Chateaux

So we have been on the road for a few nights now... my last blog was when we were leaving Tours, to explore the area. The first Chateau we visited was Chenonceau.

Chenonceau is known as "le Chateau des Dames" because it was women who were responsible for building and adding on the Chateau. The Chateau is built over the cher river, with wonderful views of the surrounding area. We walked around the gardens, first the garden of Diane De Poitiers... who was given this beautiful Chateau by King Henry II. Diane was not his wife but his life long mistress. On the other side of the Chateau is Catherine De Medici's garden... King Henry II wife. After Henry died, Catherine kicked Diane out, and took over the Chateau, but she didn't leave Diane nothing like you might think, she actually gave her another Chateau to live in. I thought that was rather interesting.

Inside Chenonceau the rooms are beautifully decorated and there are many interesting portraits. The area that I liked the best was the kitchen areas. They were on the lower level, and very sophisticated.

After Chenonceau we went to another Chateau called Cheverny. This was very different from the first chateau not only in style but also the story behind it. Cheverny is still owned by the original family that built the Chateau, the Hurault family. It was lived in until the late 1980’s! To me that is unbelievable. It is also well known as a hunting “lodge” there are kennel’s at the chateau with around 70 hounds. The dogs are fed at 5pm everyday. We were able to see the feeding, wow… that was something that I have never seen before. 70 huge hunting dogs fighting over meat!!

Another interesting bit about this Chateau is that during WWII the Mona Lisa was kept in hiding at the Orangery (the back building), on the property of the Chateau.

We headed on to Brantome to sleep, we got there a bit late so could not see how cute the village was, but when we woke up we saw that it was totally surrounded by a mote, and not only that there was a great little market and fair on because it was May 1st. This is a holiday in France, where everyone buys Lilly’s of the Valley to give to their friends. I think the holiday is for friendship… or when mom asked someone what the holiday was for they said it was for “walking”… so we are not quite sure, but never the less, it was great to celebrate in this lovely little village.

We then made the dive to Rocamador, where we stayed last night into the rock, it is again, like something I have never seen before.
Rocamador is a pilgrimage site for Catholics. A beautiful church was built right
The hotel that we are at is in the countryside, and it is very cool. We had the most delicious dinner last night here at the hotel, French food is very rich, and very tasty!

This morning Jeremia and I woke up early and biked into town to see the rising sun on the cliffs. It was stunning!

Today we are heading out to pick up Rudy!