Wednesday is Loches day - open for business...

Madame Frederique Grego, 'Art & Antiques',

1 place de l Hotel de Ville,

http://www.art-et-antiques.com/

Tuesday for towns - Montlouis-sur-Loire

Chaumont-sur-Loire - 2020 Garden Festival,permanent gardens 26 to 40

We have taken you on a walk around this year's (2020) 
International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire by revealing the festival gardens using images from our own recent visit. This year's theme is 'Return to Mother Earth'. but did you know there are also a number of permanent gardens (above) on the site at 'Les Prés du Goualoup' that are worth seeking out to add to your festival experience?

Monday's Loire Valley Chateau - Chateau De Jallanges

Today we feature the privately owned  Chateau De Jallanges which sits half an hour north east of Tours among the vineyards of Vouvray. The chateau built using the less common (certainly for the Loire Valley chateaux) brick and stone method was commissioned by Louis XI in 1495 on the site of a former medieval castle for one of his high ranking ministers. 

The chateau had over the centuries,fallen in to disrepair but has been rescued by its current owners, the Ferry-Balin family who purchased it in 1984 and continue to invest in its restoration.

A walk around the International Garden festival - gardens number 23 & 24

We are taking you on a walk around this year's (2020) International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire by revealing the gardens using images from our own recent visit. This year's theme is 'Return to Mother Earth'. 

This is garden number 23 - 'Le jardin de Gaïa... Aïe Aïe '.  You can get a detailed explanation of this garden on the festival's website here. 

This is garden number 24 (below)- 'La planète fleurie'  Detailed explanation of this garden on the festival's website here.

Church on Sunday - Saint Etienne in Le Blanc

The 17th century church of Saint Etienne in Le Blanc was originally the chapel of a Récollets convent and dedicated to Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption. It became St Etienne parish church at the beginning of the 19th century. 

Its main feature, not unsurprisingly, is its elaborate altarpiece portraying the Assumption of the Virgin Mary but it has many other interesting internal features. 

   

The church apparently contains the relics of some lesser know  Saints,Tridore and Principin,  

It has some pretty 20th century stained glass windows.