Touring the Loire Valley

Starting the morning off today was a grand breakfast at our b&b. I had tea, orange juice, a croissant, granola, fruit salad, and homemade jelly. We left at about 10:40 to see the Chateâu Chenonceau. When we arrived there was a long line of trees that made an alley towards the castle. It was very beautiful on the outside! We went to buy tickets and then picked up our audio guides that were on an ipod. Then, we toured the 3 story castle. I loved the kichen in the basement because they had boats that would pull under the bridge to deliver food. I also thought that it was interesting that one of the bedrooms was painted black because the lady staying there was mourning for 11 years. The part I enjoyed the most were the gardens and the view of the castle from them. It was so pretty and I could imagine living there. After the castle we drove back to the city surrounding Amboise and ate ham sandwiches at a bakery. They were very tasty-especially the special French bread and mustard! Next we went back to the place we are staying to swim in the pool. It was pretty hot today (80) compared to Normandy and Paris. The pool was pretty chilly because they had just had a storm that wrecked the heating unit. Oh well, we had it all to ourselves. The funniest thing happened when we were hanging out at the pool. Grandma Cindy tried to get Brynn to show her some of her swimming strokes-Brynn instead prefers to just frolic in the pool. So, Grandma challenged her to a race. Apparently she had swam back in the day in high school so she was very prepared. We were all shocked when Grandma dove into the pool without bothering to get her swimsuit on! After 4 laps Brynn won but Grandma did pretty well. I laughed so hard as did Mom and Dad. Unfortunately Grandpa was napping so he missed it. After swimming we took a shower (in our awesome shower that sprays out the side too!) and went into Tours for dinner. We found a restaurant that served all sorts of oriental food. I had some noodles that were really tasty. We also sampled rice and many other dishes that were very good. The city of Tours looked nice- we were in the older part that looked similar to Paris. We are resting in our rooms now for a spectacular day tomorrow!

Gardens at Chenonceau

Brynn and I in front of the castle

Awesome view of the castle which is built over the river