Tuesday night

Bonjour! We had an action packed day, with a road trip to the Loire valley. We stopped along the way to see Chartres, a gothic cathedral built before Notre Dame, finished in 1225, and admired it's beautiful blue stained glass  windows, amazing sculptures and architecture.

We continued on along the Loire river, in the gardens of France, to the town of Amboise, with its fortified castle perched up on the hill over looking a quaint village. Amboise was home to the great Renaissance king, François 1, who brought Léonard de Vinci and the Italian Renaissance to France. We enjoyed shopping and lunch at outdoor cafés on cobblestone streets, in the sunshine.

Our journey continued to the castle of Chenonceau, the castle of the ladies, built across the river Cher. Home to King Henri II, Catherine de Medicis and Diane de Poitiers, this Renaissance castle has quite a history! Surrounded by gardens, it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Upon our return to Paris, we dined at an Alsacien restaurant and had flammekueche, a kind of very thin pizza. Then we headed up to the Arc de Triomphe and saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, strolled along the Champs-Élysées, with a stop at La Durée for some fabulous macarons, before hopping the metro back to our hotel.

Everyone will sleep well tonight and we will have more fun tomorrow!