Amazingly different: Château de Brézé or about "the castle under the castle"....

Château de Brézé suprises its visitors with actually two....castles. One rising from another! The original underground castle, the "Rock" of Brézé, begins to appear in historical texts from 1063. You can still visit it nowadays at a depth of 9m beneath the courtyard. The light-well is the oldest part of the castle and a great example of a troglodyte dwelling constructed along defensive lines. One can walk through the underground tunnels, discover the bakery, ice-house and wine cellars as well as the silk-worm farm...

In the 15th century a medieval edifice was erected and fortified by the excavation of immense ditches all around. This one has been replaced by the building visible today, a Renaissance castle restored and extended in the 19th century.

"Les petits plaisirs" in the Valley of Loire...

Next to the huge amount of castles and wineries inviting for a stop and nice time there are also other little pleasures ("les petits plaisirs") for the stomach as well as for the eyes, waiting to be discovered and enjoyed in the Loire Valley...This is definitely the area for goat cheese lovers. Crottin de Chavignol, Vallencay, Selles sur Sere....just name it! Plenty of different names and shapes for fresh and less young goat cheese sorts.

The cozy feeling that little villages manage to create with lovely flower decoration and colorful pots on the walls is really amazing! In the village Ferte Saint Aubin some metal flowers decorates the city showing a good recycling example:)












Another beauty are the signs ("enseignes") on a building, indicating what the owner is doing...In the case below the answer is food...

Chateaux and vineyards between Gien and Sancerre....

France is definitely the country of castles and the area around the river Loire is the best place to visit some of the most beautiful architectural gems from different centuries. South of Orleans this time I admired the Chateau de Gien, in the picturesque town Gien, famous also for its faience ware. Hidden a bit more in the countryside is the Chateau de Verrerie, first picture.

Around the town Sancerre one can find, taste and buy fruity white and rose wine. The vineyards are climbing up and down on small hills next to Loire and offer breathtaking landscapes.

Paradise for castle lovers: Châteaux de la Loire+ Vallée de la Loire!!

Chateau (fr. castle), chateau and again chateau is what you see while walking, biking or driving along the river Loire. The part of the river from Orleans till its estuary into the Atlantic ocean (incl the rivers Cher, Indre) is on UNESCO World heritage list since 2000.

Its not one, two or three castles I am talking about, there are castles almost in every little village. 42 castles are allowed nowadays to call themselves Châteaux de la Loire.

What makes their discovery a real adventure and a pleasure is that all castles are incredibly different from each other. Not only as architecture or location, but also as purpose defined by their owners. One can see the way the building style evolved from a protective fortress (Middle Age) to an majestic and beautiful construction (Renaissance).

The biggest of all, chateau de Chambord (first shot), was build as a residential place in a hunting park. Really breathtaking from outside, there is no furniture left from the royal users. In chateau de Chenonceau, situated lovely on river Cher, the majesticaly decorated rooms takes us on a time travel.

By accident one evening we enjoyed several hot air balloons strolling by sunset over chateau de Chamount sur la Loire.
Chateau d Amboise (the picture with the bikes) impressed with the lovely stone gargoyle on the fassade.

Vineyards, cheese farms and castles: Aubigny sur Nere+Sancerre!

Once you land in the real heart of this huge country France you start to feel like in the middle of nowhere, but a lovely and green middle of nowhere. While crossing Burgundy you see sign for a castle or the castle itself almost every 10 minutes...Then when finally arriving in the region Centre lovely ancient architecture welcomes the visitors.

Several timber-framing (in French: maison à colombages or maison à pans de bois) houses decorate the centres of the cozy villages here, like for example in the cute town Aubigny sur Nere.

Today we discovered the Road of wine and cheese, visiting the wine-town Sancerre. Several cheese farms around offer one of the most famous for the Loire Valley cheese sort "Crottin de chavignol". This cylindrical goat milk cheese has been produced in the area around the village Chavignol since the 16th century.

Depending on its age the taste varies from subtle and slightly nutty to a stinky and hard one (with the aging the rind changes from white to bluish). The word "crotte" has two meanings: one is an oil lamp made from burned clay. The second one is "dung", most probably because of the changing colour with the aging of the cheese. On the pic above one can see the riping "crottin de chavignol" on the first floor and then the cheese (made from the same milk just different shape) called bouchons de chevre, looking like small white mountains.

Also here the castles are all around. On the picture above the castle of the Scottish Stuarts in Aubigny sur Nere.
Accomodation-tip: a lovely and very cozy place to stay in Aubigny-sur Nere is the charming B&B "La Grange des Cardeaux". A big thanks to Isabelle and Pascal for their warm welcome, delicious breakfast, comfortable room and helpful tips!