When the entire chateau breaks into view, it is an unforgettable sight.  With 440 rooms and 365 chimneys, a wall 32 km long to enclose a 13,000-acre forest, this is one of the greatest buildings in France. Under Francois I, building began in 1519, a job that took 12 years and required 1,800 workers. The most famous architects of the beginning of the 16th century took part in its construction. Leonardo da Vinci himself took part in the design of some of the castle's decorations.

We had lunch at an outdoor cafe across the road from the chateau.  We still had lots to do on this day so we decided not to join the crowds doing the tour of the inside.  We then headed south to see the Château de Cheverny but it had closed early, so we only got the photo at left taken through the trees.  We then headed back west toward Tours and Azay-le-Rideau.

As we approached Azay-le-Rideau, Kathryn saw signs that said "Boar Chaussée" (Boar Roadway).  Just as she said it would be cool if we saw a boar, we abruptly came across several vehicles stopped on the road with flashing lights.  Three beagles were attacking a boar in the middle of the road.  The car in front of us screeched to a halt, two guys jumped out and grabbed the boars legs and through it into the ditch.  Wild boar hunting is a big sport in the Loire valley.  Everything happened so fast we did not get a picture.

We soon arrived at the Renaissance jewel of Azay-le-Rideau. Surrounded by a sylvan dell on the banks of the River Indre, this pleasant town is famed for its white-walled Renaissance pleasure palace. The 16th-century Château d'Azay-le-Rideau was created as a literal fairy-tale castle, built from 1518 to 1527 and one of the earliest French Renaissance châteaux. Built on an island in the Indre River, its foundations rise straight out of the water.  Unfortunately we arrived a few minutes after the 5:30 pm closing and I was only able to take this photo of the exterior walls.

Château d'Azay-le-Rideau

We took the back roads for awhile and then got on the motorway at Angers.  It was now 6:00 pm and we had 350 km yet to go.  It was soon dark and we took the Rennes exit by mistake at a roundabout which took us off the freeway.  Shades of Pisa, Italy we drove all over northwestern France in the dark before finally arriving at the Rennes ring road.  We took the St. Malo exit which is what we wanted but suddenly there was a sign that said Angers.  Ken panicked, thinking we were heading back to were we started and grabbed the next exit.  This took us into an industrial area of Rennes.  Rennes is the capital of Brittany and is a very large city with a metropolitan population of 500,000.  We spent the next 30 minutes driving in circles all over the city trying to find our way out - it was dark and hard to see, a Sunday night and no one around, and, of course, all the signs were in French, and Ken was close to a nervous breakdown.  We finally stumbled on a sign for St. Malo and were on our way.  Following the instructions provided by the B and B owner over the phone that Kathryn had written down, we took the exit  for Châteneuf  We were to go through this small town and then a short distance through the countryside to Saint Suliac - a chocolate box village on a hill that slopes down to the River Rance.  Of course, we got lost and had to go back to Châteneuf.  We found Le Pub and Kathryn got better directions and we eventually found our B and B at 10:15 pm.  I think our landlord was relieved that we finally showed up.  Peter (you can see him peeking out the door in the photo in the left margin) helped carry our luggage up to the second floor and we crawled into bed for a much needed rest.

During the remainder of our time in France, we were to see road signs for Rennes quite often.  Whenever this happened, Ken's left eye developed a serious nervous tic.