When they were traveling in Germany, the German food did not make An Qingju and An Chuyu miss Chinese food, but the luxurious French meal made An Qingju and An Chuyu miss rice and fried dishes particularly.
There is no Chinese food in the rural town, so An Qingju and An Chuyu found a Chinese restaurant called "Hua Guo Hong" in Tours, which is quite popular. An Chuyu drove 30 kilometers, then went around and found a parking space in Tours, and walked a few hundred meters to "Hua Guo Hong".
An Chuyu was not at all vague. He finished two portions of spare ribs, one portion of fried rice and one portion of fried noodles, and several stir-fried vegetables. He was full and satisfied. When leaving to pay the bill, the Chinese boss lady asked An Qingju and An Chuyu if they were on a business trip. An Qingju said that they were here to have fun. The boss lady said with special emotion, "You must have had a very hard time along the way."
An Qingjue didn't quite understand until she saw the bill. It was 45 Euros for two people! This price is not much for French food, but it is definitely a luxury for Chinese food. Generally, a Chinese dish costs only 6-8 Euros. The three Chinese girls next to An Qingjue and An Chuyu (who seemed to be local students) paid less than 20 Euros...
This is a casual shot of the streets of Tours. The sky is blue and everything looks beautiful.
After having enough water and food, the two of them burped and hummed a little song as they rushed to Villandry Castle. An Chuyu and his friends had planned to go to Tours for lunch today. Because today's route was along the route west of Tours, there was no detour. From Tours, driving westward for less than 20 kilometers, you will reach Villandry.
The history of Villardry Castle itself is not earth-shattering. People come here mainly to see French gardening. Of course, if you want to see French gardening, you can also go to the Palace of Versailles and the Palace of Fontaine-l'Essées. However, the gardening here has its own characteristics.
In the French country towns that An Qingju and An Chuyu passed by, no matter how small, every corner was planted with small gardening flowers with great color matching. It must be said that the French gardening taste is indeed the result of hundreds of years of influence.
Compared to the "horticulture" that An Qingju and An Chuyu saw on a street in Kangzhuang when they passed by during their stay in Yanqing, the villagers who amazed An Qingju and An Chuyu how they could plant flowers in such gaudy colors can also be regarded as a result of cultural influence.
But it was not until I went back to the Villandry Castle to see the gardens that I realized that the French "noble gardening" is obviously not about advocating color matching; of course, color matching is also important, but it is obviously just basic gardening. Noble French gardening pays attention to "arranging" plants into shapes you can't imagine, and cutting countless plants into the same shape.
See these lime tree corridors? They look like they grew naturally, but in fact, 1,015 lime trees were carefully pruned into this shape. The instructions say that it takes four gardeners three months to prune these lime trees every winter:
There are two types of tickets to enter the castle: 10 Euros per person for visiting the castle + the garden, and 6.5 Euros per person for visiting the garden only. Considering that there are many castles to visit later, An Qingju and An Chuyu only visited the garden.
The entire castle's garden is divided into many parts according to the theme, including the sun garden, water garden, vegetable garden, herb garden, etc. Various plants are planted in each part of the garden according to different themes, and carefully combed and cut into extremely complex patterns:
I have to say, these patterns are complicated enough just to draw, not to mention planting them: how do gardeners work? They don’t even use a hoe. They just use their hands:
To be honest, this is a good place for a walk. Sitting under the shade of the trees, eating some sunflower seeds, watching the kids running around in the maze, and feeling the cool breeze is really nice:
After An Qingju and An Chuyu came out, they visited the Langeais Castle and the Azay-le-Rideau Castle. They only looked at the exterior of these two castles but did not go in.
Langeais Castle is 10 kilometers west of Villardry Castle. Entering the town of Langeais, it is as ancient as driving back to ancient times. You have to follow a small car along the extremely narrow streets to find it. The streets are so narrow that An Qingju and An Chuyu thought they would definitely get stuck if they went in. Unexpectedly, there was a parking lot at the corner:
After seeing so many castles, you can tell that the Château de Langeais is a defensive castle. Even if you can only see a glimpse of it through the street, you can tell from its towering towers:
The other side of the castle faces the Loire River. There is also a drawbridge. The wall at the bottom of the castle is very thick, at least 4 meters, and there is no "door" at the bottom (you can see it directly in the photo). The "door" is opened very high above the ground and is as small as possible. If you want to enter the "door", you have to use a ladder, and use a detachable wooden staircase when attacked.
This can't even be called a castle. It can be called a bunker.
The Château d'Azay-le-Rideau is much better. It is located 10 kilometers south of the Château de Langeais. It was built by the finance minister during the reign of Francis I. It was confiscated by the king (it was hard to be an official). This castle is not a towering fortress, but a holiday villa, which is convenient for hiding a beautiful woman.
An Qingjue and An Chuyu only took two photos at the door and did not go in: There are photos online for reference. Although the castle is small, it is still very beautiful when reflected on the lake:
After going through so much, I was too lazy today. I have to move tomorrow. The next place I'm staying at said on booking that it has an electric kettle, so An Qingju and An Chuyu went to the supermarket to buy some eggs to cook tomorrow. We passed by Carrefour, bought some things and refueled, and then came back. I ate too much at noon, and slept with fruit at night.
The price of being lazy yesterday is that today we will be more busy. An Qingju and An Chuyu are still country folk. Now that they are here, they are reluctant to give up the places they originally planned to go. The only way to make up for yesterday's laziness is to rush all the way today. Fortunately, there is no way back on today's route, just go east all the way.
After checking out in the morning, we headed east along the Loire River for 20 kilometers to our first stop: Chaumont-sur-Loire. This is where Henry II's mother (to be more polite: his first wife) occupied Chenonceau from her husband's favorite concubine after her husband died, and "exchanged" it for the concubine's new residence.
Actually, it's not bad, and it's not too bad. An Qingju and An Chuyu didn't go in, but took photos on the other side of the river; many tourists obviously stood on the other side of the river to admire it like An Qingju and An Chuyu. To be honest, compared with Chenonceau Castle, this place is not bad:
After passing the Chaumont Castle, the car drove through the city of Blois, left the Loire River, and continued east for about 35 kilometers to reach the Chambord Castle (some websites also call it the Chateau de Chambord).
Chambord Castle is the largest castle in the Loire Valley. It was the first large-scale project after Francois I ascended the throne.
This French king followed his father-in-law (Louis XII) on his conquests in Italy and became "fascinated" with Renaissance art. He was no longer satisfied with renovating the existing palace, so he built this hunting palace. It has been run for several generations and is now very large and majestic, and is truly worth a visit.
Going to other castles is called a visit, where you can just walk around and come out. But if you go to the Chateau de Chambord, you can arrange a luxurious picnic here. Unfortunately, An Qingjue and An Chuyu didn't know this in advance and only prepared a simple lunch, which can also be considered a pic.
The layout of the Château de Chambord is divided into two parts: the garden and the castle. The garden is very large, so you have to drive to visit it. The garden tour is free. So many locals bring their picnic items to the lawn and have a picnic while watching the castle. There are many parking lots near the castle, and it seems to be 4 euros a day.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
After parking the car, you can walk along the moat from the back of the castle, and the magnificent building gradually appears: This view is not a big deal, the key is to go around to the front of the castle, and then get a little further away, you can see the full picture of the castle:
The entire castle has more than 400 rooms and nearly 300 fireplaces. The ceilings of the rooms are carved with the "f" symbolizing Francis I and the family logo salamander (roasted salamander?):
The architectural design of the Chateau de Chambord is exquisite. The most praiseworthy part is the stairs in the castle, which adopt a double helix structure similar to DNA, that is, two independent sets of staircases are intertwined and revolve around a common axis, spiraling upwards. At the same time, people going up and down the stairs can see each other without bumping into each other.
It is said that the king asked Leonardo da Vinci to design this in order to avoid embarrassment and disputes when the queen and his mistress met face to face. It is a unique design in the history of architecture.
Those who are interested in the living facilities of the French king can also feast their eyes in this castle. What impressed An Qingju was the four-wheeled carriage made by Hermès and a small bathroom. The four-wheeled carriage is absolutely exquisite, and it is said that the carriages on display here have never been used.
There was a toilet in the bathroom - of course it was not a flush toilet, which An Qingjue and An Chuyu had not seen in their subsequent visits to the palace. It can be imagined that it was not very convenient for the nobles to go to the bathroom at that time:
The castle has nearly 300 stoves, all of which need chimneys, so there are many beautifully decorated chimneys on the top of the castle. This is what makes this castle so unique: it is a great pleasure to appreciate these beautiful decorations on the facade in the castle corridors.
Standing on the top of the castle, you can see the lawns and hunting estates around the castle, which are as magnificent as they can be. There are also horse riders in ancient costumes on the grass, probably to provide photos and group photos.
After leaving the castle, we went to the lawn and had plenty of time and space to pose for photos with the two of us. Everyone did the same.
An Qingju and An Chuyu sat under the shade of the tree with all the food they brought with them and had a very pleasant picnic. After the picnic, the two headed straight to the next stop, Cheverny Castle, also known as Tintin Castle. This castle is located 18 kilometers south of the Château de Chambord.
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