For the weekend, I went to the Loire Valley with Rhonda. Her husband works for Spirit and they are in Toulouse on a long-term assignment. We stationed ourselves in Tours - a town with a central location. The Loire Valley is famous for it's concentration of chateaus. Hotel De Ville (city hall) is in the center of town and about a block from our hotel. The heart of Tours was a quaint old city while the outskirts were quite modern.
The garden has several different sections. This is the romantic themed area.
This is the aromatic section with lettuces and herbs. There was also a reflecting pond and a maze.
The rest of the chateaus we toured are owned by the French government. We then went to Azay Le Rideau. The river was rerouted to create the chateau's moat. It is surrounded by the village but has a good bit of land around it.
Wisteria was in bloom everywhere. It was so beautiful hanging over arbors and covering sides of buildings.
One of the great detailed windows at Azay Le Rideau.
It had to be hard to have to look out at this all the time. 
The front entrance.
The grand stone staircase in the center. The main portion of the chateau was basically a four square around this staircase.
Some of the intricate turrets and chiminies as seen from the roof terrace.
The view of the grounds from the roof terrace.
The king's bedchambers.
Chenonceau was my favorite of all the chateaus we visited. It was built as a bridge across the river. It is quite a charming place. 
A view of half of the gardens from the 2nd floor balcony.
We had dinner at a sidewalk cafe. I tried the moules & frites for the first time - mussels and fries. You get a big pot of mussels and a side of fries - it is the traditional way to serve them. You just dig in with your hands. It was delicious & a bit messy.
On Saturday, we took a chateau tour. We paid to be driven around the area - well worth the money if you have a short period of time to spend there - did not have to figure out where things were yourself and had a knowledgeable van driver who gave us a lot of history along the way. (I recommend http://www.accodispo-tours.com/ if you are ever in the area.)
We started the day by going to Villandry which is famous for it's gardens. The chateau is privately owned and the family lives in the stable house - which in itself is nothing to sneeze at. Villandry has been owned by this family for a few hundred years. We just had time to tour the amazing gardens.
The garden has several different sections. This is the romantic themed area. This is the aromatic section with lettuces and herbs. There was also a reflecting pond and a maze.The rest of the chateaus we toured are owned by the French government. We then went to Azay Le Rideau. The river was rerouted to create the chateau's moat. It is surrounded by the village but has a good bit of land around it.
Wisteria was in bloom everywhere. It was so beautiful hanging over arbors and covering sides of buildings. One of the great detailed windows at Azay Le Rideau.
It had to be hard to have to look out at this all the time. Around the side.
Chambord is the largest chateau in the valley. It was built as a hunting lodge (I want to say it was for Charles VII.) It has ~300 fireplaces and very intricately decorated chiminies.
The front entrance.The grand stone staircase in the center. The main portion of the chateau was basically a four square around this staircase.
Some of the intricate turrets and chiminies as seen from the roof terrace.
The view of the grounds from the roof terrace.
The king's bedchambers.
Chenonceau was my favorite of all the chateaus we visited. It was built as a bridge across the river. It is quite a charming place. The gallery on the ground floor that extends over the river. In WWI it was used as a hospital.
The view out one of the gallery windows.
There were beautiful fresh flower arrangements all around the chateau.
One of the 5 rooms in the kitchen area.
The stone staircase.
A view of half of the gardens from the 2nd floor balcony.
The face of one of the outbuildings was covered in wisteria.
On a totally different subject - this is a field of canola or rake weed. There are fields of brilliant yellow contrasted by the rich green grasses and trees as you drive through the countryside. It's hard to capture how beautiful it is. The flowers are harvested and pressed for oil. The quality of oil is low however and is mixed with diesel for bio-fuel.
On our drive home Sunday morning we happened upon the town of Loches. It has a Loire Valley chateau. The old walled city is at the center of town and contains a chateau, cathedral and donjon. It was quite a charming find - a happy accident. My camera battery died quickly though and so I only got a few pictures of a courtyard and the cathedral. 
On a totally different subject - this is a field of canola or rake weed. There are fields of brilliant yellow contrasted by the rich green grasses and trees as you drive through the countryside. It's hard to capture how beautiful it is. The flowers are harvested and pressed for oil. The quality of oil is low however and is mixed with diesel for bio-fuel.
On our drive home Sunday morning we happened upon the town of Loches. It has a Loire Valley chateau. The old walled city is at the center of town and contains a chateau, cathedral and donjon. It was quite a charming find - a happy accident. My camera battery died quickly though and so I only got a few pictures of a courtyard and the cathedral. I have had the Loire Valley on my "must-see" list for 2 years. I am so glad I got to go and that it was not a disappointment. It was a fantastic weekend. I took almost 200 pictures - so this is a small sampling of them.
Then Saturday, March 28 we had 4 inches of snow in Wichita. Which actually was a lot less than predicted. Just west & north of here there was 20+ inches of snow. It isn't completely unusual but it's not common either. 
I thought I'd give you some visuals. Prince Charming (my cement frog statue) on Saturday afternoon is barely peeking through the snow on the patio. 
Prince Charming 2 days later after every bit of snow was gone. 
We did our first hop-off at Sagrada Familia cathedral. This cathedral was desi
gned by Gaudi and construction began in the late 1800s. It is funded entirely by private donations, so the pace of construction is slow. I read once it will take an estimated 30 more years to complete it. The nativity façade was designed by Gaudi and was built during his life time. (That's me in the red.)
The crucifixion façade is controversial as it was designed by a Japanese artist and is in stark contrast to what Gaudi designed. 
Every detail of the cathedral has significance. Spires represent the 4 gospels and the 12 fruits of the Spirit. The front doors are inscribed with the names of God.
Dinner was down near the beach (the Mediterranean Sea) for paella. Sunday we took a detour due to the Barcelona Marathon. We walked thru Barri Gothic. 
Went to the Picasso Museum – which ends up is free the first Sunday of every month. 
After browsing through some pottery shops, we made our way to L’Aquarium which is down near the marina.
I used the aquarium setting on my camera for the first time. The aquarium was nice but wasn’t really worth the 17 Euros entrance fee. 
The girls I skied a lot with – Wendy, Staci & Tina
