Chaumont-sur-Loire

The Loire valley, with its beautiful river and chateaux, is one of my favorite places in the world.  Jeff had never been there, and I knew Vivian would love it too, so we planned a few days in the area.  It was also where we were planning to meet up with my parents and sister who had been wandering around the north of France while we were in Paris.  My father had picked a hotel for us in the town of Chaumont-sur-Loire.  It was a great choice, since the hotel was across the street from the town's chateau and the town was located in the middle of the four chateaux we wanted to visit.

The drive went pretty smoothly, and we all got to the hotel at about the same time.  After hugs and kisses, we decided the easiest way to spend the rest of the day would be to cross the street and visit the chateau.  It was beautiful on the outside as were the gardens.

The inside had some interesting rooms.  I liked the porcupine motif.

And there were some cool furniture pieces, but Elena needed a LOT of reminders that the wood on the floor was a barrier not a climbing obstacle.

After several days cooped up in a little Paris apartment, Elena was thrilled to be able to run through the mostly empty rooms of the chateau.  There were a lot of rooms open to the public, but most of them were used as galleries to hang some modern "art", none of which was particularly impressive.  We decided to head back out to the beautiful courtyard and gardens and get some fun family pictures.

The grounds were quite large.

We also explored the stables.  There was one part that looked almost like a wizard's hat.

The weather was lovely, so we took our time, but after a while we had worked up quite an appetite, so we went back down to the hotel to eat in their outdoor restaurant.  Elena had napped on the ride south, so she was a smiling dinner companion.

The meal was okay.  The most impressive part was when they brought out the cheese board arranged from mildest to strongest.

Ah, France :-) It was a great first day in the country.