French Gardens 02: Azay-le-Rideau to Chinon via Chateau de la Chatonniere

 

June 2: Although some rain is forecast for the afternoon, the early morning sky is mostly sunny.  It is a very brief ride to the chateau and garden.

There are similarities between Villandry and Chatonniere.  Both are owned by Spanish families. A Moroccan gardner, Ahmed Azeroual,  worked 20 years at Villandry and has spent the last 20 years building the Chatonniere gardens.  And they both occupy the same amount of space. But Villandry is strictly French; the rows are perfectly straight and everything meets at a right angle.  Chatonniere is much more British; lines are curved and there are no right angles.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The design of Chatonniere is by the owner of the Chateau, Madame Beatrice d’Andia. From the descriptions we heard from her great nephew (more on him later) concerning the garden’s design she is not only intelligent but also a brilliant and talented person.  She was formerly the French Minister of Culture under Jacque Chirac.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a most interesting talk on the history of the chateau and the design concepts of the gardens by the nephew of the owner,  Rodrigo, Duke of Salins and grand nephew of Madam Beatrice.  This 45 minute talk took 2 hours; the Duke is enthusiastic about the garden and obviously our leader Jane is a special friend of the family.

Left below is a table made by and a gift from the Duchesse de Wuttenberg (also Princesse of France) to Madam Beatrice.  On the right is Chateau Usse.  Brenda and I ate lunch in it’s shadow.  We did not visit it because Jane advised us it was a tourist trap.

 

 

 

Each day we pass many cycle tourists.  Today we passed one wearing a Texas jersey; he was from Houston.  The roads continue scenic, well paved and with no traffic.  What more could you ask for?  CLICK HERE TO SEE TODAY'S ROUTE.

French Gardens 01: Joue-les-Tours to Azay-le Rideau via Villandry Chateau and Gardens

 

We got the bikes sorted out last night so were ready to go this morning.  We didn’t have sunny skies as expected but weren’t complaining about the weather. It was a short 12 km ride to the gardens.  CLICK HERE TO SEE THE DAY’S ROUTE.

 

ViIlandry, the last of the great chateau built along the banks of the Loire during the Renaissance, was built in 1536 by Jean Le Breton, Minister of Finance for Francois 1st.  Only the keep remains of a medieval castle that was razed in order to make way for the chateau.

     

In 1754, the Marquis de Castellane purchased the the chateau and had it redesigned to meet 18th-century standards of comfort.  In 1906, the chateau bas bought by Joachim Carvallo, the great-grandfather of the present owner.

 

 

 

 

 

 The “garden” is actually multiple gardens” The Ornamental Garden, The Woods, The Water Garden, The Sun Garden, The Maze and The Herb Garden.

We crossed the Loire River on the way to lunch in Langeais.

France Gardens: Paris to Tours

 

Last night, Friday May 30, the hotel concierge recommended her favorite restaurant, Le Timbre, which was maybe 100 yards from the hotel.  Fortunately she called for reservations; the 7:00 seating for the 12 tables (less than an inch apart) were fully booked.  If you try to visualize your perfect, ideal French restaurant this was it.  Well, except for the fact that the maitre de, waiter and manager was a Brit from Manchester.  Oh well, communication was much improved and service was impeccable.  The three course menu was out of this world.  Brenda started with fried Calamari and I had the night’s special pate in pastry.  We both had roasted lamb shoulder.  You can’t imagine how tender and tasteful this was.  Brenda had a prune dessert and mine, of course, was chocolate with a praline sauce.  The recommended wine was the best we’ve tasted in France to date.  This was a benchmark against which all other French meals will be judged.

The high speed TGV train was not that spectacular in spite of 200 miles per hour, smooth and quite and on schedule to the minute. The train was full. Most amazing is that no one ever asked to see our tickets.

We got a nice taxi to Joue les Tours and are staying at the Chateau de Beaulieu – see photo of the chateau and it’s lawn.

 

And, as to be expected, we had a great dinner.

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

The starter was smoked salmon on crème fraiche, followed by turbot with aniseed and an apple tart.  We enjoyed the waiter’s recommendation of a dry white wine from the Loire Valley.

French Gardens: Paris 3

 

Friday, May 30.  There are two incidents which I (John) forgot to tell yesterday. (1) When we boarded the always packed Metro, a young seated lady offered this old man (ME!) her seat.  I politely declined.  (2) A few minutes later, while walking from the Metro to the Louvre, a lady stopped me at the EXIT and told me she observed someone trying to break into my backpack.  She advised me to “never wear your backpack in the Metro”.  Another observation: I’ve seen more people smoking the first day in Paris than I’ve seen in the past 6, maybe 12, months in Dallas.

So last night we went on the “Night Fat Tire” bike ride.  There were somewhere between 80 and 100, all English speaking, people signed up for this!  Fortunately we were in groups of 20.  My bike was no prize: a loose headset, the 3-speed Nexus drive train slipped in 2nd gear and neither headlight nor taillight worked - which was not too good since we cycled until midnight!  But it was a fun event and included a boat trip on the Seine river (with plenty of wine to drink).  One particularly interesting thing we saw on the boat trip was boat coming toward us and the top level had maybe 200 people exercising.  Our guide said it was primarily local people.  Of course no one on the bike tour wore a helmet; they weren’t even offered.  Below are photos from the ride.

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left above: “SAUF” is a French word that means except and in this context means “One way for everyone except bicyclists”.  We need an English/American/Texan version of that word.  Photo on the right is of a family picnicking on the Right Bank.  It reminded me of a Cartier-Bresson photo of a family picnic on the banks of a river.  Later that evening we heard of a Henri Cartier-Bresson photo exhibit at the Pompidou Museum and quickly changed plans for tomorrow.  The Musee d’Orsay will have to wait for another trip.

It’s Friday and we’re at the Pompidou

It’s a trying and tiring day.  Although our Museum Passes get us into the Center, the special exhibit costs us $50, audio guides included.  Then there is an hour and 20 minute wait in three queues.  Once in the exhibit, it is enormous – over 500 photos and paintings. Plus several videos. 

    

Two photos on left are from inside the center, see end of the queue in the 1st picture.  And almost at the end of the queue in the third picture, over an hour after the first two photos.

  

Above. Left, photo from China.  Center shows that the Pompidou is not overly crowded and maybe the wait was worth it.  At the Louvre, there are so many people that you cannot get within a mile of popular works such  as the Mona Lisa.  The photo on the right is of Henri himself, who hated to have his picture taken.

So after three days of walking over all of Paris, visiting three museums (which I find only slightly less tiring than shopping) and walking up and down thousands of steps in the Metro stations, I’m beat.  Totally tired.    I need something relaxing to do.  Like riding a bike.  So that’s where we’re headed.  Tomorrow we take the high speed TGV train to Joule-Les-Tours.   And on Sunday, we begin riding.

French Gardens: Paris 2

 

Thursday, May 29.  We woke to sunny skies but they soon turned overcast.  Nonetheless, we headed off the Louvre.  We are beginning to learn our way around the subway system.  This is John’s first experience with the Paris subway; his only complaint is that the stations are not well marked at street level.  We triple check our decisions just so we don’t end up somewhere unexpected, like we did yesterday.

The two photos on the left show the wonderful lighting provided by the I.M. Pei remodel on the Louvre.  And to the right, the ultimate markings of civilization, Starbucks in the Louvre.  You got to love it!

  

 

  

 

  

  

The crowds at the Louvre were massive, and they continued to build all morning.  I was amazed; thousands of people. It is a French holiday of some sort; but that doesn’t explain the hordes of Japanese.  We toured around  – were lost most of the time – but saw some of the ‘must see’ pieces. 

And then we sought out the stone containing  the Code of Hammurabi.  (Photo on right)  We had read about this set of laws written by this Babylon king last summer. Some think this is the beginning of civilization; the first time that laws were written down.  Tthey applied to everyone including the king; the law was written for the common man to read and understand. Of course some may grimace at the thought of civilization beginning with a lawyer.

We had a nice lunch at Café des Nemours (recommended by Rick Steves) then walked along the Tuillieres and took the subway back to the hotel. Tonight we’re taking a four hour “fat tire” bike tour of Paris.  We’ll include that in tomorrow’s blog.

French Gardens: Paris 1

We got a welcome notification the morning of our departure (Tuesday, May 27) to let us know American Airlines had upgraded us to Business Class!!!  The trip over was much more relaxing.  Brenda slept about 5 hours, John less, and we both felt pretty chipper on our arrival into Paris.

We easily found our bus into downtown Paris, the Montparnasse Station and walked (A taxi refused to take us.) about 2 km to Hotel Sainte Beuve. Quite a nice place tucked into a good location but away from maddening crowds.  We were into our room by 2pm. 

   

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The afternoon was filled with a Rick Steves walk beginning at Notre Dame on Ill de la Cite.  Also included were Ile St. Louis, the Left Bank and Sainte-Chapelle.  The skies were overcast and we had periods of mist and light rain and were glad when that all passed. Photo on right above shows Brenda’s new rain poncho, much needed at this point.  Another Container Store purchase, no doubt.

Notre-Dame was begun in 1163 and had it’s first mass in 1345, 182 years in the making.  And then it is was renovated 150 years ago.  The cathedral will hold 10,000 people for mass.  ‘Not sure there are than many practicing Catholics among the French these days.

 

 

This marker is front of the cathedral is the center of Paris and the center of France.

The other two photos are from the Deportation Memorial, dedicated to 200,000 French victims of the Nazi concentration camps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dinner we looked at quite a few menus and took our chances. Brenda had salmon and John ate chicken and we were both pleased.  We passed on dessert since we were both about to do a face plant because of fatigue.

Brenda  was fast asleep by 9pm; John stayed up to do laundry and edit Blog photos.

French Gardens: Introduction

Above:  Le Rivau Gardens

The official title of this tour is Gardens of Touraine.  The tour is led by our Dallas friend Jane Holahan, who has knowledge and expertise in French, Gardening and Bicycle Touring. Could you ask more of a leader?

This will be a different, and possibly difficult for me:

• It is the easiest tour we’ve ever done.  But with my advancing age, that may not be so much of a problem.  I may like 27 mile days!
• For the first time we’re using rented bikes.  And hybrid bikes to boot – the first tour without our custom road bikes.
• But the biggest problem for me may be France and the French.  My experience in this country (actually its people) is not good and I’m biased against them.  But I’m going to give it – and the French – a try.  I’ll try to have a positive attitude.  Only time will tell how long it lasts.
• I hope we can do the blog differently.  I’d like Brenda to write the text (maybe I’ll butt in now and then) and I’ll concentrate on the photos.

We have a full agenda planned for Paris before the tour.  The last time Brenda took me to Paris to see the fantastic museums, the museum workers were on strike and there wasn’t much to see.  Surely, it will be better this time.

We leave Dallas on Tuesday. Hopefully you’ll see a blog post on Wednesday.