Just returned from Tours, France in the heart of the Loire Valley region of France. This is where most of the famous chateaux of France are located. We went down by train last Saturday and spent three afternoons doing minibus tours of the chateaux [2 or 3 each 1/2 day]. Mostly they were interesting and pretty but, I confess, I have now seen enough chateaux to last me a while.
One of the interesting ones was the small chateau where Leonardo da Vinci lived the last three years of his life. The young king lived very near by and invited da Vinci to come there because the king wanted the intellectual stimulation of his company. The building was simple inside and out but da Vinci's drawings and the exhibits of the models of many of his inventions were absolutely fascinating [at least to us].
The chateau which we liked the most was Villandry--and that was for the gardens, we did not go inside the building. The gardens are deservedly very famous and were amazing. They have trained apple trees on a wire about 2 feet off the ground all around each section of planting so it is sort of an apple "vine" and it was full of apples. It is a very large garden with many different sections including both many types of flowers and a very large kitchen garden. There are several chateaux which are more famous than this one but we certainly enjoyed the gardens.
We enjoyed the very French hotel in Tours and had a couple of excellent meals in restaurants [also some ordinary ones]. However, no matter how much French we use, everyone always knows we are either English or American. They usually assume English since Americans usually do not speak as much French as the English.
We are getting organized for our trip to Paris airport on Saturday and flight to Atlanta on Sunday. So, home soon.
15 minute salmon recipie
14 years ago
