Ever since we moved here I’ve been wanting to visit Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley. There are many chateaux throughout that area, so we decided to take a 3 day trip and visit several of them. We stayed in Tours and drove to a few different nearby towns to see the chateaux.
Our first stop was in Amboise where we had lunch and then visited Clos Lucé, which was the home of Leonardo da Vinci before he died. The home itself wasn’t very impressive compared to other chateaux we’ve seen, but it is well known for it’s grounds where there are machines that he invented on display. We then spent a little time walking around Tours which turned out to be a bigger city than we expected.
The next day we started at Château de Chenonceau which was really beautiful and unique as it extended over the river. This was my favorite just because of how unique the outside was. There was a hedge maze on the grounds which was fun for Makenna to run around. Then we headed to Château de Valençay which was really interesting too. It has a really large property, so you can rent golf carts to drive through the different areas. There was a playground, an area for goats and peacocks, an area in the woods where they would have outdoor parties, and an area where they built caves for storage. There were some really beautiful rooms and a very impressive wine cave! Next we stopped at Château de Chambord where we just visited the outside as we heard the inside was really big and there were a lot of stairs to climb (which we didn’t want to do with Makenna or my huge belly). We saw some impressive photos of the outside but were a little disappointed to see they were doing construction that took away from the beauty.
Before heading home the next day, we went to Château de Villandry which was another favorite of ours as the inside was beautiful and it had amazing gardens outside. There were several different gardens, all with different themes and purposes. The landscaping was incredible. There was also a grass tennis court and a hedge maze.
It was so neat to see the different chateaux and imagine that these were once homes to really wealthy families, and the history behind some of them is really interesting. There is nothing quite like this in the US!
The Pawlowski's Go To France 