Vélo City

Wednesday. Tours.

Tours, as some of you may know, is in châteaux country. These grandoise houses dot the Loire and a host of other rivers criss-crossing the region, and we got the chance to visit two of them this weekend. Chenonceaux, with its well-known arches spanning the Cher, and Villandry, with some stunning gardens. Once again, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

While Chenonceaux is better known than Villandry, I much prefer the latter. It's more livable, less ostentatious, and I could spend days on end walking around those gardens. Chenonceaux is by all means an interesting piece of architecture, but it didn't leave as memorable an impression on me, the jaded traveller that I am.

Another plus for Villandry is that we got to bike there from Tours. Chenonceaux — by train. Biking there — and around Tours — is a rather enjoyable experience, as compared to driving around anywhere. Tours is also built to cater to those riding vélos with a network of bike lanes dotting the city. Paris has its fleet of vélibes, which I'm looking forward to take advantage of. It'll be somewhat of an experience traversing a city like that by bicycle.