The morning began with the death of a croissant!
It wasn't pretty but it was delicious.
Then we were off to see the gardens of Villandry.
Beautiful as ever but they were kind of in between......the bulbs were mostly finished and they had just done some new plantings that hadn't begun to bloom. The "bones" of this amazing garden are still intact and beautiful.
As I walked around the greenhouse to take a peek inside I stumbled upon these little beauties growing wild along a stone wall.
We had lunch in the courtyard near the entrance to Villandry under large umbrellas.
Quiche and a salad for me and salad with prosciutto for Mr. B.
We both decided that we were a little too tired to go to Chateau d'Usse (the sleeping beauty castle) and returned to our hotel in Chinon to rest. I had been up coughing for the last five nights and had laryngitis. It's always best if the navigator on the trip and can't speak above a whisper!
Later that night we dined outside at L'Entrepotes in Chinon.
While the service and food were delicious, they had AstroTurf on the ground and bright fuchsia colored pots scattered about as well as plastic table lamps. But as night descended and several glasses of wine later.......I mellowed out!
Here is their wine list that they bring to your table!
I'm thinking I'll get over the fuchsia glasses as well.
Mr. B had a huge platter of salmon as a first course.
And prawns in a Provencal sauce for his main.
While I had a humongous plate of duck!
And an amazing chocolate cake.
The light from the moon guided us back home along the rivers edge.....
"I've never seen a moon in the sky that,
if it didn't take my breath away,
at least misplaced it for a moment."
-- Colin Farrell
I hope you're getting my comments, they're not posted. I'm enjoying every minute of this and photos are beautiful. We are going to Villandry in Sept and at least passing Usse, but staying in Saumur- a much shorter trip.
ReplyDeleteGoogle said they're not doing open comments anymore. I hope that isn't this
Mr. B and I stayed in Saumur several years ago at Hotel Anne d'Anjou. I remember their restaurant being fantastic at that time. The castle was under construction and it was fascinating to watch them working on it.
DeleteI don't know if you'll get this response now, but comments didn't show up when you wrote the blog. we also stayed at Anne D'Anjou. It was a beautiful hotel...more in my next blog.
DeleteI was checking back on your trip blogs today to see your chateaus, and you do record VIllandry last spring. We didn't go in, which is fine by me because when Dean gets in a chateau he has to look at every object, every pipe, every basement and attic-Yawn!