[Somme & Normandy] [Loire Valley & Bordeaux]
[French Alps] [Burgundy & Champagne]
Loire Valley is a vast region which runs through the
heart of the French life. Renowned for its sumptuous chateaux,
luxuriant landscape, and magnificent food and wine, Loire Valley is rich
both in history and architecture. In 2000, UNESCO added the central
part of the Loire River valley to its list of World Heritage Sites.
Day 8 (6/27) ...
- Château de
Villandry
We drove from
Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy
after lunch and arrived at our first destination in Loire Valley, Château de
Villandry, at about 3:30PM.
In 1532, Jean Breton, King François I’s
finance minister, bought a medieval fortress located near to Tours, and
transformed the medieval fortress into the elegant Château de Villandry,
the last great Renaissance château built in the Loire Valley. The
château remained in the Le Breton family for more than two centuries
until it was acquired by the Marquis de Castellane. During the
French Revolution the property was confiscated and in the early 19th
century, Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother Jérôme
Bonaparte. Today it is especially known for its beautiful gardens
restored by Joachim Carvallo who purchased the property in 1906.
- Domaine de la Tortinière
Built during France’s Second Empire (1852-8170), the Domaine de
la Tortinière is a charming family-owned château hotel at the heart of a
magnificent wooded park overlooking the Indre valley. We
originally planned to go to Tours for dinner, but after a long day
journey (from Normandy to Loire Valley), we decided to stay at the
hotel's gourmet restaurant to have our first
fancy French dinner :-)
Day 9 (6/28) ...
-
Château Royal d'Amboise
The Royal Château of Amboise is a former medieval fortress built on a
rocky spur overlooking the River Loire and the town of Amboise. The
strategic qualities of the site were recognized before the medieval
construction of the castle. During the reign of King Charles VIII,
and then under Louis XII and Francis I, the castle was transformed into a
royal residence. Charles VIII died at Château
d'Amboise, his birth place, in 1498 after he accidentally hit his head on
a door lintel.
The self-guided visit included a
Histopad tablet, a
multimedia tool based on augmented reality to enrich the visit and provide
more detail information.
- Château du Clos Lucé
In 1471 King Louis XI gives the domain of Cloux, known today as the
Château du Clos Lucé, to a former ennobled kitchen boy named Etienne
le Loup. He built the Château du Clos Lucé with bricks and
freestone. The place was then bought by Charles VIII in
1490 to become the royal residence of the kings of France.
After a few decades Francis I gave it to Leonardo da Vinci when he
invited him to live in France in 1516. The aging polymath lived his
last years in this house, until his death on 2 May 1519 (Leonardo da
Vinci is actually buried in the Royal Château of Amboise, but his
tomb was closed for construction when we visited).
There were
quite a few special exhibition (Leonardo da Vinci and Anatomy, the
Mechanics of Life; Leonardo da Vinci, Painter and Architect
Galleries; etc.) which were quite interesting and amazing to learn
and see the mind of a genius.
We went back to the street beside the
Château of Amboise to have a
lunch at Chez Bruno.
We both think it was one of the best meals we had in France for the entire
20-day trip.
- Château de Chenonceau
Chenonceau was created from the Renaissance onward by a series of
aristocratic women. The château in its current
form was built between 1513 and 1517, by Thomas Bohier (Chamberlain to
King Charles VIII) and above all his wife, Catherine Briçonnet. In
1535 the château was seized from Bohier's son by King Francis I of
France for unpaid debts to the Crown. After Francis' death in
1547, Henry II offered the château as a gift to his mistress, Diane de
Poitiers, who became fervently attached to the château along the river.
In 1555 she commissioned Philibert de l'Orme to build the arched bridge
and gallery joining the château to its opposite bank. Today
Chenonceau is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley.
- Les Pierres d'Aurèle
The Loire Valley wine region is one of the world's most well-known areas
of wine production. Since we did not really know much about wine,
we just picked a winery which was the most convenient for us to visit:
it's right across the street from the Airbnb we were going to stay
today. It offered wine tasting and audio tour for its vineyard and
winery. It's actually perfect because we had all the flexibility
to take pictures (even with tripod) on our own pace with the audio tour.
- La Chauverie
I
was quite excited when I found this 7-room chateau in the middle of
Loire Valley on Airbnb. It was a beautiful chateau on acres of
well-maintained ground. When we checked in, the groundkeeper said
it was the first time the whole chateau was only occupied by 2 people
:-) But to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed by the
interior conditions of the chateau: it did feel (and smell) old
and out-of-date, and lack of some luxurious touch. It was still a
quite unique experience to stay in such a historical chateau in this
trip.
Day 10 (6/29) ...
- Château de Chambord
The
Château de Chambord is one of the most recognizable châteaux in the
world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture,
which blends traditional French medieval forms with classical
Renaissance structures. In 1519 François I, a young king, ordered
the construction of the Château de Chambord.
It is a monumental architectural work that the king likes to show to
sovereigns and ambassadors as a symbol of his power. One of the
architectural highlights is the spectacular open
double-spiral staircase:
the two spirals ascend the three floors without ever meeting,
illuminated from above by a sort of light house at the highest point of
the château. There are suggestions that Leonardo da Vinci may have
designed the staircase.
I booked a "Horse and Bird of Prey" show in the
stables of the Marshal of Saxony at the Château de
Chambord. The performances of horse riding, jousting, and acrobat
were very interesting and impressive although we did not understand
anything they said in French (some history story about François I...).
- Château de Cheverny
Henry Le Mareschau was the owner of Cheverny in 1315, held under the
Count of Blois. It was sold to Jean Huraults with its
"houses, presses and vineyards" in the late 14th century. The
Château de Cheverny has been in the same family for over six centuries.
In 1922 it was one of the first private homes to open its doors to the
public. Visitors can appreciate the splendour and delight of real life
in a castle.
Cheverny was also a place for hunting. More
than a hundred tricolor
Anglo-French dogs live at Cheverny. They are from a cross of English
Fox hound and French Poitevins. The Cheverny kennels was created in 1850,
and it was entirely restored in 2012. There used to be dog feeding
events, but the dogs are not being fed publicly anymore.
Day 11 (6/30) ...
- Château de Chenonceau
I drove to the river bank south of the
Château de Chenonceau in the early morning before
sunrise. It's a perfect day to photograph the Château with hot air
balloons in the background.
After breakfast, we were ready to drive to the next
wine region: Bordeaux.
Bordeaux enjoys the distinction of being the
largest AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) vineyard of France, and this
can be attributed to its great diversity of high-quality terroirs.
The major reason for the success of winemaking in the Bordeaux region is
an excellent environment for growing vines. The Bordeaux wine
region is divided into subregions including Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Médoc,
and Graves. We will mainly stay and visit the vineyards and wineries
in
Saint-Émilion area for the next 2 days.
- Cité du Vin (Wine Museum), Bordeaux
Inaugurated in 2016, the wine museum was set to celebrate wine culture
around the globe and educate visitors about winemaking and its history.
The exhibition was quite interesting including some interactive sensory
tables ("buffet of the five senses") where you could smell different
items (from fruits, honey, to earth, etc.) to explore different wine
aromas. The visit ends at the Belvedere (on the 8th floor)
and includes a glass of wine from vineyards around the world.
- Château de Lescours
The Château de Lescours was built in 1341. Its name comes from its first
lord: Pey de Lascortz, squire to King Edward III of England (1327-1377).
In 1582 and 1583, the Château served as an asylum for Henri de Navarre
(the future Henri IV). It was only in the 19th century that the
first vines were planted, producing red wines from the Appellation
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru ever since. Today the estate is stewarded
by Pierre Chariol, a dynamic 5th generation winemaker and passionate
naturalist.
We came to the
Château de Lescours, not only for its wonderful wine tour and tasting
(hosted by the 6th generation Chariol, Lucie), but also for our 2-night
stay in Saint-Émilion area.
-
Saint-Émilion
After the wine tour and a short break in our
room at the
Château de Lescours, we headed to Saint-Émilion in the late afternoon
for dinner. Saint-Emilion is a medieval city located at the
crossroads of Bordeaux, Saintonge and Périgord. The town and surrounding
vineyards was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, owing to its
long, living history of wine-making, Romanesque churches and ruins
stretching all along steep and narrow streets. It is the first
vineyard in the world listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Day 12 (7/1) ...
-
Château Soutard
Château Soutard dates back to 1513, making it one of the oldest estates
on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. What we mostly see today is the
18th century beautiful château built by Marie Couture in 1741 and its
16th century rubble stone wings, typical of traditional Bordeaux farms.
The family embellished the residence and devoted themselves entirely to
the vines and Soutard became one of the first Châteaux to plant the
vines “in rows”. In 2006, Château Soutard was acquired by a French
insurance company, La MONDIALE. They completely renovated the château
from top to bottom, first focused on modernizing the wine making
facilities with state-of-the-art gravity-fed facilities, and then
restored its 18th century splendor to the living and reception areas of
the
château itself. You can tell the difference between a
family-owned and a corporate-owned winery from how they conduct their
wine tour/tasting...
-
Saint-Émilion
My original plan was to ride bikes around the
vineyards in
Saint-Émilion. But the weather forecast was not good and I also
had some stomach pain in the morning, we decided to cancel the bike
rental and went to the old Saint-Émilion village for lunch and checked
out some medieval buildings Collegial Catholic Church and its cloister.
I booked a tour to visit the most important attraction in
Saint-Émilion:
The monolithic church of Saint-Émilion, an underground church dug in
the early 12th century of gigantic proportions (38 meters long and 12
meters high). It is one of the largest underground churches in Europe,
with an estimated 15,000 cubic meters of rock extracted. At the heart of
the city, the monolithic church reminds the religious activity of the city
in the Middle Ages and intrigues by its unusual design. The tour
started at 2PM, but we were 10 minutes late because I messed up the
meeting location and waited at a wrong place (but luckily we did not need
to wait in the rain :-)). It was really impressive to see the
underground great hall and those tall pillars although it was not allowed
to take any pictures inside the monolithic church.
- Château
Cardinal-Villemaurine
Château Cardinal-Villemaurine is a small
family own winery/vineyard in the town of
Saint-Émilion, less than 10-minute walk from the monolithic church.
I booked a special "To Blend" tour: After a quick tour of the
vineyard and cellar, we were given the samples taken from the barrel (4
"pure" wines from different grapes and different types of barrels before
mix) to learn different wine aromas and embody the role of the winemaker
faced with the complexity of the blend. We tried various ratio to test
different flavors and aromas, and we left with a bottle of our own
creation. It's a quite unique and interesting experience and
totally different from any other wine tasting tours we have ever been.
- Vineyards around St Emilion
Day 13 (7/2) ...
- Rocamadour
The three levels of the village of Rocamadour date
from the Middle Ages and they reflect the three orders of society: the
knights above, linked to religious clerics in the middle and the lay
workers down near the river. Rocamadour's stunning castle was
built to defend the village's Sanctuary in the Middle Ages and sits
proudly at the top of the village (Only the castle’s ramparts are open
to visitors but the viewpoints over the Alzou Valley are simply
breathtaking). The 216 steps that make up the Great Staircase
separate the lower town from the
Sanctuary complex of religious structures that are set halfway up
the cliff. The Sanctuary's
complex of religious structures consisting of 8 chapels is built
around a central courtyard. Not only is the village one of
France's most important tourist destinations and a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, it has also been a crucial pilgrimage site on the 'Way of Saint
James' for hundreds of years.
- Château de Bagnols
After lunch, we continued to drive east to the Rhone Valley to another
chateau hotel
Château de Bagnols
about 30km north of Lyon.
In 1217, Guichard d’Oingt, a powerful lord
in the Beaujolais region, undertook the construction of a vast Château.
The Château has witnessed
eight centuries of
long history. The Château was abandoned and slowly decayed
after WWII. In 1987, the Château was sold to Paul and Helen
Hamlyn, who devoted a large part of their time to bringing the Château
back to life, and in 1992, the Château rose again as an elegant 4-star
luxury hotel-restaurant. In 2012, the Château was sold and then
incorporated into Lavorel Hotels, and now become a new 5-star
establishment.
When we checked in, we were told we were upgraded to a
Château Suite, which was richly decorated with wall murals, a
four-poster bed, stylish furniture, and has a separate
living room in a
medieval setting.
[Somme & Normandy] [Loire Valley & Bordeaux]
[French Alps] [Burgundy & Champagne]
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