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 This is Amboise's main street, and the way to the Château |
 This is the Château d'Amboise, one of the minor châteaux |
 This is the Chapelle St-Hubert, where Leonardo daVinci is buried |
 Every Wednesday and Saturday night, the residents of Amboise put on a play in the château's courtyard that depicts the château's history |
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 Alan and Ann in Formal Gardens |
 During the French Revolution, the château escaped the majority of damaged inflicted on other châteaux because of respect for the then owner Louise Dupin. She entertained the brightest minds of her time, like Voltaire and Montesqieu, in the château. |
 Andrew in the formal gardens |
 The château was built in the river Cher for protection, and then the bridge across the river was completed. During the Nazi occupation of France, the Cher was where occupied and free France met; people escaped into free France by walking through the castle. |
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 Alan and Ann atop the Château de Villandry |
 This is a view of the château from the middle of the gardens |
 This is the Garden of Love. The château's owners employ 8 full time gardeners to plant some 60,000 vegetables and 45,000 bedding plants each year. |
 This is part of the Kitchen Garden. It is one of 9 squares (all with unique designs) where vegetables and fruit are grown for the owners. |
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 This is one of the walls surrounding the château. It was built around 1240 and is a REAL fortress. These fortress towers go all around the building, and are almost 60m (200ft) tall. |
 Ann and Alan, in the rain, atop the château's wall |
 Unlike most château's which are famous for gardens, beauty, or architectural achievements, Angers is famous for its tapestries. The above tapestries all used to be woven together, but they have fallen apart after first being made almost 600 years ago. When they were all together the stretched 103m (338ft) and depicted the Apocalypse. |
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 The Château de Chambord is by far the largest of the Loire châteaux with 440 rooms, but it started off as a hunting lodge for the French royal family. |
 The stair cases in Chambord are especially important because they were designed by Leonardo daVinci. Each stair case has 2 seperate flights that twist around one another, like DNA; this way the king could walk up one flight and never see the servants walking down it. |
 Chambord's most striking feature is its 'skyline' containing some 340 chimneys. |
 Sadly this was the only day it rained non-stop on our trip, so we ended up cutting out visit short. |
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 The Eiffel Tower |
 The Arc de Triomphe |
 Since we have been to Paris a few times, we decided to do something different. We went to La Défense, which is the modern commercial centre of just outside of Paris (skyscrapers are not allowed to be built within the city walls because they obstruct the view of the Eiffel Tower). |
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