Bonne Annee

Elise and Celia find the center of the maze at Chateau de Chenonceau

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season! We had a great time celebrating our first Christmas in Paris by exploring some of the city and eating a lot of good food. Brian had a lot of time off so we ventured off to the Galarie Lafayette to see the lights, drank delicious hot chocolate on the rue St. Paul, and then got to the Loire Valley for castles and relaxation! Although we learned the hard way that the Loire Valley shuts down over the New Year, we managed to squeeze in some of the best sites of the Loire: Abbaye De Fontevraud, (Chateau de Breze was closed despite what they said on their website!), Chateau et Parc de Langeais, Chateau D'Azay-Le-Rideau, and the best of all Cateau de Chenonceau. We'd love to go back and explore these places when the flowers are in full bloom and we're not freezing cold, however our quiet visit with very few tourists was quite pleasant. And the B&B we stayed at, La Couture, was incredible. Lesley is an amazing chef and our New Year's Dinner and Saturday night dinner were so unbelievable. We were spoiled by their hospitality!

The Langeais and Chenonceau were the best. Both chateaus included great gardens. The Langeais had a great big tree house and playground in the back and the Chenonceau had a fun maze to run around. As you can see, the Loire is very kid friendly. And we all loved exploring the inside of the castles and seeing how life was once lived. I don't know how they ever stayed warm living in those things! :)

Speaking of kid friendly, the ladies did allow us one wine tasting on our trip. We visited the winery of Christopher Herpiniere in Villandry. It was really quite cool, literaly. The guys tasting room was in a cave! After trying some of his wine, he let us explore the cave. Although Elise was afraid of the cave monsters, the rest of us thought the place was amazing. He even had a little bar set up in the back! It was really neat.

It was a great visit and like I said, we hope to go back. Be sure to check out the pictures when you get a chance on the right of the page. The Hot Chocolate pics don't do justice to the amazingly warm, thick treat that we delighted ourselves in at Comme a la Maison. You could have rested a spoon on that stuff. So thick and delicious!

Wishing you all the best in '10!