Ibis Tours Nord

... 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.

From Amboise we had a short drive to Chenonceau where we keen toursits along with one tour group we there early and had to wait 10 minutes until the chateau opened for day. Once through the gates it was a lovely walk through the forest where the leaves were all changing colour - amber, yellow, red - so pretty. As we approach the end of the forest the chateau appears before us and its like stepping into a fairy tale. The chateau sat on ...

... 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

... had taco wraps left over from our taco night but no hot dog buns or bread in our pantry!

Great day, not too many mis-directions, beautiful camp ground. Best of all we did over 400 kms today the most we have driven any day so far.

June 19, Friday

It rained in the very early morning and is very dull and cool out. We have breakfast and then hit the road. We find the secondary highway and all goes well going along. She does take us ...

... and think I'm crazy for not having alcohol especially when I can do it legally here. But, that's the way I am. Voila, as they would say in French. Ok...moving on now. We went to the city of Amboise and had about an hour to wander around for lunch. Beibei and I walked down the street to Clos Luce, which is the house Leonardo da Vinci lived in for the last 3 years of his life ...

I get up early as I have decided I want to do a side trip on the way to Tours to Angouleme. I organise my train ticket with a 3 and a half hour stop over at Angouleme from the guides it sounds delightful. In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are ...

Highlights of this entry: Independent Republic of San Marino Naples and Pompeii Dinner with Billy and Christine Poorten Gay's Paradise Pisa, Milan, and Novara 23 September Today was essentially a travel day from, Venice to Naples, so we spent most of it on the train. However, we did take some time out from traveling to visit the Independent Republic of San Marino and the final country in our quest to visit every country in Western Europe. For those of you who are not familiar ...