Mont St Michel & Loire Valley

Today we had a nice breakfast at our hotel La Ramade near Avranches, and then we were off to Mont St Michel. This really is an amazing site. It is a monastery/abbey (also at one point it served as a prison) built on a tiny granite island just off the coast. As you drive up, there are all sorts of amazing views. We toured the abbey, which dates back to about 1200 and walked through the narrow streets full of restaurants and gift shops. 

La Ramade

Le Mont Saint Michel

From Mont St Michel, we headed to the Loire Valley, a little over a three hour drive…which consequently cost 15 euro in tolls!!! WTF. After stopping at a tourism office, which ended up taking 45 minutes because the woman would not stop talking, we headed to our first stop, Chateau de Villandry. This chateau is known for its amazing gardens, many of which are actually vegetable and herb gardens, but unlike a vegetable garden that any of us would have in our back yard! I think we took about 30 pictures of the gardens, and we didn't even bother to go into the chateau!

Chateau de Villandry and its Gardens

Next was Chateau d'Usse. This chateau is the inspiration for the castle in the story Sleeping Beauty. It really does look like a fairy tale castle. We skipped the tour of this one too (ha!) and decided to head into the town of Rigny-Usse to do a bit of wine tasting at a small wine/gourmet shop. This was quite fun and we bought a couple bottles…a Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc and a Chinon Cabernet Franc from Chateau de Grille. Then we stopped at a "boulangerie" (bakery) for some fresh bread and desserts; and at a market for some meats, cheeses and fruits, so we could have a picnic dinner. 

Chateau d'Usse

The Sleeping Beauty Castle

Bridge over L'Indre

La Loire

Our hotel is called Les Moulins de Vontes. It is a bed and breakfast which used to be three old mills on the River Indre, a tributary to the Loire. We ate our picnic dinner outside on a patio next to the water. The hotel owner, Odile, had a glass of wine with us…she used to live in Manhattan and taught economics at Lycee Francaise. She also gave us a bottle of wine called a Touraine Noble Joue…a wine produced by only five wineries in all of France! The location of this B&B is so relaxing, such a great experience. Plus the Chateau de Grille wine we bought was excellent and Kevin can't stop talking about it. Unfortunately you can't ship wine home from France. 

Our B&B Les Moulins de Vontes on the river Indre.

We are in the building on the right.

This picture was taken at 9:30pm...it doesn't get dark here until super late!

Picnic dinner

The view

Tomorrow we will visit a few more chateaux and hopefully a winery if we have time. We will end up in Paris tomorrow night, and we are meeting my Australian cousins Mel & Kathy (who many of you met at our wedding) at a restaurant on Isle de St Louis.  A bientot!!