Tours, France

Elona Typing

Bonjour and bienvenue a Paris!!! We still got cruddy Spanish croissants for breakfast on the train– it’s just not their thing really. Anyway it wasn’t long before we arrived at Austerlitz Train Station where we went for a quick wander across a bridge to Europcar where we rented a car for 3 weeks!! Down we went to parking to find what is supposed to be the third up from the smallest – holy cow I wonder how small the smallest was – check out the photos!!! We only just fit our stuff in there. It said it would fit 5 people and 2 bags; that’s if you put the bags on your laps!!!!! Crazy – but we managed it.

Meg’s Typing

Before leaving the Europcar office the kindly man behind the counter confirmed what language we wanted the GPS to use – “French??” he said.  Not sure what he was thinking considering that the entire transaction had been carried out in English.  He changed the GPS to English we packed the car and set off.  Now all was good as we could read the English instructions but the first vocal instruction was given in a female French voice??????!!!!!!?????? We were in the middle of Paris traffic at a major intersection – WHAT???  Elona decided to drive straight whilst I tried to work out how to get the voice to speak English.  Found it! We had a choice of John UK or Jane UK (not very interesting names) and the next choice down was Ken – Australian. Why not, could be bit of a hoot! The first thing Ken did was give us the option of avoiding toll roads. YES, please!  Toll roads are way too expensive and the easiest way to spend €50 without trying. Ken was fantastic as he showed us the backcountry roads to our first destination in France, Tours.

We arrived at our accommodation to find it shut – just for the next 3 hours as they don’t start check-in until 5.30pm.  So we set off again to find the tourism office in town and explore a little (see photos).  After a short look around for English brochures (not many) we decided that the two places in the area surrounding Tours we wanted to see were chateaux.  The first one being Chombard and the second chateau was Villandry.

Chombard, was constructed by Louis XIII, and was used as a holiday house for the French Royal family prior to the revolution some hundreds of years later. See Photos.

Villandry is famous for its magnificent million acre gardens (well maybe not a million but there is a garden for everything).  They have a sun garden, vegetable garden, a rose garden, vineyard, play garden, love garden etc etc etc… See photos.

We had a later train (9.15pm) from Barcelona and were not sure what the dinner selection would be like, we were so excited when we found this nifty packs in the train station.

Sandwich, water, snack pack Pringles and a KitKat soooo very cool.

Our cabin on the Eurostar

We picked up our hire car and headed straight out of Paris to Tours. We chose  the non-toll option and what amazing places did we see

Lovely scenery 

Happy to be touring the French Countryside 

French countryside - gotta love it!

How cool are these historic little towns??

  We arrived at our accommodation to discover they don't check in until after 6pm. So off we went to explore the town of Tours.  This is the central fountain.

A very modern bridge just to show how big the contrast can be from medieval to modern

French Pastries - YUMMMM!!!!!

Some wonderful old buildings in the centre of Tours

With horse and buggy tours

Spring has sprung with all the gardens showing off the flowers

Amazingly huge tree - the lower branches all have large wooden posts to support them.

More lovely gardens - though these pale in comparison to those coming up!

Man and his dog - not a happy moment?

Notre Dame - Tours 

Quick Peek

We have picked up a fascination for stained glass after visiting Familia Sagrada in Barcelona.

Tours

Tours tour

We took the opportunity to visit Chambord one of the chateaux close to Tours.

We were amazed that the chateau smelt authentic as well.  The chateau has 4 large fire places on the lower floor, still used today.

The staircase in the centre of the chateau was what they termed as a double helix staircase.

Beautiful balconies surround the entire chateau

One of the views 

The chateau was massive - used as a country getaway for the Royal families of France for centuries.

The central spire about the double helix stair case help lights the downstairs floors with natural light.

Elona found her "Knight in Shining Armour" 

The places we saw on our travels that just begged for a photo.

Carousels are very popular!

Very UGLY building.  We do ask ourselves at times if town planners etc ever think before they approve some of the non complimentary monstrosities they build.

Poppies in a field of green

Breakfast on the way to Villandry - cutesy town with yummy quiches 

The roof in the Arabian room at Villandry Chateau

Love garden at Villandry - from a height you can see the hearts and the masks

that were worn to balls

Again with those really small beds in really big rooms!

Vegie garden bottom right - only aesthetic though

Ok would you believe this is in one of the bedrooms - it is an 'inhaler' bed.

You know, when you're feeling a little snotty you just jump right on in and breath!!

A boudoir - next to where the inhaler thingy is

Such well kept gardens - pretty much worked on all year round!!

You can see wearing in the marble staircase!!! That's old!!

One of the kid's bedrooms - same size bed as the adults - weird??

This is a doll house version of the chateau

Very cool

The surround and and town were just as well kept - very pretty place

Love garden from a different angle - it tells of all the different types of love; first love, unrequited love, lost love etc etc Question: Why is it that the loves just get worse you know; damned love, bitter love,

dual love, love triangle all the nasty shit - You know we have worked out that maybe love just hurts - that's the answer - Maybe someone should write a song about that?!?!

Hard to get all of the gardens in one photo but you can basically see just how big it really is.

One of the original keeps of the chateau

This is another example of lost love - where is that????? Where did it go - I can't see it!!!!!

Ohhhhhh - now if I'd waited just a wee bit longer they may have created a heart

with their necks - see the HEART IS BROKEN!!!!! Love hurts!!!

Everything of course is symetrical

This we think is a lovely view from the terrace garden

Many 'penis' like structures throughout the garden - well that's what we thought -

they are little phallic don't you think?!

Oh the rose - the flower of love!!!!!

The short tree from Middle Earth - where are the Hobbits?

This is the first view you get of Chombard after you pass the 1000 odd hectares of forest.

Double Helix at Chombard - hello!!! These are love windows so people can talk across the stairwell

One of the still functioning fireplaces

Napoleon slept hère! 

This is .....hhhmmmm that's a bust!

That's a chair - sorry... this is a royal throne - an original in fact. Louis the something, before the teens - you know single digit, sat on it!

Again little bed even though this one is the royal bed!!! We did find out that the King makes

the conjugal visits to the Queen's quarters and not the other way round. The other is that they choose another room and bed for the birthing process.

Now this was clever - some dude - duke dude - came up with the idea

of a better way to heat and maintain heat in a room as fires are not as long lasting hence you

have this very big ugly ceramic tiled furnace that worked a treat!!

Courtiers room - this allowed them to see the daily rituals of the royalty

It's a girly room not as ornate - that's right that be the Queens!!

Roses are red violets are blue....... it's a poetic stance don't you think?

As opposed to this one eyed monster!!

Looking down from the keep to the courtyard

From the top terrace

View

Local town to the right

Hanging stuff on the wall of the hunting room - unlike Alaska these deer

are skulls not stuffed!!

As opposed to these that are

How cute are these??

See imagine stuffing something that small!! Gross!!

The Hunting Room parlour 

Gift shop - very pretty lemonade

and Blonde Beer

This is a French dude that had a soccer's shirt on s we got him

to pose with one of our flags - he was most impressed!!

As we were enjoying a Chocolat Chaud (hot chocolate) some horses came out

onto the grounds - beautiful horses. These are used for the jousting show which is held 

on the weekends and some night shows.

This is the church next tho the chateau

This is one of the villages we passed on the way home

We stopped in this village to have dinner on the way home.

Lovely little restaurant and wonderful music that was piped out of

the Carousel nearby!

Back to Villandry - it has a mote!

This is one of the hallways designed by Louis XV -

apparently he liked the whole black and white geometric designs.

Megs being the tour guide

This jacket and teapot were owned by a Mandarin gentleman who stayed in this estate as a guest. He gave them to the family and as is tradition offered his hand in marriage to the daughter - who was two at the time!!!!

Every window seemed to have a wonderful view of the gardens

Kid's play room

Old record player and original clothing from the last family

This was a young lady's room. Does it look familiar - pop yourself back to North Carolina 

with the wallpaper and matching bedding - remember??

Love these views - these were really hazardous steps!!

Hearts, masks and fans - this is what love is made of apparently oh and the duelling

swords to fix these things if they don't work!! 

Oh and the penises!!!!!

This is a lovely photo of Megs with the flowers of loooooove

This is the Swan Pond - that's not it's name but it'll do!