Hotel de Rennes Le Mans

In my last email I talked about our car, Napolean, but not too much about the highlights of the Loire Valley... We visited the Chateau of Villandry which is actually more famous for its spectacular Gardens. There was an Ornamental Garden portraying 4 different types of love (tender, passionate, fickle and tragic), the Water Garden, and the Sun Garden. The Sun Garden had 2 areas, the 'Cloud Room' which had a blue and white colour theme and the 'Sun Room' in which ...

Thank God for the GPS and the Audi s4!! This place is really nice... our room is austrian themed. We arrived and checked the place out, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant...the menu was in French so we had a fun time translating everything....I have un petite phrase book that really helps!! We also went down the road to the cellars (cave in french), and had a wine tasting and bought some wine. Tommorrow we are going to see some Chateaux!!!

... down on a bacon con carne random meal which was suprisingly nice then did a create of beer in an attempt to rebuild team spirit. Obviously we talked quite philosophically about stuff none of us remember. It was a clear hot night and we decided to leave off the waterproofing for our tents. Yes, yes it did then decide to rain in the night.

... to sleep due to spending our time looking for Olly. Looking at the state of us and not sure if our friend even existed the police decided to take us to a drugs rehabilitation centre. Here we were given gone off pancakes and sheets with three different types of stain on them. There was also a slug on the ceiling. . . . . . Olly was spending the night in a hotel. Tempted by sleeping on the floor I braved the matress and fell asleep laughing (like a metal)

... visited my brother was on a mission to find castle with a hedge maze. As painful as this was the first castle hade a hedge maze but it was not good enough for him so every castle we went to we looked for a hedge maze which we finally found Chenonceaux Chateu. The castle stretches across the Loire River and has its own beach. The castle was huge and smelled of old people. As we were just about to leave Ben saw the sign that ...

... They had gun’s in the fourteen
hundreds. I liked it. I am not sure why but i don’t mind cramped underground spaces. In fact i quite like them.
Leonardo da Vinci’s house, was amazing. We saw all his scribbles in a notebook of his, we some his inventions in a framed model. But the garden was what was most amazing. In the garden they had life sized inventions ...

... around the streams and fields and watch the rock climbers in action. "She's not very good.", say the kids, as we watch one woman struggle up the face of a cliff. Tough crowd. Its a magical day. Janice captured the feeling wonderfully in the video of me and the kids walking in the field. Peaceful and fun. Its true what I told Vincent today in Ste. Suzanne, ... "These types of places, and these experiences ... they beat a place like Versailles hands down in my book."

... FOOD! A cheese plate full of local specialties and some fresh bread. I'm about to burst at the seams, but I can't stop! ... We get to sample Camembert, Morbier, St. Felicern (all from cow's milk) and Pandoux (goat's milk). Janice and I agree that they are all great (although the Morbier is too strong for our liking... a bit like blue cheese) ... my fav is the Camembert, Janice likes the Pandoux. ... I'm on overload at this point. We take a ten minute break to talk, and then out ...

... animations along key structures throughout Old Town Le Mans. The Cathedral changes colors with angels singing, a nearby garden has a mysterious ghostly figure floating in a waterfall, the old Roman Wall shows a battle scene with soldiers and dragons. Very beautiful ... and wholly different than anything that any one of us has seen before. Only downside to the day is that Janice and Ella both have come down with a bit of a stomach bug. Hopefully they will feel better tomorrow.

... Em is thriving on the fantastic places to run among the vineyards and the beautiful streets of the little towns we've been staying in. We're in Rousett, Provence currently, heading to Nice today for 3 nights then fly out from Nice to the Netherlands on 18th June to see Matt and Michelle. Hopefully we'll find a good deal on a van there, if not, it's on to London to find a van. Keep the news coming, we love hearing from everyone. Lots of Love, Al & Em