We made camp for the night in the city of Loches, which is in the Loire Valley of France. The Loire Valley is known for the beautiful Loire river which runs through it giving the landscape a look very similar to the English countryside. There are rolling hills, plush valleys, forests and best of all, castles! The French royalty loved the Loire countryside and build magnificent castles along the river as a summer homes. There are a total of 42 castles and we decided since Mr. Finter loves castles that we would have an entire day devoted to castle exploration! The night before this castle day we made camp in Loches right below the castle and went out for a small dinner in the medieval town. We ate French Onion Soup and Galettes and had such a marvelous time walking around the lamp lit streets.
The next morning we were up at daybreak and off to our first castle: Chateau de Loches with a "donjon" (dungeon). Our first stop was the chapel which had this beautiful tree round you could put nails into for prayers for others. It was beautiful.
Then we went and toured the main castle.
They had real armor.
And some steel cuffs.
Intricate door locks.
And safes.
From the top, the view of the Loire Valley was incredible.
We then went and explored the gardens and underground dungeon.
Then we were off the the separate dungeon house.
What remained of the dungeon was the walls and staircases. The city had build wire platforms to stand on at every level so you could walk to the very top. It was a bit scary, but so cool!
They had a replica of a torture box.
And of course we locked each other up.
It got really high towards the top and even though there was a side rail, we still clung to the walls since the see through floor felt like we were standing on nothing!
Our first castle was great!
1 comment :
Wouldn't that be very interesting to live there....but there were times when I would have loved to lock people up in the dungeon, just sayin.
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