Four chateau's and a manor house

The first stop on my chateau tour of the Loire valley was Azay-le-Rideau. It was pretty impressive and just plain pretty. It is only three stories but has a moat which first thing in the morning was glorious. The castle reflected in the water while the birds chirped and a light mist wandered through the surrounding forest. The water flowed silently under the stone bridges whose graveled paths had once held many a carriage. The gatehouse buildings (which is a big enough house for me and my whole family) is surrounded by beautiful tall trees and colorful flowers and worth a picture or two themselves.

Villandry - OH MY GOODNESS!! So beautiful. The gardens are amazing and so artfully decorated. I could have taken 50 photos of just vegetables. In Villandry the cabbages are flowers and celery are in a geometric design. You HAVE to google it to see what I mean. I had 40min there and could have spent a day!  The layout changes every year to make the best use of the soil and there are many different types of garden like the herb garden and water garden and sun garden (flowers are yellow and orange) and moon garden (flowers are blue and white). I'd love to just sit on one of the benches and read or listen to music for an hour or two.  

It's amazing to go through towns whom if they took a big step out their front door would get hit by a car. 
Lunch was very passé. But I wasn't on the tour for the food. 

Chenonceau was next and my goodness it didn't disappoint. It straddles river cher and has a very interesting history, mainly involving women. The rooms were presented beautifully and each had a cool flower arrangement which I ended up taking photos of too. The gardens and forest surrounding it were lovely too and I could have wandered there for days with joy. 
Next was the manor house that Leonardo da Vinci lived in for the last 3 years of his life. It has some of his designs and reproductions of his models that show what a creative and clever man he was. If I had to pick someone from the last millennia to have a chat with it would be him. He died there and was buried in a chapel at castle Amboise which is fortified and on a hill overlooking the town and Loire river. The region is beautiful, lush and green. I know that even the best camera in the world wouldn't show how purely pretty it is. I wished for this last time but I'd love to have a machine that could capture a moment - the sounds, smells, colours and feelings. At the last chateau I saw 4 hot air balloons in the distance and I would have loved to be seeing what they are. 
I have truly enjoyed my day in the Loire valley and this will definitely be remembered as a highlight of my trip. 
There were so many mini chateau's on the trip today too. They have the same Renaissance style but are just cuter versions about the size of a large two story house - they were just like mini-me's - awww so cute. I want me one of those. 

What a full and busy day. So after a quick supermarket dinner I'm packing up in preparation for tomorrow and off to bed. 

Thanks for reading. 
Kym