Chateau de Chambord

Tourists in a rowing boats on the River Cosson looking southeast towards the northern façade of Chateau de Chambord at sunset, Loir-et-Cher, Loire Valley, France. Chateau de Chambord, famous for its size, a double helix staircase and the 365 chimneys on the roof. It's in the middle of a huge park and on the northern face here three of the four large towers can be seen.

Light, as you can see, was excellent, taken at 1908. Though the price was that we arrived too later (around 1800) to be able to go into the chateau itself. Still, you are free to wander through a lot of the grounds which is good.

1/50s at f/14 47 mm ISO 125

Chateau Villandry - Love garden

Chateau Villandry is one of the main chateaus in the Loire Valley and famed for its formal gardens, especially the potager or vegetable gardens. There's a whole collection of others though, music, water, herb and in this case the love gardens.

A Maltese Cross can be quite clearly seen here on the mid right hand side of the frame, the other two are the Pays Basque and Languedoc crosses, though in this case you need to close one eye stand on one leg to make it out. The splashes of lilac at the back of the frame are the lavender bushes of the music garden.

Even if you are not a massive garden fan (esp. formal gardens) the layout, scale quality is quite amazing. (It's also a pretty convenient drive from Tours airport.) We spent a good few hours here and were rewarded by the sun breaking out in the afternoon.

Should have stopped down the aperture a bit more here though had a circular polarizer on.

1/80s at f/9.0 65 mm ISO 100