L'Abbaye de Pontlevoy

... 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!

... I know I'll wonder how I did so much living in so little time.

Something special happens to an estate that's been around for almost 250 years. It starts to take on it's own personality, and through that it attracts the type of people that would make what it is that much better. My hosts at La Meslerie treat the people that visit with such undying grace and character that it's easy to chock it up to some mystical ...

... of France after the revolution, but he insisted on being crowned under the King colors rather than the tricolor of the revolution. As a result Napoleon stepped up to the plate and took the prize from under his nose. In more recent history the chateau was used to hide and store much of the Lourve's art work during WWII.

Words can't describe all that we saw in the Loire Valley so we hope our photos help.

Goodbye Loire Valley, hello Dordogne here we come!

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.

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 ...

... and 426 rooms. The castle was hardly ever used and many areas were fairly empty all the time. However, some rooms were set up to show what they would have looked like when occupied. The castle had separate areas that would have acted as small apartments for guests and occupants. The whole castle was massive- the staircase was in the middle and there were four large hallways off of it on each of the 3 floors. Steve said he would have made everyone play in ...

... so even if you don't have facebook you should be able to view each one. here they are in order from the earliest: http://usm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 000723&l=7a000&id=1213680067 http://usm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 000731&l=85b37&id=1213680067 http://usm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 000733&l ...

As much as I would love to pepper my entries with some of the 76 pictures I've taken so far, technology has seemed to turn against me entirely. It's both terrifying and liberating, in a weird sort of way. I feel somewhat naked and vulnerable walking around without my cellphone, which now serves it's purpose as a doorstop, since it can't do much else without service. Pay phones are apparently opposed to phone cards. And our promised international cell phones haven ...