A Three Day Detour in the Loire Valley: Part I

 "And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again – to slow time down and get taken in, and to fall in love once more.” – Pico Iyer

When planning our nine weeks on the road one of the rules I set myself was keep it short and simple on travel days. Better to take two days to get somewhere after two short trips rather than spend all day travelling with ratty unhappy kids. It's completely different of course when travelling as a couple, when  I would prefer to get long distances over and done with, enjoying the views and the company. 

Fields of Sunflowers and Corn will be our lasting memory of France

Our next destination was planned as a reward for the kids, a visit to Grand Parc Puy du Fou, but it is awfully far from the Dordogne. The options included very long car rides or train trips and in the ended an decided to add three days in the Loire Valley as a journey breaker but also to visit the site where Eleanor of Aquitaine was buried.

Chinon

When I chose Eleanor as a topic for home school discussion I would never have thought Emma would have become so interested in a Queen who had lived so many centuries ago. But the story of her life was so interesting to all of us I'm very glad we added this stop which rounded off the subject nicely.

Night Market in Chinon

We stayed in Chinon, which apart from being a lovely medieval town to visit, also has links to Eleanor and Henry her second husband (Henry II of England) as well as Joan of Arc. ("Mum is that the tower were they locked up Eleanor" says Julian) .Emma has seen a part of a performance of St Joan performed by  older children in her school in Australia and has seen statues of Jeanne D'Arc in practically every French church we visited so found it interesting that she had walked these streets. Chinon is also a great base for a few easy day trips in the Loire Valley.

We stayed in a terrific Airbnb property, which the owner claimed to be around 1000 years old. There was even a well in the basement level of the house and wonderful exposed beams throughout. It wasn't five star but that is not who we are, we much prefer things simple with the possibility of great conversations with the owners of the properties we stay at. The kids loved the landlords cat and adopted it for the duration of our stay.

Fontevraud l'Abbaye

It definitely makes such a difference to know about the life of someone in each place you visit to make it personal and much more interesting. Our visit to Fontevraud l'Abbaye was very special as here we found effigies of Eleanor, Henry, there son Richard the Lion Heart and their son King John's wife Isabella of Angouleme.

Before we arrived I downloaded an ipad app for children relating to Fontevraud which really added to the experience, even though I usually shy away from all things electronic when it comes to the kids. Basically they were led on a treasure hunt throughout the abbey and it had us really looking around and listening to what Emma read to us so that the questions asked could be answered.

With the help of my trusty guide book, Travelling Through Time by Ina Caro, which has been invaluable for my simple lesson plan for our home schooling in France, we also enjoyed a second treasure hunt. Back in the days of Eleanor of Aquitaine people we less obsessed with creating picture perfect likenesses of themselves for posterity so we cannot be certain what Eleanor looked like. This was quite a hard concept for the kids to grasp, especially as their mother has snapped in excess of five thousand photos in the past six months.

Interior of the Nun's Kitchen

The author of this book suggested that if one looks closely at the little gargoyle like faces on the Nun's Kitchen one might find a likeness of the elderly Eleanor and either a younger version of herself or her granddaughter, Blanche of Castile. The Nun's Kitchen was constructed with funds from Eleanor and her daughter Joanna. We spent quite some time staring up into the chimneys of this byzantine inspired kitchen, possibly inspired by Eleanor's remarkable travels during the second crusade.

It was only when we gave up and went outside that we found them and we were glad we did. Whether or not this is Eleanor and possibly her family, I love to look into the faces of works of art created many centuries ago and wonder at who it was that the artist was depicting, just whose face, amongst the long dead that I am gazing into.

Jardin de Villandry

Arriving in the Loire Valley is not the best point in your travels to decide you have had enough of visiting castles. But there was no escaping the fact that we have seen quite a few and so while completely surrounded by magnificent chateaux we needed to find alternatives.

Villandry fit the bill perfectly by providing us a stunning garden to wander through, a playground for the children and the promise of a maze. We arrived late in the afternoon on a day that had been drizzly and grey, and miraculously the sun came out for us.

When we arrived in a lady dressed for a masked ball walked in too and came and shook hands with the kids. Emma of course suggested we take a peek inside, and, while Rob and I rolled our eyes at each other, we placated her with a promise of a visit to Chenonceaux the next day instead.

We enjoyed looking at the huge fish in the moat, Rob loves fish and plans to build ponds in our garden when we get back. We certainly won't have room for any carp as big as these.

And so we climbed up onto the terrace to take in the view of the amazing checker board of gardens laid out across a vast area. The hedges looked as though a team of gardeners tended them with tiny nail scissors they were so perfect.

We made a bee line for the maze in case it rained. Now, we have visited some pretty terrific mazes during our travels, Glendurgan Gardens and Hampton Court spring to mind, but this maze will never make anyone's top ten. The kids said "you go this way and we will go that way" and before you could say Bob's your uncle we were all standing in the middle saying "what, is that it?" Perhaps it was created for aesthetic reasons rather than adventurous ones. 

As we wended our way around the various garden we were conscious that it was getting late. Of course by telling the kids we had to hurry up and get going this slowed them down even more. One thing they were disappointed by was the signs telling them not to walk on the grass, when one of their greatest pleasures, and Rob's, is doing handstands on the lawns at all these wonderful places.

And so we left and started our trip back to Chinon and as we drove past a signpost for Azay le Rideau I yelled at Rob to ignore the TomTom and take the turn off. I had driven past the Chateau at Azay about fifteen years ago and my memory tells me there was a wonderful view of the chateau. I thought what better place for a quick dinner.

 Either my memory is faulty, which undoubtedly it is, or the trees around Azay have grown somewhat over the years and try as we did we were unable to catch a glimpse of this lovely chateau.

Luckily we did manage to find a great little café for a quick and tasty dinner and we also enjoyed taking a quick look at the church which obviously has had many facelifts over the centuries as its front façade clearly showed once Rob pointed it out to us. Having started by saying I like to keep things short and simple, and as this seems to prove impossible for me time and time again I am going to leave it right there for tonight. Thanks again for journeying with us.