois. We found accommodation for 95 euros for the five of us which we thought we really cheap - however we were all in one room luckily an ok size room! Blois is a beautiful place where the streets are paved with cobblestones and the business are original …

Matin du 6 novembre,

Réveil à 5h30 du matin parce que la réception de l'hôtel avait oublier de reculer l'heure sur leur système d'appel (pour réveiller dans la chambre).

On prend notre petit déjeuner à l'hôtel France Eiffel (petits déjeuners qui étaient inclus avec notre chambre gracieuseté de www.booking.com). Normalement, ces …

Today we left the Cande cap site aiming to visit the Chateau Chambord and then on to Azay-le-Rideau. Unfortunately the night before after our long cycling day Nick broke his front bike wheel taking recycling to the camp dump - bottle in spokes. Therefore first stop was Blois again and it's bike shop. Couldn't find the bike shop but CJ located her …

... Paris, guided by our trusty Tom-Tom that wasn't so trusty at the start since it was accidentally set to walking paths, we nervously arrived in the Valley of the Chateaux.  We picked these to visit over 2 days:  Chambord, Blois and ...

 We took the buses to Chambord today. It is beautiful here.The chateau is huge.   The royal Château de Chambord at Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France is one of the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its very distinct ...

... the signs saying watch out for quicksand were a bit of a worry! From there, we drove 5 hours to see the Chateau de Chambord. We had a couple of massive storms during the day (including one hail storm that actually had us pulling over as we ...

... , and the back roads made it easy going; got lost trying to bypass Orleans, but by 9.30pm we'd made it to Château de Chambord.... a fairytale castle that took 30 years to build. Just before it got dark the hunters and foxhounds came out, about 6 riders ...

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One of the many castles in the Loire Valley. This one was constructed based on Leonardo Da Vinci's ...

... ;Rebuilt in 1465 after being burned down under orders from Louis XI. −Purchased by Catherine de Medici in 1560 Chateau de Chambord −The largest castle in the Loire Valley, it was built as the hunting lodge for François I starting in 1519. ...

... 9 am. We had a long bus ride this day - only stopping to eat and go to the washroom. Our final destination was the Chateau de Cruix which is owned by Contiki. http://www.contiki.com/contikipedia/articles/the-chateau The chateau is in the heart of the ...

First castle on our way lies in the middle of forest. It was a place used for hunting by the French kings. It looks like taken from a fairy tale with its turrets. There's the staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci so that 2 people going up can never ...