Loire Valley Day 1

We were woken by the sun shining in through the door to our cave at about 8am. Lew made breakfast this morning which was toast, cereal a mandarin and some orange juice! Clearly he's expecting us to have a busy day! We made some lunch, hung the washing outside and headed into the Amboise tourist office to buy a pass for the Chateaus. This is the cheapest way to do it if your planning on going to multiple ones. We chose a 4 Chateau option which cost us €95 ($155 NZD) total and gave us access to Chambord, Clos Luce, Cheverny and Amboise. We planned to drive to Chambord first since it was a hour away. On the way I received a phone call from my agency Continental Travel Nurse as I was still planning to sit my final exam when I get back in November. There is courses offered between 1-3 days which I was planning to do. Unfortunately it's going to be around another $3k NZD to finish off this process and become registered. I definetly don't agree that it's easy to nurse anywhere in the world, perhaps it was back in the day but rules and regulations have changed. I havnt even bothered to work out how much it's going to cost in total as I know it will make me angry! With the plan in mind to look at booking an exam date when we get home later tonight I tried to focus on the fact that we were on holiday and I couldn't stress about that now!

We found a park just outside a small town close enough to walk back to Chambord. Call us stingy but when you can park for free and have a short walk I'd prefer that than paying. The grounds around Chambord are very well maintained and the leaves on the trees are just starting to change colour. The Chateau itself certainly has a presence from the outside. Building of the Chateau was commenced in 1519 ac by King Francis I at age 24 years as he wanted somewhere to hunt. Walking in the entrance you come out into a gravel court yard before heading into yet another entrance. A lot of people had purchased the audiobook which was on an Ipad and it showed you what the house looked like back in the days as they moved it around the room. The place had a smokey wood smell to it which we both loved as it reminded us of winter in NZ. The place had four levels with a large grand staircase in the center from top to bottom. There were so many rooms all for different purposes and we had no idea where we were within the building. Listening to some of the history it sounded like the Chateau had many owners over its time since it was build in 1516. It had huge grounds around it encompassed by a 32km wall which is now just a National Park. They have everything from a chapel to a hunting museum with all their prized catches in the form of skulls and antlers on the wall. We went right up the to the top and got the most stunning view of the gardens with the moat surrounding the Chateau. We also walked around the gardens having a bite to eat and some photos before returning to the car.

We planned to drive to the Chateau Chiverny next. The roads are small and narrow and in every single small town it just seems like no one is around. Such a relaxing feel compared to the tourist sites in Paris. Chiverny has a different feel all together and is owned by the Hurault family or the title of the current owner that has been passed down the family is Marquis de Vibray. They have two twin daughters and a son and the family actually lives one section of the house. The oldest son inherits the chateau and it had been in the family for 7 centuries. They welcome guests (well they don't physically come and see you!) 365 days per year as they need this income to keep the Chateau up and running. The Chateau is properly furnished inside unlike Chateau de Chambord so it was easier to see how it was lived in back in the day. It's main features were it's extensively decorated ceilings and very old tapestries dating back to the 17th centuries. They have the wedding dress of the current owners wife on display in one of the rooms which was rather like a meringue. The other strange thing was that they had tonnes of lego art all around which we asked about and it was all from the top French lego artist who had an exhibition there currently. We finished walking around the house and went to check out the bloodhound kennel. They had a good 100 or so dogs locked up in this concrete enclosure. Seemed like such a waste when they have such huge grounds. There was a large sign we translated into English using the photo option on the google translate app which a friend of mine Hope taught me about back when we were room mates in Iceland travelling with the NZ Ice Fernz. It basically talked about how well fed the dogs were and how sanitary the kennels are!

We left Chateau de Chiverny and hoped to get to another close by Chateau called Chenonceau. It is one of the other more famous Chateaus in the region and has a bit more of a dark past than the others. You will probably also recognise the photographs of it as it spans across a river called the River Cher. It took us a good 45 minutes to get there through some more seemingly deserted towns. This one wasn't included in our Chateau pass so we had to pay extra for it. We parked the car up and walked in to the ticket booths. We were able to purchase a student ticket for me at €10  ($16 NZD) and Lew at €13 ($21 NZD). They didn't even bother checking my student ID at the door but security were more concerned about Lews drone which was in his bag but he would never fly in somewhere like this. He ended up taking it back to the car as they wanted to confiscate it whilst he was visiting the Chateau. I noticed they also took a small bottle of alcohol off a old man as well! Tight security. We walked up a tree lined entrance way for about 600m before the Chateau opened up before us with extravagant gardens on either side. The Chateau itself was very different to the others we had seen todays due to its unique location across the river, the fact that it was inhabited mainly by women hence its name "Chateau of the Ladies". It also had an important role to play in the Second World War when it was turned into a hospital with 120 beds and the owner at the time Gaston Menier paid for all the operating cost. The single Doctor and the Nurses treated 2,254 wounded soldiers, the last wounded soldier left the Chateau in 1928. During the war it was also bombed by the Germans in 1940 as it provided an escape route from the Nazi occupied zone on one side to the "free zone" on the other. It had three different levels that we explored which included a lot of bedrooms with large tapestries and a massive kitchen including a larder, butchery, dining room for employees and a pantry. It had a very broad range of copper kitchenware and the chopping board in the butchery you could tell was well used. We wondered how many animals had been decapitated on it! The hallway they used for the Hospital was 60mx6m with 9 windows on each side which would have provided a nice space for a hospital ward. In its earlier years it was used as a ballroom by Catherine de' Medicni who was quite the socialite in the the 1600s. Once we had successfully navigated all the rooms we ventured into garden on the left called Catherine's garden. It provided a stunning view of the entire castle over the river which meant we were able to get those signature tourist shots you see on google images! We tried out the other garden called Diane's garden which was larger with a hexagonal design. This gave us a different view of the other side of the Chateau. At this stage the sun was going down known as the golden hour for photography. Four hot air balloons floated above us and we would highly recommend this as the view must be just unreal. Unfortunately it would cost us $650 NZD and we decided this is something we could come back and do perhaps when we are earning in pounds! Closing time was in 15 minutes and we walked via the maze guessing we probably didn't have time to get lost in there before it closed. I drove us back to town where we grabbed a couple of items for dinner since we had left over salad and wine from yesterday. Plus its a nice option to be able to cook whilst we can to reduce costs. Once again we had a bath, cooked dinner, Facetimed Lews family, planned our drive for tomorrow, did some washing and went to bed! Oh the other important thing I did was book my Part 2 OSCE exam with the UK Nursing Council for November the 24th. Eeek it cost me £992 ($1835 NZD) 😲 and that's not even the total Iv paid for this entire process! It means unfortunately I have to study whilst we are on the road - mainly in Switzerland. I'm also planning to do a two day course which adds another £290 ($536 NZD) so hopefully I pass the first time as they are very picky on what they fail you with.