21 March 2006

Busy, busy, busy

Our friends Susan and Ray have been here since last Wednesday for a first visit to the Loire Valley. Susan arrived the day after our dog Collette died, and she has kept us busy and distracted. Ray joined us Sunday after a trip with his brother to Belgium and Germany.

We have been touring the châteaux. Sunday afternoon, for example, we "saw" at least six of them. Most of these were what we call "drive-bys" — Kodak moments. Most of the châteaux were ones tourists have never heard of (Pocé-sur-Cisse, Valmer, Côte, Jallanges). The weather has been fairly nice for a few days. Spring is finally springing.

Last Friday Susan and I drove over to Selles-sur-Cher and on to Romorantin. There's a château and a big church in Selles, and Romorantin is one of our département's bigger towns (pop. 20,000). We did some shopping there.

On the way, we turned off the main road to see what a place called Le Château de Quinçay, a wine château, looked like. It wasn't spectacular (it would be hard to call the big house a château) but the road in was beautiful. As we were taking pictures, at woman who must have been 65 years old or so came by on her bicycle, said "Bonjour!" and rode off into the distance.

The road into the Château de Quinçay wine house

Yesterday we went to Chambord and walked around the exterior of the château. Then we went on to Cheverny and walked all through the building and around the park. Chambord is the biggest Loire Valley château, and Cheverny is one of the best-furnished and most interesting ones. Today: Blois and Vendôme.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Ken and Walt and Susie and Ray! Thinking of you all, wishing I were tromping around France with you...

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  2. Stunning photo of the line of trees and the woman on the bike. Reminds me of photos of "old France." Love it!

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  3. Ellen, Susan and Ray are in Paris now. They sent their bonjour to you before leaving us.

    Amy, when that woman rode by on her bicycle, I thought she would get to the end of the tree-lined road and turn around to head back home. But instead, she rode on out onto the highway and disappeared into the distance. There wasn't much traffic out there, but she must have been going for fairly long ride.

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