Okay,onto the chateaus we visited in France.
My husband was the one who wanted to do chateaus because,surprise,surprise!!he likes them-something I didn't know until February.
Anyway,Rick Steves came in handy again.We looked at the Loire Valley and all the chateaus there and picked three that we wanted to see.While Mr.Steves suggests using either Amboise or Tours as a base for visiting the chateaus,we liked the looked of this tiny village called Azay-le-rideau,with its chateau in residence.
We decided to pick  three chateaus to visit and to stay, at a hotel in Azay-le-rideau.We booked a room at the Hotel de Biencourt in Azay-le-rideau and decided to visit Chenonceau in the morning,Villandry(more for the gardens than the castle per se)in the afternoon and then stay at Hotel de Biencourt and visit the chateau nearby the next morning.
The one thing that was an issue was a rental car.An automatic was not easy to get and it was so expensive-but we did book it anyway.After all  how often does one get to drive around the scenic French countryside?

Our first view of Chenonceau-tres magnifique!!It looks almost exactly like the castles you find in storybooks.

Chenonceau

Once inside,the sheer magnitude of the place gets you.The photo below was taken in a great hall which is built atop a bridge that scans the river below.The view of the castle from the side was a revelation in itself!

 

Side view

 The history of the castle is in itself interesting.A point of contention between the queen and mistress of the French king ,the former turned the latter out once the king died and remodeled the place to remove any trace of her having lived there.

The mistress' garden

But the gardens stand testimony to their lives there and they were interesting in that they were located diametrically opposite each other-as far away as one could get away from the other I think!!

The queen's garden

Hey look!!A waffle maker!




The kitchen had a rotisserie spit,waffle makers,even a small staircase leading to the river to unload the groceries for the day.

One of the bedrooms.

This is one of the bedrooms-notice the tapestries and the bedlinen-looks pretty comfy right?











For lunch they have a self serve restaurant-and it had the yummiest stuff available-no fries and dried out or soggy veggies-one of the main course options was coq au vin!A stroll through the gardens and the gift shop and we were back in the car driving to Villandry.
The children by now were done with chateaus and we decided that I would walk the park with them while Vincent visited the castle and then joined us at the park.
The park again was magnificent,with geometrical patterns which from afar was a sight to behold,but walking among the plants did not elicit that kind of wonderment.
What surprised me was that they had a kids garden with a play area and a maze that the children could get lost in!!
The herb garden was also amazing-the sheer varieties of mint planted there was surprising!

But obviuosly the crown in the jewel was the beautifully laid out gardens ,a photograph of which graces our living room wall-a canvas print nonetheless!!

A closer view of the pattern.

The castle framed by the gardens

Neat,orderly,geometric and beautiful to boot!!

And then it was off to Azay le rideau!!
But that in itself needs a separate post.Something happened there that would warm the cockles of anybody's heart and deserves to be narrated at length!!