07/10/09

Day 29 – October 7
Well, it’s happened to me again – I went to London specifically to see St Paul’s and it was covered in scaffolding, Rome to see the Four Rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona and it was empty and boarded round, the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, same story – and yep, you guessed it! The showpiece chateau of Chenonceau which is prized and photographed above all others – hidden under scaffolding! A word of warning – if you are travelling to see anything especially do check first to see that I’m not going at the same time!
That said, it has been a very enjoyable day. We followed the less obvious route to the chateau via the maze and naturalised woodland, again with miniature cyclamens of all shades flowering under the trees, to achieve a magnificent view of the chateau, with its arches over the River Cher on which it stands. The weather was lovely today, sunny and hot, and wandering through the beautifully laid out gardens was a real pleasure.
The house itself is furnished and has many original features which are well documented so finding your way round and learning the history of it is easy. A really nice touch is that each of the principal rooms has a huge display of flowers or plants grown in the chateau gardens, and the scent of the flowers fills the rooms.
Another night of France Passion for us tonight, again at a vineyard – though not quite as idyllic as it sounds! We meet Lynn and Irvin at Blois tomorrow and are really looking forward to seeing them, but it means we now have only a few days left before reaching Calais.
I write this in the throes of a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain after a beautiful day – but the sky is bright in the distance so hopefully it will clear very soon….