Amidst castles at the core of France

Our return journey from Frankfurt to Guadalajara took us from Reims (see previous post) to the Loire castles. To be more precise, we visited Chenonceau and Chinon, where we spent the night. Before going into detail with the castles, let me insist that we tried hard to find any vinyard when leaving Reims to justify that champagne is produced there but we could not find any. Let's just assume that vinyards are hidden away from the motorway.

Our trip was quiet and easy until Chenonceau. I can only remember the tremendous cold weather for April which we found when we stopped for petrol near Orleans. This kind of cold belonged more to Northern territories than to the middle of France and took us totally by surprise. That explains also the strange grim we got in most of the pictures we took of the two castles.

Going with the first one, Chenonceau, what can I say about the second most visited castle in France (only after Versailles)? It is wonderfully situated on the Cher river and has beautiful gardens surrounding it. It has been inhabited by several members of the French royal family and its interior is really worth a visit. The only negative point was the avalanche of Chinese tourists which prevented us from visiting the chapel: it was materially impossible to get inside...

Our next destination was Chinon, where we were supposed to stay overnight. Chinon may not be so well-known in the route of the castles around the Loire but has a superb fortress on a hill, looking over the Vienne river. At this point, the navigator played a dirty trick on us, as it took us to the hotel using the shortest way in kilometres (not in time), which involved taking a very narrow street on the hedge of a hill in the middle of the medieval town. Thanks Lord we did not face any car, because then we could have had a very hard time trying to move out of that horror of narrow streets.

As it can be seen in the picture above, weather was not very "adequate" for a tourisic walk, although we managed to really enjoy the medieval old streets of Chinon. We also saw a place where Jeanne d'Arc came down from the horse!!!!

The last part of our trip had a stop-over in Irún, where we met relatives and have a really good time. Unfortunately there are no pictures of it, but we visited a very nice park in a bay in Irún, where one shore belongs to France and the opposite to Spain.

Finally, tired but happy to be back home, we reached Guadalajara the next day around lunch time.