We made our way to the nearby town of Blois. Amazingly, as we wound our way through and found a parking spot, the sun made its appearance. Fabulous timing! I wanted to try and take a look at the city from a distance, so we took a walk down in the general direction of the river, passing an impressively large cathedral on the way. The breeze along the Loire was refreshing, as we wandered over to the bridge for a few pictures.

After saying our goodbyes to the hosts, we drove off. Our initial route was going to take us to Cheverny, but we decided at the last minute to veer northwest towards Chateau de Chaumont-Sur-Loire. Every year, the chateau holds an International Garden Festival, with gardeners coming in from a host of different countries. We figured that since the rain had stopped, the cloud cover would keep our walk cool.

We hopped in our darling little Twingo and made our way across the river and up to Amboise, situated on the south bank of the Loire River. The heat was already starting to accumulate, so we made our way up the hill to visit the Chateau d’Amboise. The chateau was perched on a cliff above the town, thus the terraces surrounding the chateau afforded excellent views the city and the river.

Pulling into the parking lot of the Chateau, it began to dawn on us that Chenonceau was on a much larger scale than any of the other places we’d visited. D estimated there to be a good 300 cars parked, having arriving from all over France, as well as Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Switzerland at the very least. Slightly daunted, we had a little picnic of cheese and bread along the moat before entering the madness.

We lazily lingered over our bread before heading back into the house and readying ourselves for the day. Today, we would hit our first chateau of the Loire, the Chateau de Villandry, known for its ornate gardens. We set out on our drive; it was only about 20 minutes or so away, so we were able to amble and enjoy the drive along the river.

On the docket for the day was Rocamadour, apparently the second-most visited site in France after Mont St-Michel (which we visited on our last trip to France). Traffic was relatively light, probably because it was Sunday, so we whizzed through increasingly winding roads, with more than a few hairpins, much to David’s delight. We kept driving up and up, and the drop offs next to the road kept increasing, until we were driving along the top of a ridge.

As it was David’s birthday, we planned to stay in town and, as he gracefully put it, “eat our faces off”. First things first, we went off in search of coffee, and we actually came across a little café that looked eerily like a few coffee shops back home (something like a Blenz).

Making our way out of town was only partially impeded by some road works that were rather obnoxiously holding up traffic. We made the fairly short drive to La Roque-Gageac, a picturesque town wedged between an imposing cliff and the Dordogne river. We stopped for a few refreshments before hopping on a gabarre (essentially a replica of an 18th century river barge) for a tour up the river.

We took some small, meandering country roads southeast, in the general direction of Perigueux. As always, the endless miles of green fields and clusters of old farmhouses made for a picturesque drive. It wasn’t long before we were entering the outskirts of Perigueux.

We planned our modest route for the day, which started off with finding the duck farm that we purchased our little can of foie gras from at the market in Tocane-St-Apre on Monday. The lady had given us a little flier with a map on it, so we thought we’d swing by to pick up some more. We opted to take a road we hadn’t yet travelled, and it turned out to be yet another picturesque road, with plentiful vistas of farmsteads and rolling hills.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable things about being in France is the plentiful and cheap access to bread and cheese. We snacked on fresh fruit and cheese while we readied ourselves for the day. It was going to be a fairly quiet day, as we only planned on going to Brantôme (“the Venice of the Perigord”).