Chateau De Chissay Chissay-en-Touraine

... cliff a few times we finally found the campsite.(Damn you GPS) .We are trying to stay away from night driving but when the drive is 5 hours long and its dark by 5pm it gets difficult.

I also remember that France has A LOT of farm land. That’s all we drove through. It’s crazy. Anyway, after a quick stop here it was off to Bordeaux for the real fun to begin!

... that the property holds, but it's what gets put in that comes out. And I'm sure that if you know what to look for you can taste hints of that grace and character in the wine that is made there.

So it's with a heavy heart that I bid farewell to all my friends in France, however briefly we met. There's no way that the times that I've had wont shape the rest of my experiences in my travels, and for that I'm grateful.

Our final chateau - Chambord. Everything about Chambord is done on a grand scale and on apporaching the chateau one is awe struck by the size, not only of the chateau but the grounds which cover 35sq kms! Inside has over 400 rooms, some bare conrete walls, some with renaissance art hanging on the walls and several had the full works - tapestries, furniture, frescos.

The history of the chateau was also very interesting as it was home to whom would have been next ...

Awoke to blue skies - yippeee - as it was forecasted for more rain. We set off to Blois chateau first thing. We never really intended to come to Blois but it was part of our multi-entry ticket. Blois is all about the architecture, however the state apartments were ...

... in Cynthia and Franc's mansion - well their camper was at least twice the size of Scooby, getting to know then and talking about travel and life. Great company and the wine was going down well we were invited to stay for dinner which we did. After 3 bottles of wine it was time to hit the hay. We hope to see then again when we are back in London.

Sun 1 Nov
It was laundry day. We could have held out for another ...

Next stop Cheverney. This chateaux had less of a grand opening as it was able to be seen from the road, however the size of the grounds impressed. One would not have guessed what lay inside. We were wowed by Chenonceau but by Chevereny we were blown away. The detail of the rooms were simply overwhelming and at times hard to take it all in...just check out the photos we have uploaded on this page.

... that straddles the River Cher and is surrounded by gardens which even though its late October are still stunning. Inside over 3 floors we take in the places beauty - all of the rooms werer specatuarly painted withj deep blues, green and gold finishes, fine tapestries hang down the ceilings, large oil paintings litter the walls, period furniture gives us an insight into the life of its inhabitants over the years. This chateau wowed us!

... Friday 30 Oct
Next morning was overcast and nippy which always means a slow start to the day. Went out for a 9km run through the village and I managed to sneak in some hills, much to Kim's dismay but she managed to run all the way. I had thought it was not that hilly until we drove the way we run the following day and Scoooy started to struggle! Caught the end of the local farmers markets and bought ...

(Whitney)

We wanted to see some cool castles so we headed to Blois in the Loire Valley in France, abouttwo hours south of Paris. It took us ages to get from Bruges to Blois because we took a roundabout way of getting there to avoid paying high supplement fees on the fast TGV train. We arrived at our hotel around 8- we managed to find a cheap last minute hotel again which wasnice. We only had one day in the castle region so we toured through the ...

Right; between Tours and Vierzon there are no hostels and its too far to cycle in a day. There is a hostel at Blois but that means going northeast and taking an extra day to do it. So the plan is to have a long day and ride past Tours to a campsite listed as closed by the tourist office but open according to their website. This would take me to striking distance of Vierzon by a more direct route. Tours I can return to. So this morning dawned with ...