Du Parc Huisseau-sur-Cosson

... levels. Although, I have to say, it wasn't exactly what I had expected, there were several more explosions than I had pictured (between food grade hoses, tractor tires, and tractor engines it was quite a few mind you), and I never really pictured myself drinking Calvados at 7 a.m. with a team of transient Bulgarian grape harvesters. But after having survived through the process, it ...

... 1082;омпа 85;ии Колин 85; гулят 00; интер 77;сно. Гид из нее хуевы 81; (но я в такие момен 90;ы думаю о то ...

... 1078; 85;ые знаки к нему не так очеви 76;ны. Но Ален совет 91;ет. Говор 80;т, он один из лучши 93;. Самое п ...

... was the exterior, for that matter. The region is famous for chateaus, and Chenonceau is the third most visited one in all of France, behind Versailles and Fontainebleau, and many come to the region just to tour a number of Chateaus. One was more than enough for me.

Today was kind of a sad day ... knowing I was going to be in Paris at the end of my trip, I had contacted Emilie to see if she was going to be around. Unfortunately, she wasn't going to ...

... to be savoured and enjoyed. Just like every Spanish senorita should be ogled by a creepy Canadian.

The sandwich was simple - ham, cheese, and tons of butter. Wicked baguette, as good as a baguette I once had in Monaco (see blog entry entitled "At least he didn't grab his ******!"
http://www.travelpod.com/tr avel-blog-entries/pwong/europe_2006/115 4026320/tpod.html ) So crusty and chewy, it's the kind of baguette you have to bite into and shake your ...

It really doesn't matter when you lived, as long as you were fabulously wealthy. We took a train to the beautiful medieval village of Blois, France. (It is pronounced Blah, but is anything but that. We spent the first day visiting this charming spotlessly clean village from our hotel. Then we rented a car from Europe car and with a GPS were able to quickly locate and visit several Chateaus ...

... s masterpieces safe from Nazi pilfering.)

This week we have skittered about several of them, but by no means have we exhausted the luxuriant bounty open for exploration. We dropped into Chenonceau on Sunday after visiting a winery in Montrichard. Bob, Shawn & I drove to Cheverny & Chambord on Monday while Toby & the Richards took a ...

... Once I arrived in Paris' Gare du Nord station, I picked up some Euros at an ATM, grabbed a croissant from a station vendor, and hopped aboard the Metro. In 15 minutes I was in the transport carnival known as Gare Montparnasse station and ready for my next train to St. Pierre du Corps (a suburb of Tours). There Toby was waiting at the station to drive me to the chateau. I was early enough to enjoy ...

... we could head over to Chantreaux which is a Chateau built into the river with nice gardens. We get there in about 20 minutes so we have plenty of light left to see it properly and get the popular reflection photo from the other side of the river. We spend the rest of the night trying to figure out where the hell we are going to stay the next day - but we have no luck.

We get up the next morning and finally find a town that ...

... a Joachim Carvallo whose passion was designing gardens and he set about restoring the park to its glory. There are very formal French gardens with intricate designs as well as a water garden, a herb garden and a kitchen garden which uses a number of vegetables and fruits in contrasting colours and patterns to make a magnificent display. We really enjoyed our stroll around there. We went into Blois that night for a Pizza meal as we had had too much of a good thing!!!