France 2012 - Part 5 - Chateau de la Loire

Besides Mont st Michel, Chateau de la Loire is my another favorite monuments in France. I remember put on my long dress in order to feel like a princess even though its only for a day. Again, we woke up early since we have 3 different castles in our schedule.

Our 1st stop is Chenonceau. The estate is huge, with a lovely garden n build on a river bank. If not because of the tourist flooded the area, i think this place is quite eerie.When we 1st enter we have to go thru this ticket counter which also serve as souvenir shop. i love the symmetrical tree along the way which really look so nice.

Chenonceau is really what castle you always imagine.It comes with tower, guard house, garden, well, bridge, maze and its own river. Its look smaller from in front but actually so much bigger.

(Front View)

(Rear View)

(isnt that stunning?)

(on the river)

(Garden view from castle)

(Castle surrounded by forest)

(Maze)

From the inside, Chenonceau still well preserved with few rooms, study room which looking over the river, kitchen and long hallway where they host a ball long long time ago. Their tapestry a bit worn out but what you expect from something as old as that. Most castle usually have their own family chapel which i think look so nice with the colored glass window.

 (Blue Bedroom)

 (Have to respect Craft men)

 (Painting)

(Chapel)

Among all 3 castles, Chenonceau is my favorite. If i get to choose between this 3 i definitely will choose Chenonceau. I hope next time im in France i will get the opportunity to see more castle and maybe my opinion will change. 

One day is definitely not enough to see all the castles unless you just want to see the outside and not the inside. The timing also make it impossible since most close around 5 or 7pm. Even though we choose castles which is close to each other, it still good 30 to 40min drive. We decided to stay in the hotel for that night and continue castle hunting the next day.  

We stay at this hotel which is also old. When i say old its at least 150 years old. Its a simple basic hotel but they have a very nice restaurant with stunning interior. 

 (We choose to dine outside for it fresh cold air)

 (Roses & Bee's)

 (Very nice interior)

 (Thats real ok)

(Our hotel quite street)

After check out from hotel the next morning, we make an early trip to Cheverny. Nothing much for breakfast but their bakery open early if u need some pain au chocolate. So i just grab some fruits tart for myself. My bf look at me and said that supposed to be dessert. So i just look at him and said "Im Malaysian, we eat whenever we want"

On the way to Cheverny, we pass few Sunflower field and i was of cos excited since we couldn't find this in Malaysia. You can see it from far and good enough to make me begged my bf to stop for picture. 

 (taller than me)

(sea of flower)

Cherverny lies in a small lovely town. For me Cheverny looks more like big house instead of castle. Was really expect to see more tower where princess been lock up but there's no tower to be seen. The architecture is different and don't ask me from which era cos i didn't know. The estate are well kept with manicured garden and nice lawn. It is also huge which make walking impossible. It less eerie compare to Chenonceau and really have this homey feelings. Their garden wasn't as nice as Chenonceau since no flower and everything green. We didn't see much action from Cheverny infamous hunting dogs. It was report to be 120 of them which been taken out hunting twice a week. 

(imagine this is my house)

(View from castle garden)

(My prince and i)

When we went inside we've been handed a brochure on the estate and from there we find out that the present owner still run the chateau. They are descendant of this General to Louis XI. Either they stay there or not im not really sure but i think its quite cool if they were. 

(Family tree)

The only problem at Cheverny, they didn't allow tourist to go inside the rooms which make a long train of human waiting for their turn to take picture and see each n single room. They have wide collection of furniture  and well kept. 

 (Dining Room with open slab ceiling)

(Love the cupboard and the craft)

 (Nice Ride)

 (One big Harp)

(The main Bedroom)

(Th Library)

Our last stop on La Loire was Chambord. Extremely big castle which is supposed to be hunting lodge to the king and the largest castle in the famous area. Chambord also what i imagine how castle should look like, complete with tower and dome. With it extravagant architecture, Chambord is definitely a must visit castle.  

Unfortunately, Chambord lack of interior which mostly sold even the wall panel and floor. I was a bit disappointed when i step into this castle since theres nothing much to see inside. 

 (The famous staircase)

 (Decorated ceiling)

France 2012 - Part 4 - Mont St Michel

So, its already my 5th day in France. On 5th August we didn't go anywhere because Nico did BBQ party at his place.So far so good, raining and cold. Its funny cos sometimes i think there's someone turn on and off the rain switch. Its pour for 5 min then stop. After one hour its start again for 5 min and stop. So nothing much you can do in this weather.

We decide that we going to Mont st Michel today. As i am a muslim im scared that this post will create discomfort to some people. Mont st Michel is an old church which is one of most treasured monument in France. Let see it as monument shall we, something like Arc de Triomphe or Louvre and stop see it as a church. 

We left home at 6.30 in the morning and Nico packed some pasta for our lunch. When he 1st packed food for our lunch in Paris i was wondering why he do that since we can eat outside in the restaurant. But obviously this is something that everybody do there. Packed your food is so much cheaper then eating out. It will be weird if we do it in malaysia since you can get food everywhere and cheap. We eat outside most of the time and only pack our food here when we go to picnic. 

It took us around 2 hours to reach Mont st Michel in Normandy from surzur by car. We left early in order to avoid crowd and since we didnt know how long we going to be there. It was a sunny day, almost as hot as in malaysia minus humidity. So we reach there before 9 and parking was almost full. When we park our car, we received this flyers on  how to get there. 

There are 2 option, either you can walk or take feeder bus provided. We wanted to walk before that until we saw that it will took us 40min walk from carpark to the church, 40min!!!! So we choose to take bus. 

From carpark its already 10 - 15min walk to the bus stop. They make us walk around so we might go to their souvenir shop and hotels which situated around the bus stop. Its pretty inconvenient for disable and old citizen when they can have bus waited directly from carpark. Expect long queue but thank god that they have plenty of bus and their service is quite fast. You only have to wait for 5 min to get into the bus and it will take you directly in front of mont st michel.  

Mont st Michel is huge and so beautiful. Remember that part in twilight movie were Edward try to kill himself during carnival at the volturi? So this place is something like that. The entire village is there and its situated on the sea and accessible by road. Its a low tide when we were there and be careful if you want to walk around. When water start to rise the surrounding area can be full in water in 3min. So make sure you know where you going and the tide condition before you walk around. 

 (Row of shops when you enter mont st michel)

 (The abbey)

 (Garden on top)

(sea all around)

 (Narrow walkway in between shop)