Green Grottoes to Cozy Caves

Before leaving Tours, we had to deal with our bags. Thanks to the concierge at the hotel we were able to arrange that our two bags would be picked up and boxed by Mail Boxes etc. and then shipped to our hotel in Nantes for less than 30 euros. Way less than the 200 euros that the bike outfit was asking (they wanted to use a taxi).

We set out on the bikes heading down river and by around noon, reached the Villandry. We decided to get some lunch before going into the chateau and picked a small place one street back from the main one. They made a classic gallet de sarrasin or buckwheat crepe, which Catherine was able to eat since it was 100% buckwheat. It turns out that those crepes are specifically a Breton specialty and the Loire is close enough that we saw a significant amount of Breton influence. So we had them, an appetizer, and I got a sweet crepe with some glasses of excellent Breton cider.

After lunch, we visited the Chateau de Villandry, or really, it's gardens. They were rebuilt in the 1800s from the style of the time of the original gardens  and are now maintained year round by 10 gardeners. They are supposed to be the most extensive gardens in the Loire, and it's not hard to see why. There's a hedge maze, a large herb garden, a swan pond, a statue garden and even large vegetable gardens. The vegetable and herb gardens aren't your typical ones though because the vegetables are chosen and arranged for their ornamental value along with crop rotations. So you have things like purple leaved peppers contrasting with golden celery all in a very geometric design. The herbs are also setup geometrically, but are generally more permanent since some of them are perennials. So there were little hedges of things like mint and rosemary.

After the castle, we followed the bike route to our hotel outside of Azay-de-Rideau. the hotel is actually a Trogdolyte hotel carved out of the limestone cliffs. Catherine wanted to stay in a cave hotel, so this is the one I found, however, upon arriving and seeing the room (which even had a little entertainment chamber) realized that caves don't have airflow and are thus musty. So we had to switch to one of the rooms built using stone blocks where they were able to get some air to dry it out.

We were originally going to try and see the chateau or to go up the street to the exhibition trogdolyte village, but upon unpacking, we decided to just relax and sit in the hot tub before dinner. For dinner, we went to a restaurant right besides the castle that the concierge at the hotel recommended. It was a great little spot that was truly bustling. I had a fish & zucchini lasagna, which was a lot like a casserole, while Catherine had a piece of white fish in beurre blanc. For desert, I had a peach tart. It was a great crust, but the peaches were tasteless. I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that peaches in this part of France just suck. Catherine had pears poached in Chinon wine, which was delectable.