Journal Thursday August 28th

Morning all. We’re safely home after about a 3 hour journey from Chateau Chenonceau in the Loire Valley. There will be a dedicated blog post coming soon, because this place is stunning. The gardens are amazing too and I have list of plants I want to grow as long as my arm. The apothecary of Catherine De Medici is wonderful, the kitchens, the bedrooms of the queens, I loved it all, I literally don’t have the superlatives.

I want to do a bit more reading before I write a proper post on it, but how wonderful that this chateau was shaped by extraordinary women, feminists even, ahead of their time by centuries. So much reading to do, I must learn all about them.

Always sad to leave a beautiful place, but it seems I have fallen in love with yet another area of France and want to explore it more. Just driving around the Loire is a delight, buildings with the chicest amount of crumbling plaster and haphazard wisteria, the way only France can deliver that sort of faded elegance. I’m a lover of imperfect things, so this appeals to my nature greatly.

We ventured away from the confines of the hotels buffet dinners last night, and Craig found a little restaurant in the square of the charmingly bustling town of Saint-Aignan, called Hestia. We sat outside and fresh focaccia arrived with complimentary hummus, salsa and tzatziki. I had the burger, hubs had the mixed grill and both were delicious and way too big, I think I managed about 3 chips. We’d done 18k steps today and the humidity was making everything feel just a bit more difficult, so I think we were just finally glad to sit down and have a cold drink.

Only a few minutes drive back to the Zoo and a pretty early night. Having fun, it seems, is quite tiring.

TTFN,

V x