Day 20 Chateaus of Loire

Today I headed to Orly Airport to pick up a rental car and head down to the Loire region to see some Chateaus. I first drove to Chambord and went to the Chateau de Chambord. This Chateau is huge! Unlike Chateau Versaille the other day, these Chateaus are stone, inside & out with a lot less wood & decoration. Chateau Chambord is stunning & definitely my favorite. The stone however makes the place very cold even though there are a large number of huge fireplaces in every part of the building. I absolutely loved this place. The top is so ornate and the views over the gardens are stunning. Definitely worth visiting!

 

Next I drove down to Chenonceaux to the Chateau de Chenonceaux. This one I saw on Getaway and know it has a history of a married man, a scorned wife who became a widow and a beautiful mistress. This one is much smaller than Chambord but it was built across a river. Inside it has a lot more wooden & tapestry decoration on the walls. There are 2 gardens, one for the wife & one for the mistress. Both are nice. There is also a cat who resides in the gift shop!

I had planned to continue south to Chateau Villandry but I was concerned about time. I discovered on my journey south that almost all main roads in France have HUGE tolls much to my shock so I had the GPS take me on toll free roads only, thus increasing travel time. Therefore I headed back to the airport and lucky I did as I arrived exactly at my booked return time!  Then I hung around before boarding my go flight to Oslo. It was snowing in Oslo when I arrived which was nice.