Chenonceaux and Villandry

Another cool morning but should have more sunshine as the day goes on.
After breakfast we are on the coach at 8.30 for an optional tour of Chateau de Chononceau. Our local guide is Mary Lou. The chateau is most famous as the home of Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henri II. She was a good twenty years older than him and rumour had it he was infatuated with her as a young boy. I remember her from my Jean Plaidy novels I loved so much as a teenager, and always felt sorry for Catherine de Medici who was married to Henri when they were both 14, but Diane was always in the way, meddling and ensuring Catherine never had a chance with Henri. (Hmmm, sounds a bit like a certain royal fellow with bloody big ears infatuated with a horse faced woman who never gave his young wife a chance...). Anyhow, back to the history lesson. Henri gave Diane the chateau as she loved it so much and went about tissying it up and planting lovely manicured gardens.

When Henri died, in fact it may have been just before he even breathed his last, Cate banished Di from it and claimed it as her own, adding her own gardens and finishing other building projects that Di had commenced. The gardens Di created were among some of the most spectacular and modern at the time. By building the bridge on the River Cher, she made the architecture of the chateau unique in the world.

We had a good wander through all the rooms open to the public. There were some huge tapestries and great paintings. The gilt frame on the Louis IV picture which he gave to the owner of the Chateau at the time, because he slept there once, is especially grand. Poor Catherine was however no oil painting, no pun intended.

The great gallery which was two floors, was used as a hospital during the First World War so the place has certainly seen some amazing historical events.

Time to grab some lunch from the buffet style service that truly needed better management, where I had a bit of quiche and shared a quarter carafe of very average white wine with J. As we head back to the coach along the avenue of trees, J spots a maze that she simply has to go into! I’m very proud of her as she did a fine job of making her way to the centre, however took slightly longer finding her way out...

but back on the coach we go, to return to our hotel for 20 minutes to collect those who didn’t do this optional morning tour, as we now head to Villandy, considered the jewel of the Loire which has magnificent formal gardens. Mary Lou takes us to the terrace of the chateau where we have the best views of the entire gardens. They are magnificent. If we were here later in the year, the colour scheme for the flowers would be very different as there would be a great profusion of tulips, whereas right now the colour is mainly derived from forget me nots. It is still quite beautiful though. Each section of the garden has a theme. There is a kitchen garden, full of green herbs, silvery cabbages and purple basil.

I thought there might be more water features, but there is more reliance on hedge plants manicured to within an inch of their lives. Certainly worth seeing.

Time for a quick white wine just before we leave and then back on the coach to return to our hotel for a couple of hours (thank goodness) before we are to all meet on the terrace for celebration drinks, put on by Insight. Our chateau really is a beautiful building with gorgeous rooms, but like many of our accommodations, there is very little free time to enjoy our surroundings, and that’s about my only criticism of these tours.

Between K and G and us we still have lots of champagne and nibbles to work our way through, so agree to meet in KG’s room after we have had a chance to freshen
up a bit. So a very pleasant champagne, wine and nibbles extended happy hour in their room. then it is time to meet with all our other travellers out on the terrace. As we are in a chateau and it is our last night together as J and I won’t be going a second time to the cabaret in Paris tomorrow night, I deem it only right and proper to wear my Burger King crown to the event. What a hoot! Everyone wanted their photo taken with me! I even had my faithful,followers curtsying and bowing to me... Lots of laughter and good cheer. Then it was time to go in to dinner. We sat with K and G, Kee, Lyn, and Dean and Sue from Melbourne. Unsurprisingly, our table had the best fun.

Dinner really was lovely. 100% on last night. Starter was fried Camembert and salad, main was a lovely chicken dish and dessert was a combination of chocolate mousse and a toffee ice cream. White wine was my choice of the day.

Kee had told us that he was a self taught pianist who liked playing the piano so when most people had left the dining room, we cajoled him into playing a couple of tunes for us. J kindly remained silent when they were asking if anyone else played the piano, for as a few of you know, I only play for my own amusement having been ‘forced’ into playing as a child.

But then our evening drew to a close and it is time again for bed. Still no reasonable wifi opportunity to upload photos. Bloody frustrating. Hopefully when we get back to Paris tomorrow we will have some luck! Our holiday is almost at an end and it really has been a cracker.