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Days 3-4: Chinon
After Chartres, it was off to Chinon! We met our bus driver Joseph, who was fantastic, and hit the road. Joseph was an integral part of making our tour wonderful. He was kind, calm, and could navigate the bus through the tightest turns. The bus was very comfortable, though my understanding was that it was a replacement bus, as our original was not available. It did have USB adapters at each seat but no wi-fi, which was not a problem.
On the way to Chinon, we stopped in Amboise, which was a lovely town. We opted to visit Chateau du Clos Luce, where Leonardo da Vinci once lived. Though I enjoyed the indoor portion, I really enjoyed the gardens and looking at some of the large replicas of his inventions. We also had a nice lunch outside at a cafe. On the way to our next stop, Château de Chenonceau, our guide Julie gave an excellent overview of the chateau’s history. I loved all of our tour bus “lectures,” but this was one of the most entertaining, as we learned the rather salacious history of Henry II. The chateau was stunning, but I again really loved seeing the gardens and the grounds from the outside. I should add that by this point in the tour, we were getting quite the mixed bag of weather, with extreme heat, clouds, sunbreaks, rain, and thunderstorms. On the plus side, I felt like the clouds made the pictures of the chateaus even more dramatic.
On the way to Chinon, we stopped in Amboise, which was a lovely town. We opted to visit Chateau du Clos Luce, where Leonardo da Vinci once lived. Though I enjoyed the indoor portion, I really enjoyed the gardens and looking at some of the large replicas of his inventions. We also had a nice lunch outside at a cafe. On the way to our next stop, Château de Chenonceau, our guide Julie gave an excellent overview of the chateau’s history. I loved all of our tour bus “lectures,” but this was one of the most entertaining, as we learned the rather salacious history of Henry II. The chateau was stunning, but I again really loved seeing the gardens and the grounds from the outside. I should add that by this point in the tour, we were getting quite the mixed bag of weather, with extreme heat, clouds, sunbreaks, rain, and thunderstorms. On the plus side, I felt like the clouds made the pictures of the chateaus even more dramatic.
In Chinon, we stayed at Hotel Diderot, which was one of my favorites. It is run by Jamie, who is American, and Jean-Pierre, who is French. We had a ground floor room which opened up to the leafy garden. The rooms were beautiful, and I enjoyed being able to have a glass of wine in the garden courtyard. They make their own jams there, and Jean-Pierre hosted a wine tasting that most of our group opted to join. Chinon was also where one of my favorite group dinners was, at Au Chapeau Rouge. I had sea bream, which was in a delicious saffron sauce, shared a nice bottle of rose, and had the chocolate cherry dome for dessert. Delicious!
For day two of tour de chateaus, we visited Villandry and Azay-le-Rideau. I enjoyed them both, but by that point I was hurrying through the interiors a bit more so that I had more time to explore the gardens. I thought the gardens at Villandry were stunning and incredibly ornate. The moat at Azay-le-Rideau made for beautiful pictures to capture the reflection of the chateau.
We had a wonderful wine tasting with Jean-Pierre at Hotel Diderot. Not only was it educational, it also created some good-natured competition amongst tour members when we had wine trivia at the end.
Tour Tip:
Due to driving strict laws for commercial driving, you will stop at least every two hours while on the tour bus. If you hear "rest stop" and think of a bleak freeway rest stop, think again! All the rest stops (called "aires") were clean, bright, and had cafes and markets. The machine espresso (think a vending machine) was surprisingly good, and many of the coffee machines had contactless "tap" payment. People often bought different snacks, such as candy and cookies, to share and pass around the tour bus.
Due to driving strict laws for commercial driving, you will stop at least every two hours while on the tour bus. If you hear "rest stop" and think of a bleak freeway rest stop, think again! All the rest stops (called "aires") were clean, bright, and had cafes and markets. The machine espresso (think a vending machine) was surprisingly good, and many of the coffee machines had contactless "tap" payment. People often bought different snacks, such as candy and cookies, to share and pass around the tour bus.