Deux voyages dos-à-dos!

This weekend was packed with adventures outside of Pontlevoy! Both Saturday and Sunday included day trips to castles & new towns!

First on Saturday, we started our day with an hour bus ride to Villandry. Wow... what an extravagant outside area surrounding the castle! The gardens were breath-taking & unbelievably maintained with intricate designs & flowers in bloom! It took us at least 2 hours just to walk through it all. The sunshine & perfect temperature outside complemented the day so well! 

In all honesty, the pictures are worth more than just a 1000 words! Every single shot was breath-taking and remarkable in its own way! It made perfect sense why a couple were taking their wedding photos in these gardens.

Outside Villandry Château in Gardens

 Cascading waters running through gardens

Château de Villandry & trimmed bushes

Gardens of Villandry 

We were also largely impressed by the interior of the castle. Lately, we noticed that many of the castles seemed to transform into museums with rooms sometimes even set up with movies & documents for people to view and read. At Villandry, however, the interior looked like it was "move-in ready!" We felt as though we could just live inside the castle that night & wake up to the beautiful gardens outside of the windows! Overall, we were simply blown away by the atmosphere of Villandry - both inside & out! 

 My favorite bedroom in the castle! 

 Elegant dining room with the table set

 View from bedroom

After spending a few hours in Villandry, we went to our next destination not too far away: Azay-le-Rideau. This castle was much more secluded behind lush forests. It was surrounded by water much like Chenonceau. Again, this castle seemed a little more modern than the others we saw last week. The sun even came out at the perfect time to cause the castle to cast a beautiful reflection in the water!

 Castle of Azay-le-Rideau

Château d'Azay-le-Rideau caught my attention when I discovered they had a pool table in one of the rooms! It turns out it was from the 19th century. I guess the game of billards has been a form of entertainment for quite some time & even of people in royalty. 

 

 Pool table inside Azay-le-Rideau

 The castle was a decent size, so we were able to explore many of the rooms without being overwhelmed! Every room was nicely decorated, and some even had rugs! I expected more rugs as I thought it would be a good way to keep the rooms warm. However, they believed in keeping the walls warm by using tapestries.

Inside the castle of Azay-le-Rideau

All of us enjoyed the scenic view from the outside & even spent some time soaking up the sun in the grass; it was a lovely treat compared to the last 2 weeks with rain and cooler temperatures. We finally were able to enjoy the castle grounds as a whole! The funniest part was that Azay-le-Rideau had a sign to their gardens... we looked into the entrance and quietly laughed. It was about the size of little playground & the flowers were just starting to bloom. Basically, nothing could even compare to the vast and luscious gardens of Villandry at that point!

 

Our group in front of Châeau d'Azay-le-Rideau

Then on Sunday, we visited the largest castle in the Loire Valley, Chambord! Holy cow, it was gigantic! It's one of the most recognizable castles. When you think French castles, Chambord probably comes to mind. It was so enormous that some rooms were completely vacant! They even had an artist's collection of paintings on one of the floors of the castle. François 1er built it so he could use it a "hunting lodge." This deluxe lodge was surrounded by forests where he did much of his hunting; inside was filled with the antlers of many deer. 

 

 Château de Chambord

 Deer Antler collection proudly displayed 

 Horse-drawn carriages at entrance

 Spiral staircase may have been designed by da Vinci

 Artwork by Alexandre Hollan

The architecture of this castle fascinated me the most! They strategically designed every part of this castle on a square unit grid. A center double-helix (like DNA) staircase centers the entire castle. These two helices in the grand staircase takes one up 3 stories without ever meeting. The top of the staircase is a "light house" topped with the fleur de lis at the end point. The rooms inside of the castle are very similarily designed on each floor. If you were to split each floor into quarters, they would mirror one another in design and arrangement. So much planning appears to be put into building this grand estate! 

 Woods where François did his hunting

 Top of Double-Helix Spiral Staircase

Speckled Horse

As usual, we were awestruck by the beauty and wonder that people once lived in these castles! All of them strike us as elaborate and charming in their own unique way. We are down the last few excursions this week. By this time next week, I will be back in the United States sans the castles, carriages, and crêpes. We are enjoying every moment of these final days in France!