Category: lodgings

  • Villa Pattono, Constigliole d’Asti

    Villa Pattono, Constigliole d’Asti

    Our late summer vacation was spent mostly at this villa situated in the middle of the Piemonte (Piedmont) countryside of Italy. Rather than moving from one place to another several times during the week (like we did in France in June), we stayed here for a good five days. The nearest town is Constigliole d’Asti.…

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  • Domaine des Bidaudieres, Vouvray

    If you have been following our trip to the Val de Loire, and our story about finding the chateau we booked (click here to read), this is the second place where we ended up. Because we cannot extend our unplanned stay at Chateau des Arpentis (click here to see it), the owner, Sylvie offered us a room…

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  • Château des Arpentis, Saint–Règle

    This is the chateau we landed when the one we booked canceled our reservation. For the full story on how got here, see our earlier post here. On its web site, the history of Château des Arpentis is as follows: The first well-known lord was Christophe Thomas in 1313. Around 1410, the chateau became the…

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  • Finding Château des Arpentis, near Amboise

    Continuing with our journey in the Loire Valley …  after a few days in Saumur, we went up river to see the chateaux that made the area famous. In the countryside around the city of Tours, we visited several chateaux that are justifiably France’s national treasures and deservedly tourist magnets. We will share those pictures…

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  • Demeure de la Vignole, Turquant, part 2

    Towards the end of May, we visited the Loire Valley and stayed at a hotel with rooms that are built into caves. Here are some more examples of cave dwellings which have been modernized.  We found these homes just a few minutes down the road from our hotel, between Turquant and Saumur. Here are some…

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  • Demeure de la Vignole, Turquant, part 1

    This is the first of a series of blog posts on our trip to the Loire Valley (Val de Loire). The main purpose of this trip was to attend our friend – VC’s birthday party (actually as surprise guests) at E’s place in Orleans, France. Rather than flying up to Paris, we decided to take the car. By…

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