Chaumont Sur Loire
The elephant trees thriving well on the swamp at Cheverny Castle
Chateau de Chenonceau
The Royal Castle of Amboise
Chateau Azay-le-Rideau
Chateau d'Usse
Chateau de Villandry
Chateau d'Usse
Chambord Castle
Cheverny Castle
View of the town below from Amboise Castle
Royal Castle of Amboise
Our tent
I love camping and my being 5-month pregnant was not a reason why I cannot enjoy a camping holiday. It was around the mid of June in 2007 when we headed to France with the first leg of our camping holiday at the Loire Valley. It was an incredible experience to be camping by the Cher River, a tributary of Loire River and be a stone's throw from Chenonceau Castle. With the village of Chenonceau as our base, we could explore other famed Loire Valley castles on our 5-day stay in the area. There were just so many castles to see that we were going at the rate of 2 to 3 castles a day to explore that in the end, I was quite exhausted!
I love Chenonceau Castle the most. The interiors were great and so were its gardens. We had a nice lunch at the restaurant on the castle grounds with incredible view of the gardens.
The Royal Castle of Amboise was also nice. On its grounds was a chapel where Leonardo da Vinci was buried. It was incredible to learn of this information as all along, I thought he's resting in peace in his home country, Italy.
Cheverny Castle has been the inspiration for the comic strip "Tintin". Also a lovely place with incredibly nice interiors and beautiful gardens. It is the biggest private Loire Valley castle still occupied by a family. We had a great time exploring the castle gardens and took a boat ride from where we saw also exceptional collection like the elephant trees that thrive well in the swamp or those huge sequoia trees which were imported from the United States.
Chateau de Chambord, the biggest of the Loire Valley castles was a disappointment because of its sad state of disrepair. Built during the time of King Francis I as a hunting lodge, the castle was hardly occupied so it was sparsely furnished. Its immense size also meant that it was just impossible to heat it up and keep it in good order. The main feature of the castle that drew attention was its double-helix staircase.
Chateau d'Usse has been the inspiration for Walt Disney Castles. It was believed that Charles Perrault had in mind this castle while writing Sleeping Beauty.
I love the gardens of Villandry Castle. It was amazing to see the harmony of flowers and vegetables, trees, herbs and ornamentals in perfect geometric rendition.
Close to Villandry was the Chateau Azay-le-Rideau. Not much of a favorite because it was relatively small and less impressive compared to the other Loire Valley castles.
Chaumont Sur Loire, the castle that Catherine de Medici traded with Diane du Poitiers upon the death of Henri II was under reconstruction during our visit so we had a limited access of the castle's interior. We could explore the castle grounds though because at that time was the "Festival International des Jardins de Chaumont Sur Loire".
Hmmm...finally the castle fatigue also hit me that from the Loire Valley, we headed into the direction of the Drome region in the Provence for our next camping destination.
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