Saturday morning we headed off bright and early for the train station at Montparnasse for the TVG train to Tours. Our friend Zaza, whom we had met in Sauviac a few short weeks ago -- or perhaps it was a lifetime ago -- had invited us to stay with her for the weekend. We accepted, with great pleasure.
Since we had made our reservations late in the week, our trip out was first class. Since that may not happen again, here's what first class looks like.
Zaza was waiting at the station for us, and we walked to her apartment, only steps away.
We realized almost immediately that Tours is a lovely city, with many magnificent buildings, which is only fitting,since its history goes back to Charlemagne.
The train station was our first clue.
After a breakfast of brioche, a regional specialty of Tours, and coffee and tea, we headed out for an adventure at Chaumont-sur-Loire, a historically important chateau with some very unusual gardens.
On the way to Zaza's car, we got a quick peek at some architectural jewels.
The Hotel de Ville (city hall).
We headed east along the Loire, stopping for sandwiches, which we ate at a park at the side of the river, below the chateau, off in the distance of this photo. This picture was taken at the first on many permanent art pieces installed in the rolling grounds of the chateau. It is a platform extending out over the hill, allowing a magnificent view up and down the river, no doubt one of the reasons the chateau is here in the first place.
Thanks, Zaza, for the great photos!
We wandered through part of the grounds, but by no means all. We came across these structures made of some sort of branches, with some living and green.
There were two of these structures, one here on its side, another standing up farther into the garden.
Then came the ladder tree.
And the tree house tree.
And the one-armed tree.
And the rocky tree.
After covering as much of the permanent grounds as we had time for, we made our way to a group of outbuildings, some of which were also set up as galleries, with more temporary exhibits.
Now it was time to enter the temporary garden exhibits. There were about 30 small areas enclosed by various hedges and plantings, each one designed by a different artist, and each with a particular theme. Here are some of our favorites:
This one is devoted to the emerald isle, Ireland.
This one is a giant salad bowl, with edible plants growing in the center.
This one was one of our two overall favorites. The white thins on the trees are messages written by different people, perhaps earlier visitors.
This was our other overall favorite. The gnomes are on strike for better wages and working conditions, which we thought was hilarious, and even more so with the chateau in the background.
We took what we thought was a path to the chateau, but it turned out to be another part of the permanent gardens, complete with intervals of fog.
But finally we emerged, and headed past the stables....
to the Chateau.
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