The day didn't look too promising and a lot of rain was forecast. We have been very lucky with the weather, not rained once really, only a few showers and we were able to go out each day. So out came my small camera bag holding the E-M5 II with the Panasonic 7-14 f4 mounted. I also threw in the Panasonic TZ101 because it takes up hardly any room. I had a feeling we were going to be inside quite a lot because of the rain. Having taken the GX7 with the small Panasonic 12-32 f3.5-5.6 yesterday I realised it just wasn't wide enough for interior rooms of the châteaus.

Today took us out to two more chateaus, the first being Chateau Langeais. Originally founded in the year 992 today's chateau has no resemblance to the original castle. The old keep itself lies in ruins. It is the second earliest knows chateau and is where the marriage between Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII took place in secrecy (1491), which bonded Brittany to the rest of France. The new chateau, what stands today, was started in 1465. Reconstruction was started in 1865 and the drawbridge that is still in working order was also reconstructed.

Château de Villandry is worth the visit for the gardens alone (as seen in the images below). Most of the Loire Valley chateaus are in quite good condition. Of course some restoration work has had to be done over time, but still, it's easy to see where original stone still exists today. The cost of keeping these buildings in tiptop condition costs a fortune, hence the high entry fee we all have to pay.

Today we moved on from Blois to a little town called Veretz. It's not too far from Chinon (which I always thought was a large town but isn't) and planned to stay there for the day until our friends turned up later.

During a trip like this, where you've come to do a certain tour, you need a little break once in awhile. This is exactly what we did today and did something completely different. This is our last day in Blois before moving on.

It turned out to be a long drive. Unfortunately it was the only day we could do it on but I wanted to see this location as the weather was rather cloudy and grey but there wasn't anything we could do about that.

Today, for our first visit, we did a village north of the Loire River. All, or most, of the popular châteaux seem to be on the south side of the Loire. I wonder why? Anyway, the first village we visited was Talcy. Of course it also has a château. I think every little village in this part of France has a château. We didn't visit these villages for the sole purpose of their châteaux, we just wanted to see the villages themselves, many of them dating back centuries.

Today, we did Chaumont-sur-Loire. Built between 1466 and 1510. That's nearly 50 years for a project. You have to let that go through your head to realize how long that really is. Wouldn't work today of course but when you think about the tools they had then, I think they did pretty well to finish it in just under 50 years.

To make up for the disappointment yesterday we headed for two different locations. My shutter therapy is falling short right now!

Today we took a break from looking at châteaux, even one château per day can be too much at times so we headed out for the town of Orleans. With some 120,000 inhabitants, it's one of the bigger towns in the region and offers some great sights to see. It was the capital of mediaeval France until the mid-18th Century. During the French Revolution it became staunchly Republican. The cathedral dominates the town (Cathedrale-Ste-Croix) and is an architectural masterpiece. I don't visit all of these churches for religious reasons but because of my awe at how they were built centuries ago. A master builder was really a master builder.

Apart from being in the Loire Valley to see the great chateaux, I am also here to test some lenses which I mentioned in one of my last posts. I find it a good time to do this because I'm pretty relaxed when I'm on holiday. So today I decided to mount the Tamron 14-150 f3.5-5.8 on the E-M1 and see how things turn out. The last test I carried out with the Tamron was with the Panasonic GX7. I hope that the latest firmware update produce better results on my Olympus cameras. The Panasonic 7-14 f4 will be used on the GX7. Results should be good, being used on a Panasonic body. Should theoretically be better than when using an Olympus body. There's nothing like mixing and matching to bring out the best in equipment, or the worst. I may miss the f4 aperture of the 12-100 but the only way to see if something works is to use it in the field. I'm not a great fan of continuous blue skies, a little cloud does produce a more interesting image. Today however, we had grey, threatening clouds but no rain, until we got to Amboise and got out of the car, literally! So the whole day was a little showery but it didn't stop us from visiting the chateau here. It was the chateau of Charles VIII and where Leonardo da Vinci is buried. Amboise is where Leonardo lived for the last 3 years of his life and died at his home here in 1519.

We headed south west in the direction of Chenonceaux which is the village that gives it’s name to Château Chenonceau. Aptly named as  the “Palace of Women” because over the ages only women have owned and lived in the château. Originally built in 1512 by Catherine Briconnet it was Diane de Poitiers who would build the bridge that spans the Cher river. Catherine de Medici then added the galleries over the bridge.

The heat is oppressive today. We feel like taking a shower every 15 minutes. Despite this we battled our way to the largest chateau in France, Chambord.

Ten hours it took to drive from Frankfurt, Germany to Blois, France. Blois is the regional capital with some 50,000 inhabitants. After finding the flat we had rented for the next 10 days, out we went to see what delights the town could offer.