Like so many other fascinating historic places, they often hide a dark past of political mishaps, rivalry, jealousy, revenge and great love affairs. As we explored the stunning Château de Chenonceau the plot of an intriguing Royal love triangle started to unfold.
Henry II married Catherine de Medici, who was a member of the powerful ruling family of Florence, they were both fourteen years old when they got married.
The following year, he became romantically involved with the thirty-five-year-old widow, Diane de Poitier, who was beautiful, well educated, and politically astute. She influenced many of the decisions made by the King who was madly in love with her. Her powers of persuasion did not take long to convince the King to gift her the charming Château de Chenonceau.
The charming town of Amboise has been a great place to base ourselves whilst exploring a little bit of the Loire Valley. We have been here for the last three days enjoying a peaceful location a stone’s throw from the banks of the Loire River and a short walking distance from the town.
Great food, wine, chateaux galore, and fascinating history is what brings hordes of tourist here to the Loire Valley every year. We have beaten the crowds by arriving earlier…in the low season and we got fabulous weather to boot.
Many years of planning and talking about a tour of Europe in a motorhome has brought us to this exact moment when with a mixture of excitement and apprehension we are finally on our way.
It is a short distance between our home in Bournemouth and the ferry port of Poole, with light traffic for a Monday morning, albeit quite early – we arrive and board the Brittany Ferry without a hitch.
The crossing with Brittany Ferry from Poole to Cherbourg along the cold waters of the English Channel also known as Canal De La Mancha took us about four hours of a reasonably pleasant crossing.
As new motorhome owners our maiden voyage was full of trepidation. We carefully planed a “shakedown” trip not far from home to learn all about our new home on wheels.
What could possibly go wrong?
Our maiden voyage was planned to be at a campsite very near our home, just in case we needed to beat a hasty retreat from the many disastrous scenarios that we thought could possibly happen to people like us… total newbies to motorhome life. We did get a great “demo” from