Art-Walk-Eat Travels: Chateau Chambord and hot air ballooning over Chateau Chenonceau

We had breakfast at 7 am and met down in the lobby with luggage at 8 am to head off to the Loire Valley

Steve and our bus driver, Herve.

Our bus for the whole time.

Today's treat was a petit ecolier or "school boy".

As we drove Steve came around and talked to each of us about the ideas we had for Amboise. We asked about the hot air balloon rides and wine tasting.

The first rest stop Steve suggested that we buy picnic lunch foods for after the chateau tour.

Steve also talked about the Chateau de Chambord. All of a sudden we came around a curve and this is what we saw. Amazing. There was a double helix staircase in the central area. They think that it had been designed by Leonardo da Vinci. This place is huge, but probably never lived in longer than a few months.

It was 15 euros for the entry.

We relaxed with our lunches. We had brought our leftover cheese and crackers from Paris. I didn't buy anything else. Jeanne bought an apple and Sharon & Kris bought a sandwich to share.

We bought some wine once we were at a picnic table

I had set up the wine bottle and glass for this picture. Some woman liked the idea and she took a picture, too, of my wine and glass.

We had time to wander through some of the shops before getting back to the bus.

We gathered at the bus at 2 pm and continued on to Amboise.

On the way we saw a lot of trees with round bushy clumps. We were trying to figure out what they were. We were told that it was mistletoe which is a hemiparasitic plant which ends out killing the tree, their host. Not a healthy relationship if you ask me.

We arrived at the Hotel Le Belle-Vue around 3 pm

Steve came by to tell us that the only time we could do the hot air balloon ride was later today at 5 pm. We said ok .

Jeanne and I had room #15, Kris #21, and Sharon #6.

Hotel lobby

Our room. It is very spacious.

We needed to have the receptionist come to our room to show us how to use the shower. It had a different way of shifting the water from the handheld head to the overhead head. We will see if we can still remember in the morning.

We met downstairs for our orientation walk around the block. Steve pointed out where the bank and ATM was so that we could each get 200 euros cash for the hot air balloon ride.

We were downstairs in the lobby by 5 pm to be picked up for our balloon ride.

Our basket

The balloon

We were not the only ones on this ride.

Fabian giving instructions.

Very scientific way to find out if the conditions were right to even try going up.

They drove us all to another field where 2 other balloons would be going up.

We got to watch the whole process. The guide of our basket kept giving a lot of instructions. He would give brief information in English.

Up, up, and Away.

The other 2 balloon were up soon after.

A train went by.

We flew over the Château de Chenonceau.

We got pretty close

The fountain was working.

Fabian made a point of lowering the hot air balloon to touch the tree tops. He was having fun.

Kris took this picture of Fabian. He was having fun.

So was Jeanne.

The other balloon

Our reflection in the river.

When we landed, the next balloon landed too close and almost knocked us over.

We were down. Then came quite the process of putting everything back onto the trucks.

We saw some hang gliders.

Fabian on the left

Fabian on the left. They were handing out champagne to everyone and survivor certificates.

The staff having a beverage.

Then they drove us home. Gorgeous sunset on our drive to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel about 8:15 pm. We were pretty hungry. While I was waiting for everyone to regroup again in the lobby I went across the street to take more sunset pictures.

We walked up the street looking for a place for dinner. We saw some of the RS group, but every place was packed or closing. We did find a Creperie that was open.