La Paquerie Limeray

... is a parasite that grows on other trees and they are really easy to see in the winter because all the leaves have fallen off. I thought it was pretty cool so the whole way to tours I looked for mistletoe trees. I found lots and took some pictures.

France isn’t big on lighting up their roads and boy does it get dark at night. After almost driving off ...

Seeing the lights of La Meslerie fade into the distance last night was a bittersweet experience. It's a place that, for so many reasons, has become near and dear to my heart. It's not often in life that we give ourselves over to the unknown, but it's a validation of the beauty of existence that you could take a chance and be so rewarded. Granted, I only spent a month and a half in France. But when I look back on this period of my ...

... 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 ...

Two magnificant chateau's and we were done for the day so a short drive got us to Blois where we had decided would be a good stop for the night. As we drove in we spotted several campervans parked down along the river and so that was where we rocked up to and on arrival met Cynthia and Franc who we parked next to. Turned out that Cynthia was from South Launceston originally (small world!!) and Franc from Belgium but his ...

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.

... 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!

... big, delicious macaroon biscuits (but not as good as the ones I heard Laura made for Kim before she left London!!!). Kim went for another wander through the village and found a little cave under the chateau that offered free wine tasting. She tried a sparkling, rose and savingnon from the region. The sparkling won her vote (even though it was not pink!). I on the other hand giving Scooby some more TLC ...

(Whitney)

We wanted to see some cool castles so we headed to Blois in the Loire Valley in France, abouttwo hours south of Paris. It took us ages to get from Bruges to Blois because we took a roundabout way of getting there to avoid paying high supplement fees on the fast TGV train. We arrived at our hotel around 8- we managed to find a cheap last minute hotel again which wasnice. We only had one day in the castle region so we toured through the ...

... amazing chateau second in splendor only to Versailles. It's an amazing castle built across the river (see the pictures), and after my 90-minute video i-pod tour of the joint, I'm pretty much an expert. It was definitely worth the trip, and I spent so much more time there than I thought I would that I wasn't able to go to Clos Luce, my second destination of the day. I did, however ...