Loire Valley

Traveling east through the Loire Valley to Geneve, Switzerland, we visited some great chateaus, abbeys and gardens. We’ve never seen anything like these in the states. They must truly be the settings for fairy tales we’ve heard. I mean, come on, a chateau (Chenonceau) built over a river where the Queen of France ran the country in the 16th century and people snuck between occupied and free France during the second World War! Real labyrinth gardens, moats with drawbridges and crypts. We learned that “relics” in a church often means bones. We saw where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life (very comfortable) and what some of his inventions would have looked like.
We spent a few days in Beaune, Bourgogne (Burgundy) which had the best wine so far. Nice modern/medieval city but lots of tourists (it was a weekend). We couldn’t find good WiFi so we didn’t stay long. It’s certainly a hotspot for food and wine but maybe a little too much so.
We went on to Geneve, Switzerland to stop the clock on our EU visas. We now have stamps showing us leaving the EU. We only spent a day in Geneve but it looked like a great place to go back to.