Paris is a perpetual pleasure. We arrived in the City of Light a week ago and immediately began immersing ourselves in its many delights.
For the first day of our France-England tour, we took a quick tour of Paris, stopping at Patrick Blanc’s wonderful green wall at the Museum Branly near the Eiffel Tower. We circled all the key sites – Arc de Triomphe, Opera House, Louvre, Place de la Concorde and the rest.
In the afternoon, we popped out to Giverny to visit Monet’s lovely garden, which is still a lovely work, although it was too early for water lilies. Amazingly, we all managed to fit on the little green bridge for a photo.
The next day, we woke up to torrential rain. We thought the day was done. But no. By the time we got to Malmaison to see Josephine’s roses, it had stopped and by the time we got to the Seine for an afternoon boat ride, it was sunny and bright. It turned out to be a lovely time for all.
Sunday in Paris is always a day for relaxing and strolling the fun districts of the city, such as Le Marais and Saint Germain des Pres.
We decided to have a picnic together in the Luxembourg gardens with treats bought at the sensational Bon Marche store nearby, followed by happy hours along Rue de Buci in the Saint Germain area. In the evening, it was time, again, to sample more of the wonderful food being served in local restaurants.
From Paris, we headed down to the Loire Valley, stopping on the way in Orleans and then visited the country garden of Rouquelin before checking into our hotel in Amboise.
We love this town with its quaint village centre and our hotel is nicely located right next to the Loire river which flows quickly and serenely just across the street.
From Amboise, we first visited the picturesque Chateau de Chenonceau, which also has a beautiful sunken garden, a pleasure to stroll around.
From Chenonceau, we went to the international garden festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire. The show features dozens of creative garden installations, each with its own unique interpretation of the theme, Gardens of Paradise.
The next day, we visited Villandry, one of the world’s great renaissance gardens with its magnificent clipped boxwood parterres, spread out in a tapestry of complex geometric patterns, plus wonderful perennial borders and a stylish, restful minimalist water-basin surrounded by pleached lime trees and dotted with large boxwood balls in elegant containers.
After lunch in Azay le Rideau, followed by a visit to Chateau du Clos Luce, where Leonardo da Vinci lived for three years before his death at 67 years old in 1519.
The next day, we went to Sancerre for lunch and a wine tasting before heading back to Paris from where we will take the Chunnel train to London.
MORE SNAPS FROM OUR TOUR
