Final giant Chateau

Well, we have checked the box for big houses on this trip, and seen all the recommended ones. Whew. Today was Chambord, the second largest in France, and with all other historic buildings around here, it was stripped of everything several times since being built.  Multiple French revolutions and world wars have a way of doing that, so there is a vaguely artificial feeling to the whole thing. Not that the structure isn't amazing, double helix stairs and all -

But any furniture is going to be similar at best to what was there originally. 

Luckily we weren't here just to see old castle houses, but more for the riding -

And the food.

Today was really exceptional for second breakfast  when we stumbled across an award winning boulangerie (first for flan, third for croissants in the entire region), so we put them to the test. 5 sandwiches, 5 desserts and a loaf of bread later, we agreed with the awards committee. The flan was wonderful, their croissants had nothing to do with market of choice, and Alex has a new outlook on life after this strawberry tarte thing -

We were a little overwhelmed by lunch,  frankly, so our simpler campground dinner was a little more restrained. 

A fine campground, hot shower and wifi is most of what we need at this point. 

We have 4 more days on the Loire and about 80 miles to travel. Some weather uncertainties over the weekend, but it will all work out. Probably. 

Dave