the cathedral at Le Cafe Serpente, where we could

the cathedral at Le Cafe Serpente, where we could gaze at this quiet edifice with her mismatched double spires (the north one was rebuilt after fire damage in the 16th century) and appreciate the centuries of awe she has inspired.

From Chartres we pushed on toward Tours, about 80 miles further southwest. We drove down the main business artery, the Rue Nationale, without stopping (it was a Saturday, and the sidewalks looked impassable with the numbers of people and families out shopping).

The Rue Nationale took us directly across the Loire on the Pont Wilson affording us our first glimpse ever of the famous river — unremarkable as it made its languid, muddy way under the bridge. We continued on, crossing the Cher River to the small town of Montbazon and our hotel, the Chateau d’Artigny located just west of town on the Indre River.

A renaissance-style chateau built in the early 20th century by the Fortunoff family, this elegant hotel offers several lovely public rooms. A must-see is the bar which displays hundreds of bottles of different kinds of liqueur, with special emphasis on armagnacs, a favorite brandy made in the region. Our very comfortable room had a view north over the country side.

We hopped back across the river Indre for dinner at the delightful Domaine de la Tortiniere, a castle built in 1861 on a site occupied by castles since the early Middle Ages, and today run as a small hotel and restaurant by the daughter of the family who purchased the castle in 1954.

The next day we took back country roads skirting the Cher east and teeming with bicyclists to our first chateau, Chenonceau. One misconception of mine was immediately dispelled: that all of the chateaux in the Loire valley are on the Loire. In fact, most of them are located on either the Cher or the Indre.

Chenonceau stretches all the way across the Cher and is considered a