Our drive from Carcassonne yesterday was, luckily, uneventful and we arrived safely at our lovely cottage just outside of Orleans, in the Loire Valley. We are about one hour south of Paris. Our cottage has 3 bedrooms, a fireplace, country kitchen and a small forest in the backyard! The owners live in the main residence closeby and we are entertained each day by their two loveable dogs and mischievous cat.
Today, we ventured south to the Loire Valley's largest chateau, Chambord. Chambord was built in the 16th century for King Francois I as a hunting lodge. It is grandiose and as today was only 6 degrees celsius, it was also COLD! The chateau has its own forest and is fully walled. While it was intriguing and opulent in parts, we think one or two chateaux while we are here will suffice. We are a little "castled-out".
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| Our cottage in the Loire |
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| Our cottage's living room - so cosy! |
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| Our country kitchen - with silver cutlery chandelier! |
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| One of the children's bedrooms |
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| Sean with our resident feline, Valentine |
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| Our new playmates in the Loire |
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| Our own woods in the backyard! |
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| Eloise with Valentine |
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| Our cottage owner's main residence |
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| Chambord, Loire Valley |
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| Eloise, Brett Snr, Sean and Brett at Chambord |
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| Four-poster bed at Chambord |
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| The internal staircase of Chambord |
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| Chambord's chapel |
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| Brett and Sean overlook Chambord's garden and woods |
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| Some of Chambord's many hunting trophies |
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| A room fit for a king - Chambord |
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| A lasting impression of Chambord |
Arriving back to our cosy cottage this afternoon, we lit the fire, played with the animals and rode bikes in the garden and prepared a home-cooked meal.We are conserving some of our energy for Paris, Disneyland Paris and skiing in Bavaria! Brrrrr. Tricia
I love, love your little cottage! Looks so warm and cosy! And bike riding around the garden sounds fun! BRRRR very cold!
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