France Part Trois

Slackin again....part trois of our trip...
In transit to our next camping ground we stopped by two Chateaus....First up Chateau Villandry.  The grounds are just gorgeous here.  There are beautiful hedges, water ponds, grass tennis courts, vegetable gardens and just flowers abound. 

Enjoying a snack in the shade

Unfortunately it was 95 or so degrees the day we visited, so it didn't make us want to spend much time there.  Here we are trying to stay a little cool in the shade! 

After a short lunch we then headed to Chateau Azay-le-Rideau. 

This was not one of my favorites, but was still nice, however the weather made it difficult to really enjoy it.  After that we headed to our next campsite near Angers.  Not as nice as the first, but still pretty nice.  Karen and I did some laundry and the kids got to play in a bouncy house.  Since it was so hot, we were worried about how hot the cabin would be, but thankfully we ended up getting a rainstorm after dinner that cooled things down a little.

The following day we went to the Abbey of Fontevraud - the largest in Europe.  It was neat to walk around the old buildings, and imagine what it had been like with people living there.  The Plantagenet family had a connection and there are effigies of Elenor of Acquitaine, here husband Henry II of England and their son Richard the Lion Heart.

Dancing in the old kitchen

The next day we explored the town of Angers.  We had lunch in a park, and then saw the Cathedral St Maurice, and then walked around looking at the buildings, including these old timber houses they have.

We then headed to the Chateau in Angers.  It was different from the other chateau's we had visited as it was an old fortress.  They had these tapestries from the 9th to 12th centuries of the apocalypse.  They were so neat to see. 

After the Chateau, we picked up a Strawberry tart and headed back to the campsite where we grilled, ate bread and cheese, had some wine and let the kids play while we started to pack to leave for the next campsite the following day.