Day 2 in the Loire

Chateau Villandry
The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as Colombier until the 17th century. Acquired in the early 16th century by Jean Le Breton, France's Controller-General for War under King Francis I, a new château was constructed around the original 14th-century keep where King Philip II of France once met Richard I of England to discuss peace. It is also known for its beautiful gardens.  Again, you can wikipedia if you want more details.   This place had fantastic gardens.  Much of the lower gardens were planed with edible plantings.

Chateau Usse

In the fifteenth century, the ruined castle of Ussé was purchased by Jean V de Bueil, a captain-general of Charles VII who became seigneur of Ussé in 1431 and began rebuilding it in the 1440s; his son Antoine de Bueil married in 1462 Jeanne de Valois, the natural daughter of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel, who brought as dowry 40000 golden écus.  The tradition maintained at Ussé is that this was the castle Charles Perrault had in mind when writing "The Sleeping Beauty.   For more wikipedia this.  

My least favorite all the Chateau that we have visited.  The exterior of the building was great but they staged the whole interior with this life size maniquins dressed in 19th century clothing.  It was really creepy to see the whole place full of these maniquins.  The outside was great, skip the inside.

Château de Azay-le-Rideau

Château de Azay-le-Rideau was built from 1515 to 1527, one of the earliest French Renaissance châteaux. When Berthelot was suspected of collusion in embezzlement he was forced to flee from incomplete Azay-le-Rideau in 1528; he never saw the château again. Instead, the king confiscated the property and gave it as a reward to one of his high-ranking soldiers.

Probably no one else will find this interesting but It's my blog so too bad.  When you walked throught this Chateau, part of the tour went through the attic (of sorts) and you could see all the timber framing that made up the roof structure.  They cut down and entire oak forest to make the roof for this place.  Enormous oak beams like an inverted ship. It was all put together with wooden pegs.  I don't think there was a nail in it.  It was cool.  Linda was not so enthusiastic.

That was one day of Chateau'ing