Du Theatre Tours

... 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.

... 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!

... Now came the hard part, trying to decide which chateaus to visit as we knew we could not visit them all. In the end we bought a multi-chateau pass to Cheverny, Chombard and Blois and then had to buy Chenoceau separately.
Why choose these chateau's? Chenonceau for the fairy tale chateau, Cheverney for the extravengant interior and furnishings, Blois for the architecture and Chombard for its grandness.

... some drinks in Amboise which is currently my favorite destination that is close to the Meslerie. The Loire valley has so many gems though, it would take forever to uncover them all, so I will choose my battles, and hopefully win several of them before I leave.

So, I leave you with a few pictures from my day trip to Amboise/Chenonceau and a promise that there is more to come soon.

I took a day trip into Tours, which is the biggest city around here. It's a pretty amazing places, I still have a lot of exploring to do here yet, but I wanted to post some pictures of my first trip that I took into Tour alone.

Enjoy

... glass windows. My camera could not do it justice. After strolling downtown Tours for a while, letting all of the French citizens pass me as they went about their daily routine, Suzy and Julien joined me. Thanks to Suzy's need to return a throw rug, I got a little taste of French customer service--Suzy had to use her store credit NOW and no, they would not let her use a credit card to pay the difference. But Suzy says that unfortunately it's typical, and ...

... the front basket of their town bikes; last night there was a couple that had their camping trained cat with them; people come to the camping to hang out... you can even pay to just visit the campers for the day; everyone looks at us like barbarians because we sit on the ground to eat our one pot meal cooked on an ultralight stove, too bad we didn't carry a table and chairs on our bikes. Onward to Cholet to see the Tour de France! SOO EXCITED!

... lunch (a rather delicius baguette which involved melted emmental and ham). For the rest of the day we continued to explore the town and bought some stuff to make ourselves dinner as this hostel has kitchens. Thanks again for all of your messages, Primrose is quite right our shoes are getting quite warn but we are having a brilliant time! Off to make the afore mentioned dinner now lots of love to you all xxxx

... the street for dinner - yummy! So far i seemed to have packed well (knock on wood). my clothes dry incredibly fast and i really want to work for REI when i get back. There stuff is quality. Course i guess i should see how it holds up in seven months. I laugh at the ameatur backpackers who have on jeans and cotten and expect it to dry overnight. Poor kids. Another day here then off to Spain (hopefully i actually get there this time!)