Yes Miss This is France 🇫🇷! June 18-July 1, 2023 (Disneyland Paris and other parts of France)

[EPCOTCenterLover]

June 23

More exploring of the Montmartre area.

@MinnieM123 here is a historic sign for you. We made sure we stopped to look at them whenever we saw them in the city. Even though they were in French we could understand enough to figure out the significance of the site.
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A view of Paris from in front of Sacre Coeur.
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Inside the church.
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Very pretty stained glass
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I really liked how the stained glass was reflecting on the floor.
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I thought these doors were interesting.
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After touring the church we continued on Rick Steves walking tour. We stopped at a few shops, I don't remember why I took this picture but I do like the little sign hanging from the shop. I do remember that next to (or near this) was a candy store. My niece bought some different types of fresh made nougat and I bought a bunch of candied nuts. These came in very handy for snacking the next couple of days while touring.
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A nice view of the neighborhood
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I'm unsure what this building was. We were thinking maybe an old windmill or water tower?
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We saw La Maison Rose which is a famous landmark/cafe and maybe even an artist studio. It is photographed a lot and shows up in a lot of stuff about Paris. It was cute but we didn't go inside.
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My understanding is the inside of Sacre Cour is the only cathedral in Paris that represents the Risen Jesus. All others show him hanging on the cross after his crucifixion. Anyone know if this is true? LOVE the Montmartre photos. I'll be there soon myself!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

My understanding is the inside of Sacre Cour is the only cathedral in Paris that represents the Risen Jesus. All others show him hanging on the cross after his crucifixion. Anyone know if this is true? LOVE the Montmartre photos. I'll be there soon myself!

I don't know if it is true but now that you mention it I don't remember seeing any crucifixion scenes.

 

[Robbiem]

Its a shame you missed the orangery it was an amazing place but it gives you something to return for which is always good

 

[Tiki Traveler]

You could have a second career as a tour guide! What a well-planned, enjoyable trip! Thanks for sharing in a trip report!

 

[kverdon]

Where did you eat in Bayeux that you liked so much? We leave for France in a week!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Where did you eat in Bayeux that you liked so much? We leave for France in a week!

We stayed at the Hotel Reine Mathilde and ate at the hotel there. The restaurant was called Le Garde Manger. I think it was even listed in the Rick Steve's book as a decent restuarant we enjoyed our meal there. I hope to update this trip report this weekend with Normandy stuff. But I think I had a chicken dish, my husband had a steak and my niece was adventurous and had a burger that was topped with some intestines. She tried it with the intestines and ended up picking them off, she said it wasn't bad but the texture was a bit weird. There might be better spots to eat but it was easy for us and the people we met on our tour that day had spend a couple nights in Bayeux and said it was one of their better meals.

https://hotel-bayeux-reinemathilde.fr/restaurant

 

[PUSH]

I was thinking about the TR a few days ago. Glad to hear it will be updated. I can't imagine why it slowed down... there aren't any major things going on in teacher's lives right now.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I was thinking about the TR a few days ago. Glad to hear it will be updated. I can't imagine why it slowed down... there aren't any major things going on in teacher's lives right now.

I feel so guilty when I come onto the wdwmagic boards that I'm not updating the report but I just haven't had the energy for it.

 

[PUSH]

I feel so guilty when I come onto the wdwmagic boards that I'm not updating the report but I just haven't had the energy for it.

There's no need to feel guilty. The reason I don't do TRs is because I know I won't have the energy for it when I get back. That's why I just post updates as I go.

I will say, I'm amazed at your recall of each day's details. That's another reason why I post while I'm there... I won't remember exactly what happened each day.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

It was the day of our day trip to the Loire Valley. I had booked us a tour and there are a lot of tours to choose from. I found one that would offer an opportunity to visit three chateaus and all three are featured in the Epcot film (a masterpiece of a film really) Impression de France. There was one tour that went to two of them and a visit to DaVinci's final resting place. But the three from Impression de France won out.

We met the tour guide at their office across from the Louvre (the one I had spotted out the window of the Louvre yesterday). Of course we were early, we had hoped there would be somewhere to grab a croissant before we left. There was but it wasn't open yet, despite them having their doors wide open. Anyway, there were only 4 other people on our tour, a young lady from China and a mom and two daughters from Spain. It was nice to have such a small tour. Soon we were on our way and we got an unexpected tour of Paris, the guide had to take a lot of detours because there were many streets closed off for various reasons, one was for some sort of race, a protest, and a PRIDE parade. So we actually got to drive around the Arc de Triomphe in the crazy round-about. Out of the people in my family only my niece and I saw that though Brad and T fell asleep in the van right away and woke up at our pit stop at a gas station about and hour and a half later.

If we have to wait for the tour, there are worse places to look at! Another side of the Louvre.

A church nearby, we didn't go in it though.

Our first chateau was Chateau Chenonceau. This is the castle that has part of it built over the water. It is sometimes called the chateau of the women because many important women in French history lived here and cared for it. Including including Diane of Poitiers (mistress of the King) and Catherine de Medici. I'm actually watching the show Serpent Queen on the Starz network right now and it is the story of Catherine de Medici and it is a very interesting show and much of it was shot on location here and other chateaus. I guess it was filmed during Covid shutdowns and they didn't have to work around tourists so they were able to film much more than planned in the Chateau. It is fun to see places I was. Anyway, this chateau has a very interesting history and it is worth a Wikipedia look up.

The big courtyard off to the side is where the original chateau was but only the tower remains. The original chateau was torn down and the materials were used to create the current chateau

Beautiful carvings on the doors.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

Beautiful stained glass in a chapel area

In one of the bedrooms, maybe Catherine's but it could have been the mistress' room.

I found the branding on the floors interesting.

This is the part of the chateau that is built over the river

We went into the kitchens and this was one of the butcher board areas.

a view out towards the river and a bit of the gardens

Here you can see not only the gardens but the big X space where the old chateau had been.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

The black bedroom of Queen Louise de Lorraine was the daughter-in-law of Catherine de Medici

Alright, let's go outside and see some pretty views of the Chateau from Catherine's garden and the rose garden

Now that you see this view it might seem familiar from Impression de France now.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

We had a kick lunch at the chateau's shop/cafe. It was actually decent food. My sister and I both got a ham and cheese quiche. I got a beer, each beer that was offered was named for one of the ladies that lived at the Chateau.

Then it was time to meet the tour guide and off we went to the next chateau and we enjoyed some of the countryside along the way.

Oh this was the small town square area of the village closest to Chenonceau, apparently the villagers loved how they were treated and protected it and the occupants during the French Revolution.

This was a chateau we drove by that is also open as a hotel so maybe on another visit I'll stay here.

Not quite sure why I took this one. I included it in my post just in case it was something of importance!

Vineyard!

Soon we were at our next chateau. Château de Cheverny! You might know this from the hunting/dog scene from Impression de France. This chateau wasn't included on many tours so this was what had us going back and forth between this and the DaVinci site tour. The Disney part of me won out and I wanted to see where the dogs from Impression de France lived. This Chateau is still the house of the original family so only parts of it were open for touring. Also many artifacts from the Louvre were stored here (including the Mona Lisa I think) during World War II, that area was open for touring but we had limited time here and had to choose between seeing that area with gardens, or seeing the dogs and going to the restroom. We picked the dogs.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

Here is a little bit of inside Cheverny.

Then we made it to were the dogs races with the hunters on the hunt in Impression de France (or at least near there, we had to stay off the grass). Brad loves the part in that scene where the dog pees so he recreated it here without actually going to the bathroom.

It was a very hot day so the dogs weren't super active and stayed mostly in the shade or would wander over to the misters. I'm glad we got to see them and they were a lot bigger dogs than I thought they were.

Up next one last Loire Valley Chateau!

 

[Kevin_W]

Up next one last Loire Valley Chateau!

Chambord?

We spent a day in the Loire valley and saw Chenonceau and Chaumont chateaus. It was lovely. But we didn't get to Cheverny or Chambourd,

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Chambord?

We spent a day in the Loire valley and saw Chenonceau and Chaumont chateaus. It was lovely. But we didn't get to Cheverny or Chambourd,

You guessed it, the 3rd was Chambord. Chaumont looks like it would have been nice to see too, it would be nice to go back and explore more.
Soon I'll post some pictures, my goal was to update a lot this past weekend but a cold virus ruined my plans.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24
Our 3rd chateau was Chambord. It of course is featured in Impression de France, kind of a fly over. It was an interesting chateau to see and very impressive however it did not feature much for furnishings inside. I guess it's main purpose was a royal hunting lodge. The staircase is unique and designed by DaVinci and it a double staircase and designed in a way that two people could go up/down the staircase on separate sides and never see the other until at the very bottom or top. As our guide pointed out it was convenient for hiding one's mistresses from the queen. 4

We were very lucky when visiting Chambord as the main towers on the outside of the chateau had been undergoing a major renovation and covered in scaffolding for many months and all the scaffolding had been finally removed only a week before we got there. I had known about the renovation and had head that it was supposed to be done in early June so I had taken a gamble that it would be done by our visit. Gamble paid off and we were able to see the cleaned and restored towers on the beautiful chateau.

View from the top

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

A few more pictures from the top.

This is the spire of the chapel

Another view of DaVinci's staircase, it really is more impressive in real life.

Inside a few of the rooms

Nice little travel liquor kit

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

Inside a few of the rooms at Chambord including the chapel which was fairly plain inside.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

June 24

Just a few more pictures of Chambord.
Our tour guide had pointed out earlier in the day that the salamander was a royal symbol and we kept seeing them everywhere!

Time to get toasted! Since the chateau was a hunting lodge there were plenty of animal heads and horns. Not my kind of decorating. This fireplace area had the least amount of horns in this common area.

We had limited time but it was enough. We didn't spend a lot of time in the rooms because there wasn't much to see and we hadn't had time to go in any gift shops at any of the other chateaus so we wanted time for this one. I wanted to bring home a bottle of wine from the Loire Valley. I didn't bring home any wine, but I bought a few locally crafted beers instead. I can get Loire Valley wine at home but not Loire Valley brews.

Our guide had dropped us off at a service road (that he wasn't supposed to do) because he said it was a closer walk for us than the actual parking lot (and when he drove past it later he was right) and he wanted to give us as much time at the chateau as possible, so we had to go back that way to meet him. So we passed the stable area and I think there was a horse show that we could have seen if we had more time. That might have been interesting to see. There were some nice benches near by where we could watch for our guide and importantly bathrooms in the stable area we could use before driving back to Paris.

One last look at Chambord as we drove away, it was from a roundabout. The driver drove around the roundabout a few times to make sure we all got a decent picture.