On the Road with Kings and Rick

Last night Ken slept well, but it was my turn to be sleepless in Paris. Nevertheless, it was up to sunny skies and back to our friendly waiter for more croissants and coffee. Then it was time to pack up and start the road trip which will end in Bilbao Spain on Sunday.

We easily found the Hertz rental car and just as easily, found ourselves on the A10 freeway heading to Bordeaux. Our first night is going to be in Chinon in the Loire Valley, about 3 hours south of Paris.

The Loire Valley is known for its large Chateaus, with the two largest being at Chenencoux and Amboise. Since we only had time for one, we followed our trusty GPS and after 2.5 hours were in the parking lot of the Chenenceau. https://www.chenonceau.com/en/

Chenenceau was built in the 12th/13th century, but the castle we see today was built between 1513 and 1515. It

was built by a wealthy merchant, but was taken by the State from his son due to unpaid bills. From that point it was passed from one King to another until the 1700's when a line of private owners took over. The final owner has had it since 1915 and had it restored to what we see today, which is quite spectacular.

After wandering Chenenceau for a couple of hours, it was time to do the final 1.5 hours to our farmhouse accommodations for the night, Le Close de Ligre http://www.le-clos-de-ligre.com. Martine, the wonderful owner met us and showed us to our comfy room that was pure French country-style. We settled in and took a walk up the small road past more farmhouses and vineyards. Chinon is not as well known for their wine, but they make some excellent Cabernet Franc.

Martine offers a homemade dinner, which sounded great after several

days of restaurants. We enjoyed sitting in the garden with a glass of wine before dinner and met our fellow houseguests, Judy, Charlie, Ann and Stu....all from Texas! One of of best parts of travel is meeting some truly wonderful people from around the world, and some who were just in your backyard!

Over the course of dinner, we found that Anne and Stu had just finished a Rick Steves tour of Paris and the Loire Valley, and were big fans of his books and tours. We too, are Rick believers and use his books for all of our European trips.

Over the next 2 hours we enjoyed incredible food, wine and conversation. Martine is a wonderful cook and combined with our tablemates it was quite an evening.