Night Location: Saumur, France

Song of the Day: Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall

Mumisode of the Day: While looking at a news website on Dad's computer, a pop-up advertisement began complete with sound, "For the most reliable pregnancy test, always use..." Gareth overheard and questioned what she was watching. Mum was slightly embarrassed and tried to change the conversation.

Much to Gemma's delight, today began with a tour of the armoured vehicle museum. Gemma, Gareth and Dad were initially a little disappointed as signs everywhere informed them that it was 'strictly forbidden to climb on the tanks.' It was quite an interesting museum, however, and had a huge number of models inside, largely from WWII onwards. The highlight of the museum definitely came at the end as Gareth discovered the Children's Section complete with an A

armoured personnel carrier and anti-aircraft gun. Gemma and Gareth both got some target practice in and then had a minor amount of difficulty getting extracting themselves.

During this time, Amber and David had walked through the Saumur Chateau and down to the town to explore. They found a great baguette spot for lunch so the group enjoyed a quick bite before heading off for Vilandry to explore the fantastic gardens around the chateau. We were initially all fairly excited as the gardens included a hedge maze. This was a little disappointing as Gareth and David both reached the centre in less than a minute, although according to Amber and Gemma they cheated by crossing the walls!

There are more than 52 kilometres of hedges in this garden, and 250000 plants are planted every year. There are also some rather large fish (we think they are carp) in the chateau moat. Amber describes them as "Feral!"

Next stop was Château d'Azay le Rideau. The chateau is divided in half by a fairly impressive open stairwell. It could have been a fairly chilly transit between floors in the winter. We made a fairly quick tour of the rest of the house and then did a loop of the garden. The children left the parents and audio-guide and headed for the cafe for refreshments. Bizarrely this was the same cafe that we ate in last time we were here in 2007.

When we got home, Gemma spent about an hour chopping veges preparing French bean soup that was complemented by awesome French baguette. We cannot get enough French bread. Lots of catching up to do tonight on blogs and photos by everyone.

Tomorrow we are going to try and find some more chateaus. Shouldn't be hard.