Domaine des Hauts de Loire

Yesterday we make our way from Paris to the Loire Valley. Our first stop was to be the Chateau Chambord. Having our trusty GPS we confidently set off through the narrow, twisty streets of Paris. All the way out of the city I kept thinking that we were taking a rather unusual route, I thought the Loire was to the south of Paris and we seemed to be going north but shortly we cleared the historic streets of Paris and were sailing down a modern freeway to Chambord. About 1/2 and hour of speeding down the freeway I pulled out our mapbook to look up Chambord and sure enough there were two Chambords and we had picked the wrong one. A quick reprogramming of the GPS and we were snaking our way on narrow two laned streets through quaint villages and fields of sunflowers towards Chambord.

Some of you might know that Ryan and we have tossed around the idea of retiring in the South of France. Well, we actually went to look at a property. The price was right but it was just a bit too small for a second home. Here's a picture (horse not included):
This is Chambord, one of the largest chateaus in the Loire. It was built by King Francois I and he decided to build it at the age of 25 as a weekend getaway hunting lodge. Just what you would image in a vacation property, 400 rooms, a moat, canals, surrounded by a wee plot of land of a few thousand acres. He stayed there a total of 71 days in his entire life and didn't even see the building completed.



Next stop was our new hotel Domaine des Hauts de Loire. We were super excited about this hotel as Conde Nast and Travel and Leisure rated in their top 5 or 10 hotels in the world for superior service but it was also rated one of the best values in the world as rates here are really reasonable. Once we found the property (not easy) and turned into the driveway this is what we saw:


Oh, and we should mention. Like we told you in our last post, we were late in picking up our car. By the time we got there, they only had this brand new, E Class Mercedes. Total bummer. Anyway, when we cleared the long drive through the forest we came upon the hotel and it was just had we hoped and imagined it would be.



We spent the early evening lounging on the grounds and reading.


And trying on a wig.




For dinner we told them we wanted something casual and went to a quaint little mom and pop type place 10 minutes away. For the French a casual dinner is 4 courses including as much cheese as you want from the cheese cart, HEAVEN!!! I do love me some cheeses.

Today, Jess decided to go for a training run and had a few near death experiences. There are no highway shoulders in France and I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that actually knows what the speed limit is. That said, the scenery around here is exactly as you would envision. Rolling hills, wild flowers, grapes... simply stunning.

We're off to see a couple more Chateaus today and of course, some more lounging.