"Don't anger the dolls"-A France and DLP Trip, June '18-COMPLETED (4/22-ride comparisons)

It was actually super delicious and I wish I had tried it earlier, because the mini had the perfect amount of everything for me to love it!

It looks delicious!


the hot chocolate was too rich to have more than a couple mouthfuls!

We discovered that, as well, when we went into the city. We ordered each of the kids their own hot chocolates and quickly realized they were way too rich to let them drink the entire cup.



So, apparently in the USA we eat cookies, make pancakes, and our favorite candy is nerds…

Hah! It's always fun to see what "American" foods are in foreign supermarkets. In Germany, the big thing is Pop-tarts. For a whole 6 Euros, you can purchase a box of Strawberry Pop-tarts.:rotfl2:



We definitely learned then how much the tolls were, and it cost probably 20-30 euros to get to the Loire Valley. But at least the roads are kept in good condition, so I guess it’s worth it!

The toll roads in France are brutal. But I do like that all the rest stop areas are clean and safe.



It actually was a lovely visit, and the couple was so friendly,

I think it's fascinating that you guys ran into/met up with so many people while you were visiting halfway around the world.


basically against the Amboise Chateau! This was the view out my window!

Amazing view! While there was no cat to keep you company here, at least you had a great view to keep you entertained.



Out on the turret there were some more great views

Love the photos from here.



The Chateau du Close Luce is most known for being the official residence of Leonardo da Vinci between 1516 – 1519 and is also the place where he died.

For some reason, I like the look of this house.



Double decker bridge

That bridge looked awesome. The entire garden area, actually. I know it had to seem small after touring Versailles and its exterior, but this one felt more homey and comfortable.
 
Croissants: 5 Crepes: 6
I see we caught up the croissant count!

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Intresting. How was is?
 
Wow, you've done so much! Also pretty unknown stuff! Been to Paris multiple times, but didn't know about the Curie museum, as a nuclear physicist, going to add that to my list for next visit! As is the Chateau du Clos Luce, it looks amazing!
I don't even remember how I found out about the Curie Museum! Either a random list of museums or just checking Google maps and it popped up! But definitely worthwhile.

Wow . I have been following along but behind so haven’t been commenting. Amboise looks amazing. I will have to add it to my ever growing trip bucket list. The DaVinvi museum looks very interesting. Well ,all of it looks intriguing.
It really is a lovely town! Feels more authentically French!

Loving the updates. As much as we were near the chateau in Amboise, we never went inside - cool to see your pics! We did go through Da Vinci's home and the gardens full of inventions and that was great - Izzy loved the spinny things. :)
I can imagine she would love all the hands-on things!

Great updates! Lots of awesome pics!
Thanks!

Those gardens and chateaus are lovely. I love that you bought some fresh foods and made your own dinner; I love eating out but it's so nice to stay in, too! Makes it feel homey!
It was nice to have a relaxing meal for a change.

Ambrosia looks charming and what a great view you have from your room!
My brother tried to do a time lapse video from our window of the sunrise, but it didn't turn out well enough!

Hah! It's always fun to see what "American" foods are in foreign supermarkets. In Germany, the big thing is Pop-tarts. For a whole 6 Euros, you can purchase a box of Strawberry Pop-tarts.:rotfl2:
Yup, I remember when I lived in England the USA shelf was always funny, and even now the UK shelf at grocery stores makes me laugh! Though the USA area was where I knew I could get boxed cake mixes, rather than buying pre-made cakes or having to do it from basic ingredients!

That bridge looked awesome. The entire garden area, actually. I know it had to seem small after touring Versailles and its exterior, but this one felt more homey and comfortable.
It was very well done and nice to walk around!

I see we caught up the croissant count!


Intresting. How was is?
Yup, definitely croissants have caught up!

The hot dog was good. Pretty much what you'd expect from a hot dog on a baguette with melted cheese! :P

Humm a possible outfit for Pink Wednesday
Haha, I have a good feminist pink shirt I would wear, but I want to save that for later in the trip! But I'll have to find something!
 


Day 9, Part 1: The ladies’ chateau

Today was another chateau day. I did get in a bit of a tiff with Lauren when I said that if someone visits the Loire Valley and doesn’t visit Chenonceau, they are missing out, and well, since she has to be right all the time, she took issue with that. But anyways.

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Breakfast was another croissant, I think from the bag we had gotten at the market the day before. Unfortunately, that bag had been left open, so they were a bit stale.

Croissants: 8, Crepes: 6

Mom had the right idea and ate hers with a bit of cream and berries…

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And she also took a photo of Mini Joan with the Chateau (Joan of Arc was from the Loire Valley)


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While waiting for everyone else, I got to visit with Amboise the cat. Our hosts had loved the town of Amboise so they got a cat and named him after it… then they ended up moving to Amboise! So, yeah, a bit confusing at first! He was definitely old and a bit scruffy looking, but very sweet.


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Everyone else also needed coffee, so we went into town. Bigot (the awesome patisseries we found yesterday) was closed, so we went with another place which only had chocolate croissants left, which were actually a bit meh.


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Croissants: 9, Crepes: 6
See @StarWarsMomofGirls! the croissants are quickly gaining speed!

We also noticed this memorial plaque and some damage on the side of the chateau that appears to be from WWII. However, I couldn’t find anything on google for an actual battle, but I think there was something about the townspeople trying to defend the bridge from the Nazis…

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I ended up doing the driving today and took us out to Chenonceau, only a 20 minute drive, which wasn’t bad at all.


Chateau de Chenonceau

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The Chateau de Chenonceau is one of the most known landmarks of the Loire valley, with the building spanning over the River Cher. It is known as the Ladies Chateau due to the influence of women on its construction and development.


The original chateau was built in the 13th century, but after Thomas Bohier bought it, he had it demolished and rebuilt, with the start of the current building constructed in 1513 (so it had its 500th anniversary in 2013). The owner’s wife, Katherine Briconnet, took charge of the construction and design.

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In 1535, King Francis I (who had visited the chateau previously) seized it from Thomas Bohier’s heir due to unpaid debts. After Francis died in 1547, King Henry II gave the chateau to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, as a gift, and she continued to add to its construction, including the start of the bridge across the river and development of the gardens. In 1555 the chateau was legally written over to her from the crown.


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King Henry II died in 1559, and his widow, Catherine de Medici, decided she wanted the chateau. She forced Diane to exchange it for the Chateau Chaumont. Catherine made it her favorite home and added some new gardens. She hosted many parties, including the first ever fireworks display seen in France when her son, King Francis II came to the throne (this was also the place the Royal Family retreated to when Amboise was too stinky from the corpses I mentioned when describing the Chateau Amboise). Catherine spent a lot of money on improvements, including the grand gallery on top of the bridge. She had plans for an even larger mansion, but it never got started.


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When Catherine died in 1589, the chateau was given over to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine-Vaudemont, wife of King Henry III. Shortly afterwards, while she was at the home, her husband was assassinated; this was the end of the House of Valois, who had ruled over France for the past 13 Kingships (the males had all died, and France did not allow titles to be passed thru the female line). Louise became extremely depressed and spent her remaining 12 years wandering the corridors, dressed in black, with black tapestries covering the windows.


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All of the construction Catherine completed caused her estate to be in debt, which was inherited by Louise. Now, this gets a bit complicated: the next king, Henry IV (the first monarch of the House of Bourbon) agreed to pay off the debts. Henry’s mistress was Gabrielle d’Estrees, who he openly had a relationship with, including children. Louise left the chateau to her niece, who despite being only 6 yrs old, was engaged to Henry and Gabrielle’s son (himself only 4 yrs old), which allowed Gabrielle to have control over the chateau.


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It stayed in their family for more than 100 years, and passed down through the Bourbon monarchy (the same people that built up Versailles), however they tended to use it mainly for hunting, so it lost most of its glory. In 1720, the Duke of Bourbon officially purchased the chateau. He sold off many of the castle’s contents, with lots of statues ending up at Versailles.


In 1733, a wealthy man, Claude Dupin purchased the chateau. His wife, Louise Dupin took control. She was known as being extremely intelligent, beautiful, and accomplished. She encouraged parties at her home that included Voltaire, Fontenelle, and painters and musicians. She was beloved by the townspeople that lived around the chateau and during the French Revolution, they were able to work together to prevent the chateau from being destroyed.

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In 1864, Marguerite Pelouze, a rich heiress, purchased it, and hired an architect to restore it. She ended up spending so much money on it, she went broke and the chateau was seized and sold!


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The entrance pre-renovation and post-renovation

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A variety of owners went through (mainly rich guys), until it was obtained by Henri Menier in 1913, a member of the Menier chocolate family; they own it to this day. The chateau was used as a hospital ward in WWI (they actually had an exhibit when we visited), and was damaged by both the Germans and the Allies in WWII. In 1940, the Germans bombed it as it was a means of escaping from the Nazi occupied zone on one side of the River Cher to the free zone on the opposite side (the Menier family would unlock the doors whenever Nazi patrols were out of sight, allowing hundreds of Jews and French villagers escape). Then, in 1944, it was occupied by the Nazis, so the Allies bombed it while they were retaking France. There was damage, but it was repaired. In 1951, the Menier family had the chateau renovated and repaired to reflect its previous glory.


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Day 9, Part 2: The chateau

Ok, and onto our visit!

An overview of the chateau grounds. You can see the main building, with Diane de Poitier’s garden on the right side (the larger one with more pathways). Catherine de Medici’s garden is on the right with the circle fountain.

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And a more detailed map, showing the hedge maze and caryatides (sculptures) on the left side, and the wine cellar, gardens, and farms on the right side.


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The approach is actually quite lovely, as you walk down a long tree lined path from the parking area.


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When we first arrived, there was a concern about rain, so we decided to do the maze and caryatides first.


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Noticed some sort of rat-creature in the lawn (also later saw them swimming thru the moat, so I don’t know exactly what they were! I also heard lots of crazy noises, which turned out to be bullfrogs! It was crazy to watch them as they made their sounds (and their camouflage with the leaves/algae was spot on!

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In the chateau we all ended up splitting up (though we also had the audio guide). We also timed our visit well that it was fairly empty. When we left multiple tour buses pulled up and the chateau was getting packed!

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I can’t find my guide map so I don’t remember exactly which rooms were which…


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The chapel
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Catherine’s bedroom
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You can see here Henry and Catherine’s emblems

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But…if you put them together, they also create a D for Diana… yeah I’m sure Catherine loved that!
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I love how even the ceilings are gorgeous
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I think this was Catherine’s study and office
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Coins on display representing the royalty
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Day 9, Part 3 – Chateau, part 2

The first floor gallery
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Plaque for the soldiers from WWI
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Downstairs kitchens and servant areas
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I think this was Diana’s room, as there were paintings on the wall of her stylized as the goddess Diana
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And this one was probably for one of the Kings.
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So, apparently this stair was actually revolutionary for its time, as it was straight rather than spiral. (It was added by the first owner, Katherine Briconnet)

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The second floor, with a view from the exterior balcony
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Other bedrooms. On the audio guide they noted a difference in the bed design. The first one was simpler and easy to pack up and move around. The second one was after the royal families began to establish themselves more at one residence, allowing them to have more elaborate, permanent beds.
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I love looking at the elaborate French ceilings
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On the third floor (or maybe it was the second – I can’t quite remember). They have Louise Lorraine’s bedroom set up, but it was being renovated, so they had moved over everything to an adjacent room. But you can see how dark it was and her memorial to her late husband.
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On the second floor they had also included some exhibits in the gallery about the construction of the chateau, as well as some of the Medici works of art.
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Day 9, Part 4 – Gardens and grounds

After finishing inside, I went over to Catherine de Medici’s garden, where I ended up finding my family and we took some photos together.

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We were all pretty hungry, so stopped for food. The restaurant was only doing tea and we weren’t interested in the food, plus it was pretty expensive, so we stopped in the quick-service, which unfortunately was shutting down so most of the hot food was already gone. I ended up getting the fish and chips, which was totally mediocre. But at least it was food. We also had to deal with Lauren being hangry, but also not willing to eat anything… so that was fun.


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We stopped in the exhibit on the WWI hospital, which was interesting. I think Lauren and Joey also stopped in the wine cellar.


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Walked around Diana’s garden. While it was bigger, I sort of preferred Catherine de Medici’s, especially because there was more shade and it was actually pretty warm and sunny that afternoon!

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There was a boat going underneath the chateau, so I think you can take tours of it that way.

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And explored the gardens and farm, including a coach gallery. I think the farm was actually a working farm, designed by Diana, and helped to support the chateau.


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There were some donkeys in the corner, including a baby, though he went inside the shed before I got a photo!

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On our way out, we ended up seeing the Chenonceau cat! They had some signs up to warn people who had service dogs that they could end up seeing a “guard” cat. Though I think it was slacking in his duties that day.

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Again, at the gift shop I picked up an ornament, which may already be packed in a Christmas box, so hopefully I’ll find it sooner rather than later!

Overall, Chenonceau is definitely a must-see if you are visiting the Loire Valley! If you have time for only one chateau that is the one I recommend most (though of course I also recommend seeing more than one chateau…). Everyone in my family really liked it.

 
Day 9, Part 5: Amboise evening

A rather uneventful evening back in Amboise. The others decided to go to a wine shop which had free wine tastings (though they ended up buying a couple bottles of wine anyways). I am not a wine fan, so instead I got some gelato, which they scoop out in flower shapes! I got a small one since we were going to have dinner soon, but you can get as many flavors as you want and they make the petals different colors! It was delicious too!

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This is what it could look like if you weren’t as picky as me:

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And at the wine shop. I think they also stopped at a wine cellar that is underneath the Amboise castle, while I made an in-person reservation at a restaurant (didn’t want to have the same issues as the day before).

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For dinner, we went to La Reserve, and it was delicious – I ended up getting a prix fixe menu (I think most of us did that). And our service was great, excellent meal. And I think we discovered one of the reasons why it can be harder to find space at the restaurants. There were plenty of restaurants in town, but each one was rather small. And they would only be open for about 3 hrs for dinner. Our meal took about 2 hrs, seemed on-par for other people, and actually could be on the faster side. So, if you missed out on getting seated early then there may never be a table that would open while the restaurant was open!

Camembert roasted with honey on salad

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Tournedos (fillet steak) and foie gras sauce with French fries and vegetables (though Lauren and I got no sauce and Joey got it on the side, but he loved it)

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Selection of cheese with white grapes (sorry – I started to eat the brie before I remembered to take a photo)


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Profiteroles served with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce


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I think Mom asked me to take a photo of her dessert, Roast apples with red fruit coulis and crumble. She also got the cutest little coffee cup.

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That night I think we just crashed, though Anthony and Joey may have gone out for a bit, because well…that’s their style.


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Coming up – Another chateau… well of course!

 
Wow, my write-up whenever I get to our France trip is going to be something like, "then we visited this really cool chateau that was built over the water...and lots of women owned it...here's 1000 pictures" :rotfl2: You are so thorough with the history and descriptions, I love it!

We saw the guard cat too! We thought the sign was a joke, then we spotted it!

Your flower petal gelato looks amazing! Yum!
 
This building (and the gardens) is just stunning!! I love all your pics, but the outdoor ones are awesome.

I'm too picky for that, too, but it sure is pretty :)

Wow, my write-up whenever I get to our France trip is going to be something like, "then we visited this really cool chateau that was built over the water...and lots of women owned it...here's 1000 pictures" :rotfl2: You are so thorough with the history and descriptions, I love it!
I was thinking the same thing!!! I can barely remember if we stopped for a pretzel or a Mickey bar, let alone all the details you provide, @Lesley Wake. I bow down to your TR writing skills!!
 
Whew!! Somehow I got about 10 pages behind on your TR but now I'm caught up just in time to get behind again since I leave for Disney on Friday. :rotfl2:

Way too much to comment on everything but I am really enjoying all the stuff you guys did around Paris.
 
Lots of great information here! We are doing the Adventures by Disney Seine River Cruise and DLP in June 2019, and have so much to learn. Looking forward to your report!
 
Wow, my write-up whenever I get to our France trip is going to be something like, "then we visited this really cool chateau that was built over the water...and lots of women owned it...here's 1000 pictures" :rotfl2: You are so thorough with the history and descriptions, I love it!

We saw the guard cat too! We thought the sign was a joke, then we spotted it!

Your flower petal gelato looks amazing! Yum!
Haha, yeah I pre-wrote up my notes and then I just have a good memory about some of those things. Plus... I don't have a kid running around me all the time - just cats!

::yes::

So lovely in photos I really enjoyed your write up of it.

Your dinner looked awesome
It was yummy!

Ok, I want this house! I love the arches over the water.
I know! I loved looking at photos of it when I was younger and it was cool to see it again (we had visited it on that school trip)

I'm too picky for that, too, but it sure is pretty :)
Yeah, my pickiness messes up my meals sometimes!

I was thinking the same thing!!! I can barely remember if we stopped for a pretzel or a Mickey bar, let alone all the details you provide, @Lesley Wake. I bow down to your TR writing skills!!
Haha, just take lots and lots and lots of photos!

Whew!! Somehow I got about 10 pages behind on your TR but now I'm caught up just in time to get behind again since I leave for Disney on Friday. :rotfl2:

Way too much to comment on everything but I am really enjoying all the stuff you guys did around Paris.
Have fun!

Lots of great information here! We are doing the Adventures by Disney Seine River Cruise and DLP in June 2019, and have so much to learn. Looking forward to your report!
Yes, it can be a bit overwhelming, but overall I loved it all! Hoping to get to the DLP part of this TR soon!
 
Day 10, Part 1: This looks like Disneyland!

This morning we had another relaxed wake-up. All of us ended up going out to get breakfast at Bigot Patisserie. When we got into the tea room, Joey said it looked it was something out of a Disney movie!

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I ended up getting a Tarte Tatin (open apple tart served warm with peach sorbet and whipped cream). It was delicious! And I also got a pot of tea, but I don’t remember exactly what type – probably something very sweet (I also loved the customized tea packets). I think everyone else got various types of omelets or pastries or something, but I know we all loved them.

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And to go, I grabbed another delicious croissant!

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Croissants: 10, Crepes: 6

After breakfast all of us, minus Anthony who wanted to stick around and relax in his hammock, headed out to check out another chateau.

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Lauren drove today (I drove to/from Chenonceau) and it was about 40 minutes each way. Though we ended up having to drive through pouring rain. Like seriously white knuckling it and she didn’t want to pull off to the side because she was worried about running off the road! She and I actually had a good partnership with driving/directions because we could call out a turn was coming up ahead or the road was curving sharply. Better than Dad at least who would probably be driving way too fast and not listening to our directions!

But we had cleared the storm by the time we reached our destination:


Chateau de Villandry

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This chateau was one of the last of the great renaissance chateaus to be built in the Loire Valley. Unlike the previous ones we visited, it doesn’t have a lot of historical significance, as it was never a royal residence. Though the one thing of note was that it was the location where King Phillip I of France and Richard the Lionheart (of England) met to discuss peace in the Franco-Anglo war. Though the actual chateau was built up and around that structure.

It was owned by the same family for centuries before eventually being acquired by Napoleon for his brother. The current family bought it in 1906 and spent a fortune to repair it and make absolutely gorgeous gardens. These gardens were the main reason for our visit. (I had visited in high school and still remembered how beautiful they were, so I thought my mom would love it and was right.)

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When you visit, you can get tickets just for the garden or for the house and garden (which is what we did). They normally recommend you do the house first, since the route through the house ends at the entrance to the gardens, but we were worried about rain catching up to us, so we elected to start in the gardens.

They have a lovely overlook where you get views of the whole place and there was a nice family who took our photo and we took their photo. (Some of the overhead photos are taken from this overlook, but others are from the roof of the house after I finished the home tour)

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The Ornamental Garden – First Salon. This garden is designed to represent Love. It’s divided into four parts: Tender Love (hearts separated by flames of love in the corners), Passionate Love (hearts broken out of passion and clumps forming a maze), Flightly Love (fans in the corner representing different emotions), and Tragic Love (blades and swords used by rivals). It’s especially gorgeous in the summer when the flowers have bloomed and taken on their colors. Unfortunately the flowers hadn’t come in yet during our visit, but you can still appreciate the hedges.

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The Water Garden. This has an ornamental pond in the shape of a Louis XV mirror.

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The Sun Garden is the newest garden. It originally was a meadow surrounded by lime trees; the original owner came up with a basic design for the garden, but it was never executed. On the 100th anniversary of the gardens, the current owner decided to build the design. When we visited they also had sculptures in the gardens, which I think had to do with movement and intimacy… dunno?

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The children’s garden – more just a playground. But no-one was there, so I decided to sit on one of the toys… um that was a mistake…

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We also did a group shot because Joey was obsessed with getting a “band photo” – like you know when the cover of an album has the guys all looking all casual in different directions… (I think we did one shot with all five of us but it’s on Joey’s camera)

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The Maze. This one actually did feel like a maze, because you can’t see that there were actually little doorways under a lot of the hedges so you could get totally turned around! But it was nice to do.

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The Herb Garden. It was devoted to aromatic, culinary, and medicinal herbs. We actually didn’t really walk into it because it had started to sprinkle.

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The Ornamental Garden – Second Salon. This one was designed around music, with symbols to represent lyres and harps.

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It’s hard to get a good shot of this one from above, but here at least you can see the basic design (from the Villandry website):

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Day 10, Part 2: Rest of the gardens

The Kitchen Garden. This one is the biggest, with 9 patches of the same size but a different geometric motif of vegetables and flowers. There are fountains at the intersections which look like different forms of cabbages! I liked this one the most during our visit because of all the colors.

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And note to self – maybe don’t do a panorama when people are walking down stairs… made my dad look a bit wonky!

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So, this looks like a random photo, but it actually has some nostalgia quality to it. As I mentioned in high school I visited Villandry with a group from my school. And one of my classmates took special care to take a photo framed with the arbor. So I tried to recreate it.

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(You can see the original in my scrapbook picture I had originally posted in my PTR):
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We actually timed it well because as we were walking thru the kitchen garden it started to rain – not too hard, but enough that it would have been pretty wet walking all around the gardens.

We then went into the house, which was nice, but nothing crazy interesting after seeing Versailles and Chenonceau! But the views of the gardens out the windows were lovely (though I included any of those views in the garden pics). Also I think they had a little film about the development of Villandry, but I didn't stop to watch it.

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This was the Oriental Room, which was gorgeous. I believe one of the original owners was the French ambassador to the sultan of the Ottoman empire under Louis XV. The ceiling was actually once part of a palace in Toledo (Spain, not Ohio) built in the 15th century. The palace itself was dismantled in 1905 and the owner of Villandry brought part of the ceiling home with him; the other three parts of the ceiling are in museums. The ceiling is made entirely of wood panels (3,600 of them), and it took a year to reassemble!

(this first one was a panorama – the room actually is square)
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A nice model of the gardens

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Afterwards we were hungry, so we tried to find a place to grab a snack in the little town next door but everything was closed or didn’t look great. We ended up walking back to Villandry where they had a crepe stand outside and I got a sugar crepe; I think everyone else got basic sandwiches.

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Croissants: 10, Crepes: 7

We eventually got back to Amboise, where we met up with Anthony. He had hoped to spend more time outdoors but most of the time it had been raining so he was stuck inside. I think he did eventually find a place across the river to hang up the hammock and also grab a beer…

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Anthony also picked our dinner spot, L’Ambacia, also along the main street. The food was good but our waiter was pretty horrible. Forgetting to bring out food or the wrong stuff or just not taking care of things we had asked (and we didn’t exactly ask for much). There was another waiter there and when we got his attention to ask about why Lauren’s food hadn’t come out yet, he realized which waiter we had and just rolled his eyes, so we guessed it was an ongoing issue with the original waiter. He was good, but already had his own tables, so he was spread pretty thin.

I ended up getting Cuisse de Canard Confite (Duck leg confit, honey sauce & fried potatoes) – I discovered I liked duck on this trip (well at least when the French prepare it).

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Oh and somehow this happened when I put down my cup… which was a bit of a surprise (thankfully it was empty so I didn't spill water everywhere)! Our waiter was nowhere to be found, so after a while we ended up just grabbing a new one off an empty table.

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For dessert I got the crème brulee, which unfortunately had curdled, so it wasn’t too good.

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Lauren was not amused at the service…

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It was our final night in Amboise, so Mom, Dad and I walked across the river to get some more photos.

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(And I tried to get a shot of that saxophone statue with the sunset, but this older local guy decided to jump out and yell surprise as I took the photo! It was pretty adorable!)
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One final shot from the apartment as we packed up to leave the next day.

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Coming up: Heading to Normandy on the 74th anniversary of D-Day

 
I am loving this TR and all the historical info. You pictures are amazing too.
 

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