The following day became our 'long drive day' but we managed to get in the new Millau Bridge, the longest, highest bridge in the world. It really was very large, but in the glorified safety from the back of the car, Ben who clearly was expecting more of a joy ride voiced the opinion "Disappointed guys!". Anne repeated it, then looked for her sick bag (she really doesn't like heights...)

Arrival at the villa was quite difficult thanks to ordinary directions (with no distances, just "turn left at the sign that says ..."), but thankfully it was still light when we did arrive. First look at the end of the building had Anne ready to slit her wrists after the ordinary accommodation in Provence, but fortunately that was the 'small end' of the house, and inside it was fantastic - rustic and comfortable and very clean. All the cooking utensils you would want, and everything except a clothes drier (which seem to be very uncommon).

The Loire valley was full of fields of dead sunflowers and dying corn, all ready for harvest. They let it die and dry first to reduce the water content and it makes for an interesting sight. Had we been here a month ago, everything would have been bright green and yellow.

 

On Thursday, it was time for the big one - Chambord.

All the castles up until now were owned by rich people. This one was owned by the King!

The boys were expecting it to be large, but when they saw it, they realised it was about 6 times bigger than the others, and was presented very well.

Lots of stairs, lots of stuffed wild game, lots of photos!

Rugby photos are here !

Loire photos are here !

Chateau photos are here !

Well, we had tried to get tickets to the Rugby, but they were all sold out. We were having a quiet drink in a cafe in Gigondas, with the boys amusing themselves on the internet, when Ben yells out that he can get tickets to the match. I go have a look, explain that he is on the wrong web site (they were not being sold there and didn't even say they were available), and showed him the correct one and ... tickets now available! Seems that they released the ones they were holding for those who bought all the pool matches, but their teams didn't make the final. Thousand Euros later ...

Now the problem was where to stay? All hotels in Marseille and nearby Cassis were booked up, so as it was a 3pm match, we selected Nimes as while it was 1.5 hours away from the stadium, it was 1.5 hours closer to the Loire the following day.

Long story short, 2 hour drive to the new hotel, 2 hour drive to the stadium, found the perfect parking place 100mt from the stadium, for free! and watched the Aussies play fairly ordinarily (except for Stirling and Lote) and loose to finish their World Cup campaign. Bugger. Then a 2 hour drive back to the hotel ... not much else to say, other than we had a great meal in a South African restaurant in Nimes (is that a sign?) but look at the pictures anyway!

The main attractions of the Loire are food and the Chateau, and after a market in nearby Liguell to get the first, we started on the tour.

Chenonceau was the first, and the kids really loved the gardens, especially the mazes - never stopped running. Inside was just as good as I remember, and Anne was very impressed with the flowers. She had expected a couple of simple arrangements, but there were lots of them and as she inspected each closely (and had me photograph them) she saw they had been put together expertly. The kids were blown away with the size of the place, and that they were over the water ... and stairs up and down ...

The next day it was off to Usse, which is known as the Sleeping Beauty Castle, as its main tower looks like it was the prop for the movie. Not a major Chateau, but a good starter, and one Anne and I hadn't seen before. After a quick lunch next to the hotel where we stayed on out honeymoon, we were off to Villandry - famous for its gardens.

The gardens were as good as we remembered and the kids once again were looking for the mazes. Lots of formal gardens and interesting things - like pumpkins sitting in pace of flowers in the garden, and lots of herbs. Look at the photos!

On Wednesday we did the larger markets in Loches (about 40 minutes drive away) where we saw all sorts of strange things (like stuffed pig's heads) and Anne bought another tablecloth ...

In the afternoon is was the turn of Azay-le-Riddeau which we had skipped yesterday as we were running out of time. This was one we really liked last time as we saw the Son-et-Lumierre (Sound and Light) show there. The shows only run over Summer, so finished about a month ago, and while the interior wasn't as impressive as we remember, it was still good, and we had a great walk around the huge gardens, with fabulous views of the outside of the Chateau.

Rugby Finals and Loire