What a dream trip! The kids had a five-day weekend and London wasn’t working out, so we road-tripped down to the Loire Valley. Lest you imagine we love every road trip to France, let me assure you: we’ve had some less than stellar experiences (recently involving an American mouse), but that is a different post.
We had an extremely busybusybusy several weeks with extra weekend trips and everyone’s birthdays, plus after-school activities and normal stuff. Would another road trip be fun or just exhausting? We got up early Saturday, packed up the car, patted the cats, and hit the road by 8:15a.m. That is impressively early for us for a road trip. Our parameters were to meet the lady with the keys to our apartment in Amboise (which was fantastic) by 6 p.m. and have time for a stop in Orleans. We predictably hit traffic in Paris because no one has figured out a way to bypass the city with a freeway. My advice is to stop at the bathroom BEFORE the city, or you may spend the traffic in agony with no where to pull over. We still had time to stop in Orleans for a couple hours and arrived in Amboise at a lovely time of day.
Farmer’s market 
Chateau d’Amboise 
Chateau Clos Lucé
Our second day was spent entirely in Amboise, a beautiful small town on the Loire River. We could see the Sunday market from our apartment and started the day there, buying brioche, cheese and jam for a picnic lunch on the riverbank. Then we toured Chateau d’Amboise and Chateau Clos Luce before heading home to make dinner at our place.
Chateau de Chenonceau 
Marc Bredif Winery
Day three began with our reserved ticket time at Chateau de Chenonceau to view the castle and gardens. Our time there stretched out enjoyably, so rather than try to see another chateau, we skipped over to La Maison Marc Bredif winery for a visite to the caves et degustation (tasting).
Villandry 
Azay le Rideau 
Cathedrale Saint Gatien
Our fourth and final full day in France was spent admiring Villandry Chateau et Jardins, Chateau d’Azay le Rideau, and the cathedral in Tours.
Day five was the kids’ last day off and time to go home. Chateau Chamborg was on our way home and a nice place to have lunch before enjoying traffic in Paris and almost running out of gas trying to get back to where our gas cards work in Belgium (we made it!).
Stay tuned for more!
Market Flowers
Going Somewhere?
There Was No Fighting at the Coliseum
Cruising the Boardwalk in Ostend
You are amazing! Lucky family to have you at the travel helm! Love the snuck in comment “patted the cats” — stellar writing!