20th Anniversary Dream Trip Contest

Great Travel Moment

From our base in Tours, my husband and I took a train to the Chateau de Chenonceau on our France trip last fall. We were awestruck at the elegance and grandeur of the chateau and its grounds. After crossing the great hallway spanning the Cher river, we found ourselves alone on the chateau's hunting grounds, affording us a delightful and very romantic stroll among rows of deciduous trees and dense underbrush. On returning to the river bank from a different path from which we had started, we were confronted with this remarkable view of the chateau. We were and continue to be struck by the complex and fascinating history of this and all of the chateaux in the Loire Valley, and moreover by their unparalled opulence - it was at that point that we fell in love with Chenonceau.