Oh what a lovely, lovely day!  Leaving Amboise after a (very English) high protein breakfast, we cruised through the countryside, finding our way to Tours easily.  There we happened upon a farmer’s market being held at a mall.  This became the site of our simple lunch (cheese, fruit, bread), following which we happily found the beginning of the dedicated bike route called “Loire a Velo”.  Once on the trail, signage was very good, much of the trail was bike-only, and it was a glorious ride.

 

The chateau at Villandry was just 1 km. off our trail.  The building itself is pretty standard chateau stuff.  Here the amazing thing is the surroundings.  The owner in the early 1900’s dedicated himself to constructing and reconstructing extensive gardens.  Huge, gorgeous, symbolic, useful, serene…almost impossible to believe the work that must have gone into the original realization of his vision and which continues to be necessary to maintain it.  This is definitely on our list of recommended chateaux.

 

We bypassed the small chateau at Langeais, opting to get on to our B&B at the tiny town of Brehemont.  We had not realized when we made the reservation that there would only be one restaurant in town.  But fortunately it was open.  We walked in to the tiny room, saw the bar and the workingmen drinking and smoking, and resigned ourselves to plain food and leaving with smoke-scented hair.  However, when we told the waitress we wanted to have dinner, she said they weren’t serving dinner until 7:30.  It was only 6:30, so our resignations included waiting to eat til much later.