Chaumont sur Loire

Another beautiful day in the Loire Valley. We hopped on our bikes to go to Chaumont sur Loire.

It was a nice 20 km bike ride from Blois, mostly on farm roads and forest trails along the Loire River. Pretty much everywhere we rode we heard shotguns and saw hunters with their dogs, flushing birds out of low brush and dead cornfields. They love to hunt in France.

Chaumont was a smaller Chateau, but it had such a classic fairy-tale castle look about it, perched on a hill, overlooking the Loire. We had heard that they do some fantastic modern art installations on their grounds and the International Garden Festival there was not to be missed.

I love the odd histories of places like this. Catherine de Medici owned the castle, and she entertained her favorite astrologer Nostradamus here before giving the place to her husband's mistress. How kind of her.

The servant's quarters upstairs was unrestored and filled with a modern stained-glass exhibit, and you can really see the amount of work involved with keeping a huge old building kept up.

I did sneak a little knitting in...

On such a nice day, I wanted to spend some time in the garden and see all the fun modern art they had set up.

In an old barn: a sea creature diorama, made with stuff you would find in an old barn.

It reminded me of some of the large-scale stuff they do on Governor's Island every summer.

Creepy crochet people in the woods....

No flat tires, no missed trains. Good food, good wine. Pretty much as easy as a weekend trip can be.

I'm pretty much in love with the idea of doing the entire Loire à Vélo now. Or, erm, maybe realistically just a chunk of it. Any takers?

Château de Chambord

Our first destination on the La Loire à Vélo was the Chateau Chambord. Just like the raspberry liqueur! Once again, I find myself drawn to places that give their name to sprits.

We did get lost- a little issue where we zigged where we should have zagged and ended up on a bigger loop than necessary- so the ride out to the Chateau ended up being longer than the 20km we planned. No matter though, as it was a pleasant ride.

The trail followed quiet farm roads and country lanes. There were very few spots when you had to use the road, and it was usually to cut through a sleepy little village with little traffic anyway.

France has been long denuded of trees, save for a handful of forest preserves. It was lovely to ride through the shade of trees, their leaves starting to get crackly and dry with impending autumn.

The Estate of Chambord is a giant game preserve, with a 32km wall around the permiter to keep the boars and red deer in.

First, a picnic...

A lovely bottle of local white. The Loire has good, crisp, fruity white wines.

I failed to find cups on the way, so we rinsed out a container of coconut water we brought, chopped the top off and had a very nice wine glass. Keeping it classy.

Loire area is also known for its excellent goat cheese. With a saucisson, a hearty bread, fresh apples and pears, we had a nice warming picnic lunch.

Max Vauche is the local awesome chocolatier. It's good, fantastic stuff that I'm now hoping I might be able to locate in Paris.

Ah, already sunny outlook much improved. On to the Chateau.

Chambord is the largest and grandest of the Loire Chateaus.

It was originally built as a hunting lodge for François I, the Chateau was where the Louve squirreled away works such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo during WWII.

The most unique element of Chambord is the double-helix main staircase, rumored to be designed by Da Vinci.

Also unique- you can climb the stairs and end up on the roof for a really nice view of the spires and the grounds.

Not too shabby.