A Royal Door – Une porte royale

–Considering that François Ier , the owner and perhaps the design of Château de Chambord was born in 1494 and died in 1547, this door with his emblem, the salamander, must be about 500 years old. Etant donné que François 1er, le propriétaire et peut-être le concepteur du château de Chambord est né en 1494 et mort en 1547, …

La longère

This is a typical longère around these parts. The living area and often a bedroom are on the ground floor, with a corridor running along the back façade which usually faces the street. Upstairs are the other bedrooms with sloping ceilings. You can see the slate tiles on the dormer windows and traditional hand-made tiles. It’s a …

Cycling Through Autumn Leaves – En vélo parmi les feuilles d'automne

We made the most of the Indian summer again today and spent the afternoon cycling. This photo is taken on the bike path heading towards Cheverny. There is no photo of Cheverny castle because the gate has very fine mesh that prevents you taken photos from the outside, even with an iPhone. You can click …

Balloons & Boats at Chaumont – Ballons et bateaux à Chaumont

We arrived on our bikes at Chaumont just in time to see SIX hot air balloons take off! This spotted red one was the last; The boats are the typical flat-bottomed boats on the Loire called gabarres. We’re having an Indian summer! It was 25°C this afternoon. Nous sommes arrivés sur nos vélos à Chaumont …

A Basket of Boletus – Un panier de bolets orangé

I was too busy translating, unfortunately, but Jean Michel went mushroom-picking on Thursday afternoon in Chambord forest and came back with five different species of boletus mushroom. The biggest basket was full of Leccinum aurantiacum mushrooms. It is sometimes called the red-capped scaber stalk in the North America. It is considered edible but only when …

Chambord Gardens – Les jardins de Chambord

Today we went back to Chambord Castle, this time without the crowds, as it’s midweek. The gardens are not very easy to photograph with an iPhone so I’ve posted another two photos below! Aujourd’hui nous sommes retournés au château de Chambord, cette fois-ci sans les foules, puisqu’on est en milieu de semaine. Les jardins ne …