Travel Diaries: Loire Valley (II)

I thought and then I thought some more whether I should show you more photos from France or not. And then I thought again and I finally decided to do it, because I think those places were absolutely beautiful and they are definitely worth seeing (live or virtually).Plus that I always show you photos from our vacations, it's like a tradition and I shouldn't break it, should I? :-)

So here I am with the second part of our trip on the Loire Valley, part in which I comprised two days (three and four). During the third day we visited Le Château d'Azay le Rideau, but I only chose two photos to show you (the first two) and none is with the castle because they were renovating its façade and it was full of scaffolding. The interior was however worth seeing and it was the perfect timing with the rain which started exactly when we got there and which stopped when we got out.
After this, we went to visit Le Château d'Ussé, and I have to tell you it was my second favorite castle from the ones we saw. The area, the gardens, the chapel, the stables and the castle itself, they all made me feel like being part of the fairytale. Of course, a large contribution was also brought by the mannequins from the castle's chambers, mannequins which were dressed according to the XVIIIth Century's Style and Fashion. What is important to be mentioned here is the fact that each year the Château d’Ussé has an exhibition of costumes from a different century. Pretty amazing, huh? Secondly, another significant fact is that the writer Charles Perrault spent some time at the castle and took it as inspiration for his tale of Sleeping Beauty.

The same day, in the afternoon we continued our journey to the city of Saumur, where we were supposed to spend the night. Once we got there we took a walk in the city and went to see the castle (only on the outside), which is situated on a hill and from there you get an amazing view over the Loire.

We started the fourth day with a visit to the Ackermann Wine Cellars, we found out how the sparkling wine is produced and we also got to taste some of their sparkling wines, after which we went to see an underground village, called "le village troglodytique de Rochemenier". The village lies in a flat landscape on top of the plain, not along a cliff or hillside. In order to build farmyards with cave houses surrounding the yard, the first thing necessary was to dug a huge pit, generally with a ramp for carriages on one side. The other sides, the steep ones, were used to dug chambers into the rock, which were then closed by stone walls (Source HERE), so basically the houses were build inside the rocks, if you can imagine that.

The last castle of the day was Le Château de Brissac, a beautiful castle with amazing gardens, but in my opinion it was a bit poorly presented. We ended the day in the next city we had on the list, Angers, but not before visiting the city center and having a delicious dinner. 

I hope you enjoy the photos and the stories! :)
Love, A

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Travel Diaries : Loire Valley (I)

Hello my dears, the time has finally come to show you some of the photos we took during our trip in France. It's been a while, but I think the wait was worth it. I told you in my previous post that we visited five cities and eleven castles along the Loire Valley, so today I want to show you the places we saw during the first two days.

On our first day we stopped in the city of Blois, a small but very beautiful city, with old buildings, paved streets and a castle full of history. I have to tell you that I love french cities, they have that specific chic vibe which can only be seen here. I love the little "Brasseries", Restaurants, "Patisseries", terraces, and little shops. I like the fact that people take their time to enjoy a cup of coffee or a glass of wine on a terrace in the sun. In these smaller cities everything seems calmer, people are smiling and are helpful, there is definitely less hectic than in bigger ones. Anyway, during this first day we got to wander the streets of the city a bit and enjoyed a yummy dinner on a terrace, after which we went to see the Light & Sound Projections in the courtyard of the castle, projections which told us the history of the castle.

After having breakfast in the sun, the second day we left for our next city on the list, Tours. But until getting there, it was planned to see some castles along the way, so we visited the Castle of Chambord and the Castle of Chenonceau, two of the biggest and most well-known castles along the valley. We saw the first one only on the outside because we preferred to enjoy the sun a little longer while having a gorgeous view in front of our eyes.
The castle of Chenonceau is also called the Castle of the ladies due to the six very important feminine figures who lived here along the years. It was by far my favorite castle we visited, with gorgeous interiors and a great story. You could definitely tell it was inhabited and ruled by women. :-)  

We were lucky to have two warm first days, so I chose to wear a striped dress during the first one and a midi yellow skirt during the second one. Heels were of course out of the question since we had to walk the whole day, but I think I managed to give a bit of chicness to the outfit.  What do you think?

I hope you like the photos and if you have questions regarding these travel destinations, I'm here to answer them :)

Hugs, Andra

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