Loire Valley

The "see all we can before leaving Europe" campaign was officially kicked-off with a trip to the Loire Valley in France; the 6 hour drive tested our new GPS and our boys.
Loire is a gentle region dotted with 300+ chateaus outside of Paris, well-traveled by kings and lords for its breadbasket bounty. Bright yellow fields of rape seed checkered the landscape.
Dave & Corina, our Aussie proprietors, were London professionals who traded in their good fortunes to "get away from it all" and pursue a dream - as well as, roping in others - to live in a chateau. There are BBC TV shows based on stories like theirs - often hilarious - as these hosts often have no training in hospitality management. Our facility was perfect, but staying there meant kinda hanging out with them, on their terms.
Which was ideal for Michael and Jack, who played with the dogs, jumped on the trampoline, and were encouraged to ride their scooters inside on the marble floors.
And Alex kindly taught Michael how to use this new guitar video program.

Then on to the chateaus. Chambord, the largest one, was holding its annual flea market and was, well, not that attractive to me:
Beth was visiting, and we all loved the bridge and grounds (a maze hedge) of Chateau Chenonceau,

which gave Michael & Jack plenty of imaginative play.
The comic strip, Tin Tin, was set at Cheverny, where the Mona Lisa was hidden during WWII. Yielded tasty, cheap wines.Leonardo da Vinci lived the last two years of his life at Chateau Clos Luce, which has a very impressive interactive park of dozens of his inventions, like the corkscrew well above.

Parents of one village were raising money for the local school, so we pulled-up to see what gives. It was the closing-up of the annual cookout, but this Leonardo kindly welcomed us, running inside to get extra sausages, promptly handing me the tongs!
This was a highlight of the trip for me, as I cooked and we all shared good beer and they even cranked up the fryer to cook us some fries. Michael got to turn the crank contraption that fanned the charcoal.
The second castle confirmed to me that Walt Disney was obviously trying to reproduce Europe when he designed Disneyland as a theme park of outdoor cafes, manicured gardens, flower beds, and a castle. The major difference being once outside the magic kingdom you have Southern California.