France and Italy 2004

Amboise, 4 July

We stayed at the Château de la Huberdière, about 5 km outside Amboise. The glories of this château were considerably faded, but it provided a base for seeing a few of the châteaux of the Loire valley.
		Driving from Issoire, we stopped to look at the outside of Château Courban.

		We stopped for lunch at Loches, and walked up to the walled old town to see the renaissance château ...
		and the Cathedral.

		Château Villandry has an imposing and interesting building, but people really come to see the garden.


		The church in Villandry is situated just outside the Château gardens: very convenient for the lord and his family.
		Château Chenonceaux is an even more imposing building ...
		with an imposing guard tower.
		But the most extraordinary thing is that it is built right across the River Cher. During WW2, the front door was in German-occupied France and the back door was in the Vichy Republic. Some interesting traffic through the house..... At least that is the owners' story, but as there was a German garrison in the next field, maybe not.

The next day, we had our last car journey, returning to Paris.