A Glorious Week

This has probably been the best week to date for a number of reasons: Jenny arrived by train on Monday, from Holland after spending a few days with brother Pieter in Oss; the weather has been simply outstanding, and we were travelling in one of the most beautiful areas of France - the Loire Valley.
In true Ferreira style, the week was not without it's hiccups. Jenny's handbag was stolen in Charles de Gaulle Airport but luckily after she had transferred most of the important things like passport and return tickets to her backpack. She did lose her credit cards and some cash, but was able to stop the cards very quickly. Her plane had also been delayed in it's departure from South Africa, which caused her to miss her train and to have to buy another train ticket, and that was in her handbag so then she had to buy another one, but hopefully she will be able to claim either a refund on those two, or to claim on insurance.
Then, on the day we picked her up in Nantes we noticed that one of the van's back tyres was a bit soft, and by the next morning it was flat and had to be changed. It later transpired that we had picked up a screw which went straight through the tyre. Getting it fixed again took a while but it was fortunate that we had it done right away as, two days later the spare (which was now on the van) also went flat because of a faulty valve and it had to be changed again.
However, apart from those mishaps, the week went well. We visited what we could of Nantes before moving on to Villandry which is a World Heritage Site and famous for it's wonderful formal gardens. Viewed under a blue sky and in bright sunlight, it was really spectacular. the gardens are arranged in three tiers - a water garden at the top with a large enclosed pond, with fountains, and an outlet which cascades down through the other two levels until it falls into the moat surrounding the chateau. the second level is an ornamental garden with everything geometrically organised and everything enclosed in box hedges. The colour arrangement is all symmetrical and when seen from above from the terraces or the chateau windows, is very impressive. Finally the lowest level is a kitchen garden but one with a difference. again, everything is neatly contained within box hedges and rows of red lettuce complement the rows of green herbs and purple cabbages. The rows run in different directions to give more 'texture ' to the arrangement and attention has been given to plants which produce varieties of differing colours. The whole garden covers ten hectares and has to be entirely weeded by hand because of the delicate nature of the roots of the hedges. While we were standing admiring the ornamental garden a youngish man and his son came to stand next to us and we got chatting, during which time he told us that he actually lives on the property. When we asked what he did to be able to live in such a beautiful place he just shrugged and said that he worked on the farm. Later, we thought we recognised his photograph and identified him as Henri Carvallo, current owner of the chateau and grand-son of the orinator of the garden.
The following day we drove a long way north-west and found a convenient campsite to visit Chambord Chateau the next day. Neels and I had both been there before and we were looking forward to seeing Jenny's face when first confronted with the place. It is the youngest of all the chateaux and quite definitely the most elaborate design. Known for it's double helix staircase which links all the floors, it is simply huge with 426 rooms and 282 fireplaces! Imagine the housework! We were lucky enough to be the only English speaking people wanting to take advantage of a short tour of the building so had a guide all to ourselves. She was quite delightful and was full of snippets of information that we would never have heard otherwise.
Our third day along the Loire was spent largely at Chenonceau the third Chateau we had decided to visit. Jenny thought it was much more of a 'manageable' size and far more of a family home, a rather grand one, I think. It is different in that it is built as a bridge across the river and also has some pretty good formal gardens, but not a patch on Villandry!
By then our week was nearly up and we had to start heading south and for cousin Nicky's house in Aignan in the Midi-Pyrenees region. Jenny will spending a few days with her before heading back to South Africa and a after a day or two with her too, we will be moving on again.
No pictures with this post as I am typing it on someone else's computer and all my pictures are on the laptop. You will just have to make mental pictures until I can show you the real things.