Valley of the Kings

Wheatfields next door to our cottage near St. Senoch

 On Saturday, June 13th, we drove from Les Eyzies to a cottage near St. Senoch just south of Loches in the Loire Valley. Our cottage (rented through VRBO) was very cute and clean it was the perfect size for us. It was in the middle of the wheatfields in the middle of the farming community there - with lovely vistas in all directions. We arrived on a beautiful sunny day, then a thunderstorm rolled in that night with thunder and lightning. Quite dramatic after days of exhausting 95 degree heat.

Our cozy bedroom

Living room

Back door covered in roses

Thundershowers were approaching our cottage quickly that evening!

The perfect kitchen - light/bright and well-equipped

The next day, even though it was a bit rainy, we visited Azay le Rideau - the chateau that is reported to have been used as the model for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle. The grounds were lovely and a number of rooms had been decorated using the original medieval techniques for weavings and upholstery. Part of the chateau exterior was covered, for construction, in order to repair the damage due to weathering (over 600 +/- years). We figured that was a good idea...

Roses were in bloom everywhere

Heading to the chateau

A quiet place for contemplation

Lake surrounding the chateau

Tapestries covered the walls

Luxurious bed - drapes were closed for warmth.

Chateau exterior - part of which was being repaired from years of wear

Captivating face on a fountain

On Monday, we drove into Tours to drop Val off at the TGV station so that she could continue on to Paris where she would spend two more days touring.  We would miss her for the rest of the trip, she was such a great travel partner!

On Tuesday, we met our friends, Chloe and Joe for lunch in the town of Villandry (famous for its chateau).  It was wonderful sharing stories and laughing about all that we have seen.  It was great just spending a lovely afternoon with friends! They have helped us so much with their advice on this trip!

Good friends, good wine, good food - can it get any better?

After lunch, we toured the chateau at Villandry, famous for its charming furnishings and lovely gardens.  The chateau is still owned and lived in, as the numerous photos placed everywhere demonstrated.  It felt very warm and inviting.

Beautiful gardens at the chateau

Villandry vista

Garden pallet in yellow and blue

The kitchen garden - Villandry

Lettuce surrounded by boxwood - kitchen garden

Fresh flowers were placed everywhere in the chateau

Boxwood geometrics garden

Topiary magic

More lettuce - red, romaine, etc - a red and green pallet.

Following our visit to Villandry, we drove over to view the Usse chateau - within 20 minutes of there. This chateau is in definite need of exterior repair - as can easily be expected, due to its age. So we chose not to do the regular tour there. What a burden it must be to own one of these beautiful places and to try and maintain it well! How do you attract the tourist Euro when there are so many other beautiful chateaus all over France?

The Usse chateau - huge and in definite need of exterior repair

Usse chapel

The spectacular Chenonceaux! There is a reason for its popularity

 On Thursday, our final day in the Loire Valley we decided to visit Chateau Chenonceaux - the most famous and popular of all the chateaus in the Loire Valley - famous not only for its beauty and size, but for its history and the beautiful women who owned and lived in it (e.g. Diane de Poitiers and Catherine Medici, among others). We braced ourselves to prepare for the horrendous crowds and lines that we had been warned about...but they never materialized.  It was a gorgeous day and there were few tourists there.  It was well worth the visit!  The chateau is absolutely gorgeous - and deserves its popularity, not only for its furnishings, but also for the massive gardens there. We were impressed!

The grand lady!

Chapel stained glass windows

The grand ballroom which spans the river Cher - envisioned by Diane de Poitiers and executed by Catherine de Medici

View of the Cher river from the grand ballroom

Beautiful flower arrangements were provided in each room

Copper, copper everywhere

One of the many bedrooms - an earlier styled bed with the drapes

The bridge across the river

Ernie looks like he belongs here!

The country farm community within the grounds of the chateau

Roses and veges

Boxwood maze - great fun for kids - who can be the first in and the first out!

On Friday, we packed up and drove down toward Carcassonne in the Languedoc - Roussillon area - to the little town of Caunes Minervois - where we planned to stay for the final month of our trip.  Our next blog will tell you more about those adventures.

The Land of Troglodytes and Princes

An

Early man statue representing the emergence of knowledge - Musee National de Prehistory in Les Eyzies (he is perched directly above the troglodite cottage where we stayed for a week)

Our well-equipped troglodite kitchen - Les Eyzies (actually a medieval troglodite kitchen representation - Chateau Commarque)

The magical Marquesseyac Jardin on the Dordogne River

Obviously, we are very tardy on our blog updates; partly because for two weeks, we were simply having way too much fun in Provence to update the blog, and secondly, in the Dordogne and Loire areas where we were staying next, we no longer had decent internet service.  This was partly due to the fact that in the Dordogne area, we were actually living in a cave (which had no service at all) and in the Loire area, the house where we stayed was out in the middle of the wheat fields where there was quite simply inadequate service for downloading pictures.

Now that we are in Caunes Minervois in the Languedoc Roussillon area, our service has finally improved somewhat and we are able to do our updates (slowly but surely)!  We're so sorry...but oh well!

The dramatic Millau bridge

Phenomenal, daring architecture - it resembled a ship.

After we left Caromb, we drove north across the incredible Millau bridge heading toward Les Eyzies (in the Dordogne region). The design of this bridge was astonishing.  The associated Aire (rest stop) hosted a modern museum, picnic area, trails to the bridge and a market for Roquefort cheese - a local specialty - all state-of-the-art and surprisingly well done.

The only peculiarity - in contrast, were the "modern" toilets provided for women, which were actually the "old fashioned starting-block" version of a toilet. An interesting decision - given the cost of building this fantastic bridge and the fact that this style toilet is now rarely seen in France.

We stayed in Les Eyzies for a week and lived in a "Troglodyte" house there. It was partially a cave (with one wall built into and under the rock) and partially a house (made of stone). It was wonderfully cool on a very hot day, and looked cute in the photos, but it was quite dark and damp; after a week, we were relieved to leave it for a normal, dry, house with windows and straight walls.  Early Homo Sapiens lived in the entrances to these caves, as did the many of the poor during the Medieval ages.  People living in these sites were clearly much safer and more protected than those who were living in other less protected shelters, but the troglodite caves are so dark and wet, one can't help but wonder if it didn't have some impact on their overall psyche.

Our troglodite "sitting room"

The master suite

Val's abode; don't "rise and shine" too quickly!

One of the pathways near our cottage

Garden shed - perfect for the little people!

Private parking garage just down from the cottage

Les Eyzies is an incredibly interesting little town. It is the center of the early (20,000 - 14,000 BCE) Homo Sapiens cave art findings and it's where some of the earliest Homo Sapien skeletons have been discovered as well. Not only that - it is an excellent place to purchase and enjoy the buttery Foie Gras and Duck Confit -  so famous in the region. So our intellects were challenged and our stomachs were very happy. While there we had easy access to a number of historical museums, fortified medieval towns, and numerous medieval chateaus (renowned for their involvement in the battles of the 100 years war between France and England).  The countryside near Les Eyzies was lovely, with its heavily wooded hills, meadows, and beautiful rivers. It was the perfect location from which to explore the area.

Here are some of the photos we took during our stay there:

Headdress of shells - found with the Homo Sapiens skeletons in Les Eyzies - Natural History Museum

I'd love to hear his stories!

Part of the museum complex directly above our abode. Troglodyte caves continued all the way to the top of the cliff and could be viewed all over the valley on cliffs and hillsides.

A chateau was also built into the hill there

Climbing roses are happy in Les Eyzies - all that sun against rock facades!

We visited Chateau Commarque which was being lovingly renovated by its dedicated owner. We were able to crawl all over the rubble to see his vision of what will be there in the future. We also watched the craftsmen carefully cut and place the limestone blocks.

The old chapel wall - circa 12th C

Peeking through the ruins to view the lovely countryside of Chateau Commarque

View to another chateau across the hill

Sarlat - We visited the market here. Foie Gras is one of their local specialties - note the golden geese in for foreground

Twisty streets of the lovely Sarlat medieval city center

We visited the Marquesseyac Gardens located on the cliff high above the Dordogne. They were enchanting

La Roque Gegeac - park area

The small town of La Roque Gegeac clung to the hillside above the Dordogne

The cave art in the area was surprisingly diverse - expressed in many different forms - carvings, sculpture, paintings and black on white sketches. Most of the subjects in the art were animals.  We were able to visit Cap Blanc, with its black on white and etched drawings of wooly rhinoceros, wooly mammoth and horses.  We were startled by the sculAptural beauty of the enormous horses carved out of the sandstone at Roufflegnac.  As we toured the area, we preferred to visit the smaller, less popular sites so that we could spend more time enjoying the area and the art.

These ancient limestone carvings were scraped out of the rock on the underside of a cliff face and originated from around 14,000 BCE. Their lifelike size was unexpected. At the site archaeologists also dug up the skeleton of a high ranking woman with her ornate shell headdress and clothing. From these, they were able to accurately date the origin of the art. These beautiful carvings remained hidden for centuries under hillside debris and plants.

Medieval troglodite bedroom set up directly underneath the Chateau Commarque

 One of our surprises that week was the Marquesseyac Garden near the Dordogne River. This was an old estate where the gardens had been replanted and re-imagined.  They were wonderful, not only for the variety of plants and their arrangements, but we were also amazed by the artistic inventiveness of the site.  It was magical there and what a grand place to bring children! 

The amazing Marquesseyac Gardens where boxwood is an artform

Arbors were created out of deadfall - Marquesseyac Gardens

Hmmm - He's bloomin cute....but where's the rest of him?

Wheelin it...Marquesseyac Gardens

A family playing around - Marquesseyac Gardens

Inside a dome - rock cap going up and up and up

The paths were endless and enchanting

Paintings and art were scattered amidst the greenery

Tread carefully, less you step on someone you know!

Strutting his stuff

Found and re-used materials - Marquesseyac

Lunch and what a view! Looking out over the Dordogne River valley

From the Dordogne Valley we drove north to the Loire Valley and the beautiful wheatfields and sunflowers of that area. See the next blog for more details.