There are about 1000 chateaux in France’s Loire Valley.

Padma and I saw one and a half. That’s enough. Been there. Done that.

We started our drive through the Loire with a stop at Amboise and really enjoyed walking through the chateau and the gardens and courtyards.

Then we travelled south to the River Cher to Château de Chenonceau, which is labelled as ‘if you only visit one chateau, then visit Chenonceau’. We paid our 15 euros to get in but, give our fear of COVID, just couldn’t muster the courage to stand in a queue for 45 minutes amongst tourists who often were challenged to figure out how much distance there is in 1.5 metres. We had a brochure, so we sat on a bench in the gardens and looked at the photos of the inside of the chateau. That was good enough.

We’re on a ‘Goodbye to Europe’ tour. When we planned it, COVID was waning. Things are going in the wrong direction now so we’re taking it day by day, travelling from one low risk area to the next, and always reaching for the mask in the back pocket.

We were still exhausted from packing when we left the Rhineland on Sunday. We stopped in Paris and had a nice lunch with Joseph and Mary and loaded up our car with gear from their friend, Baer, who is moving to Biarritz. We’ll swing by today and unload and move on and find some COVID-free area. Biarritz is not really our style.