The two monsters may have suffered with a small dose of over-excitement the previous evening, but the additional hour donated by the reversing of the clock gave us a reasonable amount of time to attempt sleep. The night was spend hovering somewhere between the gentle sleep-inducing sound of falling rain splattering gently on the van's roof, and the intermittent intensely irritating buzz of dive-bombing mosquitoes.
It was therefore a slow start to the morning, hopeful that the rain would restrain itself. It did.
This is the Chateau de Valençay:
The afternoon would allow for some external photography, the intensely grey morning sky making swimming preferable to photography.
We visited the rooms of this super rich home. Despite the well dictated stories supplied by our hand-held guides, it will come as no surprise that the grandkids attention was not held long by these antique, primordial rooms dating back to a far distant past nearly as old as Mamé and Papé.
There were some quite impressive carpets mistakenly glued to the wall...
However, the veracity of some of these 'originals' is in question...
Once the pleasures of prehistory had been exhausted, we set forth in search of a local hostelry. We struck gold. The 'meal of the day' was a true masterpiece, and tasted as good as it looked.
Not all were so impressed.
The chef in this establishment was something of a split personality. After he had slammed doors and berated his waitress with language that was way beyond my feeble abilities, and of which Annick refused to translate, he changed, front of house, into a friendly face which led me into a deep discussion of the abilities of our respective rugby teams.
On returning replete to the chateau, the sun was straining on its leash to shower us in sunshine. Enough to allow some photography, but still surprising us with the occasional wet stuff.
The girls didn't care.
It was finally time to leave this amazing place in our new, slightly short-of-space, camper...
40 minutes later, here we are, ready for our next day's adventure, in the Chateau de Cheverny.
Tomorrow, our second chateau and another day dodging the raindrops. (Here.)
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