The Perigreux region of France is known for its caves, and the prehistoric art found within. Most of the caves have limited entry numbers per day to preserve the artwork, and with tickets only available to purchase on the day, queues have been known to form from 7am. We had a couple of hours travel ahead of us to reach the general area. We were pleased to find one of the caves we were thinking of had a split sales time with afternoon tickets available from 2pm. ...

A visit to one of the most reknown chateaux in the Loire Valley - Chenonceau was the agenda for the day. It has an interesting history of ownership - having changed hands many times. An intriguing story of strong female characters (with the men mainly absent) who oversaw the construction and some of the major alterations.Initially built by partially demolishing and redeveloping a fortress and mill to showcase the art collection of some aristocrats, some owners w...

Our first chateau, Amboise was a good place to look at first. We saw the site where Leonardo da Vinci was initially buried - and the Chapel his body now lies in. The original Chapel burnt down so a new Chapel was built about 50m away and he was exhumed and moved. Kate had thought this was the chateaux with the models of his inventions - Darryl had seen another chateaux in close proximity that he thought was that one - with no Internet data at the time to confirm ...

On our way to the Loire Valley we stopped in two small troglodyte villages Souzay-Champigny & Turquant where the houses and shops are built into the side of the hill in caves.There were two distinctly different types of these areas - one a very old area where the caves had not been developed much - there were no "buildings" here just openings and tunneled areas and caves.Some caves had openings above where the cave dwellers used to drop the grapes down into t...

Puy du fou, a theatrical outdoor establishment where history comes to life in the form of shows about significant historical events and stories was a planned highlight on our itinerary. The costumes, animals and sets are true to the period, and the visual and sound effects stunning. All the shows had elements of suprise that kept us amazed and wowed. We watched 5 shows: A mythical falconry tale with lots of amazing birds the sword in the stone/knights of the ro...