Castles at the Loire

Date: 02/10
City: Blois, France
Kilometres ridden: 78
Cumulative kilometre: 61796
Street: Highway
Weather: Sunny, warm

After a good breakfast we set of to visit our first castle, the Chateau de Chenonceau which is built over the river Cher.

We took a self-guided tour around the Chateau and below are some pictures.

 

 

We couldn’t resist trying out the maze… to be honest, it was not too difficult.

After a bit of fun we continued to the second castle, Chateau de Blois, the place where Charles VII liked to stay. It was also the place where Leonardo De Vinci was staying until his death. His grave is there as well.

 

Below are some pictures of the surroundings which we took from the castle.

 

Our next stop was Blois, where we would like to visit our next Chateau. This chateau is different; it is built in the middle of the town Blois. Tomorrow we will have a look at it, so we organised nice accommodation just around the corner.

Date:03/10
City: Ernee, France
Kilometres ridden: 358
Cumulative kilometre: 62154
Street: Highway
Weather: Sunny, warm, Rainy, Thunder

Early in the morning we packed up and visited the Chateau de Blois.

 

It took us a while; even though there were only some of the 570 rooms to visit. King Louise XII lived in the Chateau and his emblem was a porcupine which could be found in many places.

 

Below are just a couple of the 100 bedrooms. The amazing fact is that each of the more than 500 room had its own fireplace. Imagine how much wood they must have burned during the winter.

 

We couldn’t resist seeing how we would look on the throne.

 

Our last chateau was waiting for us In Usse. This chateau looked a bit like a Cinderella castle, and as it turned out, the author Charles Perrault was thinking of Chateau de Usse’s when he was writing sleeping beauty.

 

We couldn’t resist climbing up and having a look in the attic. The view from the top was fantastic.

 

The day was nearly over, so we decided to continue towards Mount Saint Michelle, which was the goal for tomorrow. On our way we were riding towards a thunderstorm and we could see the lightning in the distance. Learning from previous experience (that little bit of rain mentioned in the last blog…), we stopped at the next available accommodation and enjoyed listening to the rain in a nice warm room.

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