So here we are in Paris. Yesterday, while you were enjoying Victoria Day, we were touring the LoireValley. A 3 hour bus ride brought us to our first location Chateau de Chenonceau, an incredible structure Henri 11 gave to his mistress Dine de Poitiers in 1547, and it spans the river Cher. It's undergoing some reconstruction at the moment but is still stunning. Our next stop was Chateau de Cheverny which has been used as a hunting lodge since the 17th century and to this day is home to countless hound dogs. The original descendants still reside in part of the Chateau and at times welcome visitors. Our final destination was Chateau de Chambord built by King Francois 1st as hunting lodge, construction began in 1519 and was completed 20 years later; it was the pinnacle of French Renaissance and the largest in Loire valley, unfortunately it was rarely used as the women found it very cold and uncomfortable. There was a double helix staircase that our guide suggest the women take one side and the men the other, well, I was the only one that went up the one side; it was about 20 minutes before I saw anyone again, I could hear my name called but could not find anyone

Yesterday was also a pretty pathetic day for us. Michael slammed his foot in to a metal door stop, maybe a broken toe? As the day worn on my cold turned into something nasty, ended up with a fever, lucky for us nurse came to our rescue; both feeling somewhat better today. Trying to hit a few more sites, still need to see Eiffel Tower which we heard is the 120th birthday today. On our way down the hotel elevator, two guys get on with tennis rackets, talk about vain, they kept staring at themselves in the mirror and running their fingers in their hair, I had to hold back from bursting out laughing and mocking them on the elevator, I did the polite thing and waited until we got off, anyway they are here for a Roland Garros tennis tournament what ever that is.

I have to tell you about the keyboard I am using at the hotel, the keys are in different places which makes typing quite interesting, as well, the a key is missing and the upper keys are reverse of what we are use to, might need some retraining when I get home.

Tonight we take the overnight train to Rome and cross our fingers everything goes great, so looking for some warm weather, its been fairly cool on our whole trip, still have not had a chance to wear summer clothes.
Bye for now