After the flat rolling wheat fields of Champagne, the Loire region is really beautiful. It’s full of verdant hills and wild summer flowers. This particular region of France was the holiday resort area for the rich during the 1500s. As a result, the landscape is littered with Chateaux’s, “tiny” hunting lodges and castles. And indeed, many Europeans still regard Loire as a premium holiday destination.

Although many, many of the chateaux’s and castles are open to the pubic, we chose only to visit the Chateaux de Chambord, the hunting lodge of King Francois I who reigned from 1515 to 1547. Most impressive are the snakes and lizards carved into the architecture. We took a good walk around the grounds enjoying the “hunting lodge” from all it’s angles. This beautiful palace, ornately decorated both inside and out, was home to the king only 47 days during his lifetime reign. What a waste, I say!  However, Mark reminded me that this place has nothing on the Palace of Versailles.

One last thing – we’ve only been driving through France for a few days now, but we have to comment on French Radio. It can be described in several points. First, it’s French. All French. Second there seems to be some governmental law that prevented musical progression beyond 1983.  As a result, finding a “great” road trip radio station is quite a challenge. It’s not  uncommon for Madonna or Eminem to be followed by about four dodgy French chicken songs… (We swear we heard a song today about French chickens being chased by a butcher.)  We sure wish we’d remembered to bring a few CDs along!