May 8th—Mauves Sur Loire

Today we drove from St.-Pierre des Corps to Mauves Sur Loire to meet Gabriel, Cathy, and Nils. Alia was still at university and Ysée was managing a farm while the owners are away. We may see her May 9th. 

The night before leaving, Google Maps said it would take us 2hr17min to get to Gabriel's house. This morning when I entered their address into Google Maps on my phone, it said the drive would take nearly 3 hours. Argh!

So off we went. I planned to catch highway A85 to Angers and then merge to highway A11 and then connect with D723 to Mauves Sur Loire. Well... ya the Google Maps lady took us on another route into the countryside with assurances that we're taking a quicker route. 

Needless to say, I was concerned because she took us north through residential areas and then southwest through some farmland. After questioning where we were being routed, and after pulling over a few times to check our paper road map against what the GPS lady was telling us, we eventually just gave in and followed her directions—up to a point.

I wrestled back control when we were guided to smaller and smaller rural roads. I'd had enough and found my way to A11. And once on the highway we were off and running. The GPS lady was happier too. So we drove down A11 and made the connection to D723 and to Gabriel's house with time to spare. 

Once we greeted one another, Gabriel drove us to Oudon for lunch where he made a reservation at Villa St. Germain. You can check out their website, but you'll have to copy their page to Google Translate to read the menu. Take a look at the pictures though; you don't need to know French to enjoy them. 😏

Here's St. Germain's website: https://www.villa-st-germain.fr/

Anyway we had an amazing two hour lunch! Thank you Gabriel!

We followed up lunch with a 4.5 mile walk along a small river edging forest. Along a marsh there were a few places where it got a tad "squishy", but it was a beautiful walk. It was warm (22c/72F) and humid but lovely as you can see from the pictures.

Lunch at Villa St. Germain was yummy!

Nils, Cathy, and Gabriel at the beginning of our walk.

This is the half way mark.

This guy threw a stick in the water for his dogs and they went
nuts, jumping in the river after it.

            This is a swarm of catfish babies. 

May 9th

Today we're going to watch Nils' volleyball match and then drive to Cancale to meet up with Thomas and Claire. I'll update this post with pictures later today.

France 2026—May 4-8 Saint-Pierre des Corps & Surrounds

May 4th 

We arrived at Saint-Pierre des Corps at 5:15PM May 4th and awoke to this:

So, we took our time this morning hoping the rain would subside a bit even though the forecast wasn't that optimistic. I picked up our rental car from Sixt Rental Car next door and parked it behind the hotel. By noon the rain wasn't as heavy and we were off to the rail station 800 steps from our Kyriad Hotel to see what light fare we could purchase for dinner. 

May 5th

The plan today was to take the train to downtown Tours and purchase an umbrella and then visit their tourism office and see if we could book a guided tour of Chambord Chateau. We also needed to get some tips about doing a self-guided walking tour of Tours.

And basically we met our goal and then some. We took the train (for free) downtown, walked to the Tours Office of Tourism (about 1000ft from the train station) and had a lovely conversation with Sawea who had all kinds of suggestions for us. She gave us a walking map that led us in a wide circle to all the sites worth seeing in Tours and information about small group chateaux tours. We told her we'd think about them and come back after our walk and decide on which chateau small group tour we'd take.

We ended our walking tour of Tours at a local grocery store just down from the train station where we bought provisions for tomorrow's drive to Amboise. It's been 15 years since visiting Amboise.

Okay, enough "talking" time for some pictures.

I'm starting with the Tours walking map. Find the SNF square at the bottom right hand side of the picture. This is the train station. Just up from that is the Tours Office of Tourism. It is a red "i" in a blue diamond. 

You can follow our walk via the pictures we took as we followed the dotted brown line on the map. We walked up to Musee des Beaux Arts, Saint Gatien Cathedral, and Chateau de Tours. We followed the brown line and walked down rue Colbert, the quintessential medieval French street; and on to the original city where took a coffee with chocolate cake at "le petit atelier" cafe. Then we rounded the corner to Charlemagne Tower and St. Martin's Basilica. 

We followed the dotted line to Boulevard Beranger to the corner where the Hotel de Ville (town hall) and Palace of Justice sit opposite one another and then straight on to Boulevard Heurteloup, and 5+ miles later we found ourselves back at the Office of Tourism where we made reservations for a guided tour Thursday (May 7th) for Chambord and Chenonceau with lunch at Chateau Villesavin. This is a splurge excursion, but because it includes entrance fees, a private guide for 8 of us, and lunch with wine... we kinda had to go for it.

Okay, now on to some pictures.

Musee des Beaux Arts. The museum
is closed on Tuesday, but we could
still enjoy the gardens. 

Museum entrance.

Built between 1160-1547.

These modern stained glass windows by
G. Collin-Thiebaut and P-A Parrot were
installed in 2001.

The South Rose Window was

 installed in the late 13thc.

North Rose Window, 13th century.

Gratien's entra

North transept buttresses.

Chateau de Tours 11thc Tower.

Art installation behind Chateau de Tours.

These dogs were eagerly waiting
for "mom" in the patisserie.

Rue Colbert is the quintessential
medieval street.

Ya, this place is open for business.

Place Plumereau was the original town center
dating back to the 5th-6th centuries.

Pretty cool carvings. They probably
mean something.

da Vinci has a presence here.

We took a break at "le petit atelier"
cafe to discuss whether or not we 
should splurge on the Chambord &
Chenonceau w/lunch guided tour.

We were thrilled the cafe served flat whites.

Front of Charlemagne Tower.

Tours Musical Conservatory.

Back of Charlemagne Tower.

St. Martin's Basilica, 470-1260.

Loved this tile running along the aisle.

The basilica, of course.

St. Martin's tomb.

St. Martin's basilica's high altar.

This is the English translation of plaque to the left.

Hotel de Ville, the town hall that is.

Palace of Justice across the street from town hall.

Gare de Tours 

Victor Laloux, the architect of the train station,
was buried in St. Martin's Basilica. You saw the
plaque translated in English. 

We ended our day at the hotel's brasserie, relaxing and reflecting about our self-guided walking tour.

May 6th

Today we drove to Amboise just 30 minutes up the Loire River. It was a good practice driving and navigating run. It's been 15 years since first coming to Amboise. This is the market town (beginning in 466) where Francis I invited Leonardo da Vinci to spend his last days. da Vinci died in 1519 and was buried in the crypt of the Amboise Chateau. 

But that's not the town's only claim to fame. Joan of Arc passed through Amboise on her way to Orleans to the Battle of Patay. This turned out to be the  pivotal battle that essentially ended the 100 Years War even though it took the English another four more years to recognize it.

We walked throughout the town, snapping pictures of the medieval shops and homes. Here are some of them.

 

In the Medieval Age, residents built
their homes in the side of the cliff for
safety and consistent temperatures.

The old guy stood calmly in the lane looking
up one way and then down the other. We
watched him for several minutes and he 
didn't move, just scanned up and down the
lane watching the world pass.

This butcher has received many accolades for his skills.

On this street, you could purchase meat, veggies 
and fruit, and bread—all within a few strides.

The plane trees lining the road
into Amboise are a hold over
from Napoleon's reign when
his soldiers planted them on
marches to provide shade for
future garrisons.

May 7th

Today we splurged on a guided tour to Chenonceau, Chambord, and lunch at the private chateau Villesavin. There were 8 of us on a mini van and our driver, Dimitri, also served as our guide. He was terrific balancing just the right amount of history about the chateaux with a humorous touch. We started our day at Chenonceau, drove to Chateau Villesavin for a private lunch prepared by the countess. The count and countess purchased Villesavin in 1937 and are hoping their two sons will take over the running and continued renovation of it. 

Our lunch of quiche, salad, selected cheeses from the region (of course), wine, and for dessert, a creamy cheese-type yogurt with strawberry sauce and coffee. We had time to walk the grounds afterward before driving 10 minutes to Chambord, Francois I hunting lodge, a massive renaissance style chateau he visited only 15 times. 

So, instead of offering history and descriptions about Chenonceau and Chambord, two of France's most beautiful chateaux, I've included links you can explore on your own. (if the webpage is in French, just change the language to English.

Chenonceau

The front door.

Dimitri, our guide.

Every room has fresh flowers.

The gallery was the bridge originally.

The chapel, obviously.
 

The logs in the fireplace are 4 feet long. Gives

you an idea about the fireplace proportions.

The grounds of Chenonceau are gorgeous.

Once a commercial hub, the river Cher is now
a recreational Mecca.

Check out the size of these scales.

The chateau is at the end of this tree-lined lane.

Chateau Villesavin

Chateau Villesavin

Chambord

We weren't aware that we had walked 5+
miles during the day, but it's easy to do
when the strolling the grounds. Walking
from the van to the chateaux was a mile.

                       

Actual entrance to Chambord.

I couldn't do justice to the double helix staircase at the center of the chateau so you'll have to be satisfied with these two I ripped off from the internet.

(https://www.instagram.com/p/DWCWPsJjSr0/)

(https://www.facebook.com/archpng/posts/leonardo-da-vincis-double-helix-staircase-at-ch%C3%A2teau-de-chambord/892631983263880/)