We went to the Loire River Valley for a long weekend and did a 50k bike tour to the chateau at Chambord. |
Someone (hint: Mika) didn't tell me until AFTER we'd rented the bikes that he's not so good on a bike. This was his view of me essentially the whole time. |
There were lots of stopping points along the way, like this manor house, and we took advantage of every opportunity to stop. |
It was very scenic. |
A private chateau right on the path. |
A church in a small town. |
It was pretty relaxing. Well, for the one of us who knows how to ride a bike. |
Horses! |
After an obnoxiously windy 9km stretch, and then another 9 km after that, we made it to Chambord. This is the side view. |
From the front, with the moat. |
We had a nice leisurely picnic with wine, cheese, and saucisson. Much deserved. |
Our faithful bikes. |
The back side of the chateau. |
The moat. |
The path leading up to the chateau, which incidentally is not the bike path. We rebelled, though, and used it to get out of there. The path on the way in led us through some creepy deserted woods, so we opted to go out through the main entrance. No need for heebie jeebies, thank you very much. |
A vineyard along the route back. |
The private chateau, this time from the other side of the river. |
We stayed in the town of Blois. This is the chateau of Blois. |
The next day we opted to drive around to the chateaux instead. This is Chaumont-Sur-Loire. |
This is Fourgeres sur Bievre, our personal favorite. It was built the same time as the other chateaux but was built in an older style, so it looks a bit more medieval. |
It wasn't touristy at all so it was totally secluded. We enjoyed another nice picnic of wine, cheese, and saucisson. |
The side view of the chateau. |
Next up: Amboise. This is a great city to go to if you want to get ripped off by lying meter maids. I suppose the chateau is worth a gander, especially since you'll likely be looking at it before you realize the meter maid wrote the wrong time on your ticket and totally made you pay money when your parking ticket was legit. Can you tell I'm a little bitter? |
This may at first look like a picture of me, but it is in fact an accidental photo of the meter maid (hiding behind a gazebo pole but trust me she's not that skinny in real life) - when I saw the timestamp on the photo it further proved my innocence. Unfortunately, we still had to pay the stupid ticket. |
Mika, in ignorant bliss of the fate the evil ticket lady had in store for us, and a bridge. |
Another view of the chateau. |
A cave on the way back to Blois. We stopped off for a wine tasting and picked up a few bottles while we were there. Love the Loire River Valley! |
