Loire valley castles

October 22, 2009

I visited many stunning castles during my recent holiday in the Loire Valley. Guess what these are called in the comments and if you're the first to give all the right answers, you'll win a month of free French podcasts courtesy of frenchpod101.com. Go!

Villandry

Castle 1 is mainly known for its incredible vegetable garden.

valençay

Castle 2 was the home of one of Napoléon's ministers, whose nickname was "the limping devil".

Chenonceau

During the Second World War, one end of Castle 3 was in the free zone and the other in the occupied zone.

Azay-le-Rideau

Castle 4 is one of the earliest French Renaissance castles.

Loches

Castle 5 was the home of Agnès Sorel, the very first official royal mistress.

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Posted by céline on October 22, 2009
Culture

Comments

Great competition, Céline! Recognised all but the last of these from the pics - surprising how good my memory is seeing as it must be 20 years since I did my tour of the Loire with my parents!

1) Villandry
2) Valençay
3) Chenonceau
4) Azay le Rideau
5) Château de Loches

Posted by Iwan Davies on October 22, 2009 7:23 PM

First one Villandry, great gardens but ugly interiors;
third is Chenonceaux, so beautiful with its big hall over the river; fourth is Azay-Le-Rideau, my favourite, nice and cozy both inside and outside. If it was in Normandy instead it would be absolutely perfect :) For the other two I had to google ;-) One is Valençay and the other Loches, I saw Loches only from the road and only remember its black roofs. And I visited them in 1986... wow O_O must go back to France ASAP! :-)

Posted by Ippe on October 22, 2009 9:25 PM

beautiful pictures!

Posted by Linda Herbertson on October 23, 2009 5:22 AM

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