Day 5 biking

Day 5. After a so so breakfast (we're getting blasé about croissants, good butter, jams and strong coffee), we hopped on our bikes for a short ride to Chateau de Chenanceau, a crown jewel of a castle full of regal intrigue, especially between king Henri II and his wife, Catherine de Medici, and his mistress, Diane de Poitiers.

But pictures are again worth a thousand words so...




Here is the walkway to the castle lined by what I think are 'plane trees' which are closely related to sycamores.



This is the the famous view of the castle.









The symbol, not coincidentally, includes a C, a D, and an H.



They pride themselves on flower arrangements.










Here is a portrait of the lovely milk skinned Diane...not a hottie by today's standards but a Rennaissance cougar, by all accounts (she was 20 y older than Henri!).



Here was our guide. Too persnickety to be likable, but she had lots of info.



One of several royal bedchambers.

We then biked ca 12 miles to lunch at a winery; a nice sit down affair with chicken and beef, and wine of course. Delightful hosts, who showed us around chateau de Nitray. I especially liked the owner who had a wonderful sense of humor and a twinkle in his eye.









Here is monsieur showing us the inside of the pigeon building! This is how they accessed the roosts to get eggs! (the ladder swings around the inside of the round building).

A couple of biking scenes from the day...







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