Tuesday.  It was a spectacular day and we all had the best time riding the train to Tours to ride on the bike path along the river!!!  "We took the 8:16 into the city" and walked the block or so to rent bikes.  After that we made our way through the city of Tours to the bike path with no hassles and it was a very easy bike ride this time.  We knew Kema and Steve would love it and they did!  The weather was cool in the morning -- jackets were required -- but the sun was out and it was gorgeous.  That's Kema and Steve below -- sorry the photo isn't better!

As usual, I don't know if I'm coming or going!

When we arrived at Villandry we were hungry and didn't want to eat at the same restaurant David and I ate at the first time we visited there last week, so we looked at a few menus and chose a small pub-style place.  Sorry,  I don't have the name of the restaurant.  It was 11:30 and we didn't pay any attention to the hours posted on the door and just opened the door (which was unlocked) and walked in.  Well . . . the restaurant didn't open until Noon!  All of the workers at the hotel/restaurant were sitting together at a long table finishing their meal and they looked up and acknowledged us and told us to go ahead and sit down.  We felt a little funny about it but figured they must want the business so we did.  The menu items that caught our attention were omelets and frites so Steve and I ordered ham and cheese omelets and David had a plain cheese omelet.  They were excellent as were the frites! Kema had roasted chicken which looked very good too.

Of course we also had a basket of bread!  We want to be sure Kema and Steve get their fill of French bread.

After lunch we walked up the hill to the chateau.  Even though David and I had seen it the week before, it still is amazingly beautiful.  

We toured the inside of the Chateau this trip and here are a couple of pictures.  We didn't take many indoor photos because we couldn't wait to get outside to see the gardens!  I do love this chair, tho -- note the animal print on the side!!!  And the second picture is of one of the ceilings. 

We did walk up the tower and shot a few pictures.  The first one is Kema's "art shot."

I was pretending this was the door to my French home. 

The gardens are so beautiful you can hardly believe they are real.

 
It was hard to tear ourselves away from the garden but we had a long bike ride back to Tours.  It was an uneventful ride and we all enjoyed it (except for our aching butts!). 

We returned our rental bikes and it wasn't long before we were on the train from Tours back to Saint Aignan.  We took a taxi from the train station to our home in Saint Aignan.  I was tired so I suggested a taxi and no one objected so . . . .

On the way home Steve suggested we get pizza from our pizza place right across the street, L'Amarena.  It sounded great to all of us and we were really looking forward to it.  BUT, the restaurant was closed!  That was a surprise because they keep regular hours and normally it would be open.  We were all a little disappointed.  So the boys headed up to the little market and brought back frozen pizzas and they were pretty darn good!