Novotel Le Mans Est

... which is said to have inspired the French author Charles Perrault to write the fairytale 'Sleeping Beauty'. It is very striking and set against a lush forest backdrop. The Chateau D'Usse is still privately owned and inhabited - I'm not sure how its occupants find their way in and out through the hoards of tourists?!

The next day we visited another couple of Chateaux after leaving late morning (somebody didn't set the alarm properly...). Pat explored Chateau ...

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!!!

Distance covered: 38.6 miles

So we cycled a mission and met up with Olly. He was all like "but i tried to find you guys". Thats nice, but we never did find where that slug went from the ceiling. Anyway after hugs and kisses we cycled to a MASSIVE shop and bought MASSIVE food. We then cycled to some woods (full of broken glass and litter) and ...

... 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 ...

Yes, today was better than Versailles I think. But that's my family man side talkin' ... not the history and art appreciation side (and thats because that side very rarely speaks!). With a break in the clouds, we hop in the car and head to Saulges, a town recommended to us by the Huet family. A quick fourty minute drive from Chateau-Gontier and we are here. And gone. Oops, better turn around. Saulges is a SMALL town. We find some signs to a campsite and ...

... 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 ...

... almost feels like we are celebrities! A couple magical moments at dinner ... at one point the kids get a bit rascally at dinner, so I bust out the old disappearing coin trick to buy us some time. MAN! They really really fall in love with it. For the next ten minutes I'm pulling the coin out of their ears, their heads, putting it in their pockets ... giggles and laughter of absolute delight. Its great. Second memorable moment is when I pour the water wwwwwaaaaay up to the full ...

... blue water of the Mediterranean Sea along the Cote d'Azure Coastline.....we could go on and on...... Instead of rambling out pages of words, we've decided to send you some pics this time in an effort to better describe our fantastic journey so far. For many of the sights we've seen words and pics just don't do justice....but the pics will at least in time jog the memories and fill the journals and albums. To name a few (and certainly not all ...