The Loire Valley, the 'Garden of France', has more than 300 chateau, from tenth-century castles to mansions built a thousand years later.
Our guide took us on a walking tour of Blois, the town we stayed in. This is the front view of Royal Chateau.
This is a view of Royal Chateau from the courtyard. There are four distinct wings, each corresponding to a different architectural period and style. Two styles are represented in this picture.
One of the many, furnished rooms.
Feeling Royal, are We?
After the tour of the chateau, we crammed together for a horse carriage guided tour.
We crossed the La Loire River...
...via this bridge.
Our walking tour of Blois continued. No, we didn't climb these steps! By this day of the trip, we don't need any unnecessary steps!
Walking through a courtyard with the other 17 members of our group.
An architect allowed us to enter his home. He remodeled a former salt storage warehouse.
He says he is looking for a new wife! There were no interested ladies in our group.
After lunch, we took a bus to Chateau de Chenonceau on the River Cher.
This chateau warrants several pictures!
My favorite gardens are the ones with flowers, but the green ones are impressive, too!
Even the walkways are worth a picture!
Just an interesting vehicle we passed, showcased by a couple of members of our group.
Our next stop was in Chaumont for a visit at its International Garden Festival. I talked earlier about all the walking we were doing. On this day, Wayne's pedometer indicated that he (we) walked over 7 miles!
This place was humongous! We could post a hundred pictures and not show all that we saw, and we only covered about 1/4 of the gardens.
This is one of about 8 'volcanoes' in this area.
The gardens bordered this chateau. We didn't tour this one. We were exhausted by this time of this 7+ mile day!
This area had mirrors. In this, Wayne is taking a picture of us in the mirror!
In this, I'm taking the picture!
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