Chateau Chambord and Chervny

Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Saint-Georges-sur-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire, France
Breakfast was great again: scrambled eggs, ham, cheese, baguette and whole wheat farmers bread, strawberries and yogurt. And freshly squeezed OJ. We started the day driving over the small roads to Chabord vis Bloise where we got gas at the LeClerc. The fields are very green after the rain and look very lush. There are many vineyards in the valley, mostly making blends of Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Chambord is the largest of all Chateaus...440 rooms and 365 fireplaces...not much is furnished so as per Yvonne we just paid for parking and explored the gardens and the estate. It's like Versailles ....you can rent bikes and explore the whole thing but we just walked around the water channels....there are red deer and boars and we saw their tracks and eating areas. They do a boar hunt each year to keep the numbers under control but the deer are left alone for research.
There were many birds singing away...even a cuckoo! We walked for about an hour and then we drove cross country to Cheverny.....it's a smaller Chateau owned since the 1500s by the Hurault family. The family still lives in the right wing and the left wing is open to visitors. Interesting rooms...family dining room, bedrooms, nursery, library, even a kings room for the occasional visit. The grounds are lovely with all the spring azaleas and rodeos in bloom with wisteria and roses climbing over trellises and on the old walls...they have a wonderful kitchen garden for herbs, veggies and bedding plants. The
Orangerie is now a tea shop and we sat in the sun and enjoyed a pot of Earl Grey and a Tarte limon....until the shower started. We walked over to the Hounds...they have 100 French Hounds for the hunts and for breeding. The owner came out and had the trainer separate 5-6 dogs from the pack...for breeding?? Lovely dogs but they sure could howl.
The sun came out again and we visited the Maison du Vins...it's a coop of 32 vineyards for marketing the local wines. They have 4 types for disgustation each week... A red, 2 whites and a Rose. We tasted all...and bought a nice dry Sauvignon.you could also pay for extra tastings of over 100 other wines by buying tokens that had activated the little spouts mounted on columns in the room. It was 4 samples for 6 euros or 7 for 10€. Very much like Lavinia in Paris.
We then drove through the country to Amboise and had a very nice meal on Place Me....the main tourist street in the town. It was much less busy than our last visit and we parked along. The river road by the market for free.
Yvonne had recommended Chez Bruno for dinner....it was great though it seemed everyone was a tourist...mostly Americans. But the staff was very nice and helpful and the food and wine was great: We shared salad Chèvre Chaud, I had duck with fig sauce and W had pork tenderloin with tarragon sauce...the veggies were julienned and done just right and we had pommels au gratin...for dessert we had chocolate profiteroles and coffee. Very yummy for sure.
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