Then we stopped at Chambord. First, we had a lecture on the word "Chateaux" - it roughly translates as something somewhere in between "castle" and "palace." Chambord is huge. I mean gigantic.

This is a picture of Mom and Dad on the grounds. You really can't imagine how big the place is. And the ground were beautiful. This is when I started to get the idea of coming back and taking a horse back riding tour of the area. They have quite a large stable here and do horse "shows" demonstrating the riding styles of Europe through the ages.

The road leading to the Chateau was lined with these trees - and the sun was just starting to come out.

The Chateaux Chenonceaux

The gardens are quite stunning too. Its amazing what a couple of centuries of structured landscaping and gardening will do for a place! We had time to wander through out the grounds and tour the chateau itself, learning about all the powerful noble women who left their own imprint on the place. There's even a place to eat here, so we had lunch during our stay.

The roses were at their peak through out the garden. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Here's where Chenonceaux spans the Cher River. Its really interesting, and I imagine it kept the castle cool in the hottest part of the summer, though I wouldn't want to be there in the winter. I guess it made plumbing easier, though!

Again, the grounds were impecable.

Even the buildings on the grounds were picture worthy!

Then it was on to our hotel in Tours. Pretty uneventful, but on the way, you could see all the places that were built out of the caves along the river valley. Apparently, its a great place to store wine. One thing I do remember about Tours is the ice cream we had for dinner - it tasted like the smells from bath and body work's soaps and stuff. It was really really good.