The day didn't look too promising and a lot of rain was forecast. We have been very lucky with the weather, not rained once really, only a few showers and we were able to go out each day. So out came my small camera bag holding the E-M5 II with the Panasonic 7-14 f4 mounted. I also threw in the Panasonic TZ101 because it takes up hardly any room. I had a feeling we were ...

Chateau Villandry is worth the visit for the gardens alone (as seen in the images below). Most of the Loire Valley chateaus are in quite good condition. Of course some restoration work has had to be done over time, but still, it's easy to see where original stone still exists today. The cost of keeping these buildings in tip-top condition costs a fortune, hence the high entry fee we all have to pay.

During a trip like this, where you've come to do a certain tour, you need a little break once in awhile. This is exactly what we did today and did something completely different. This is our last day in Blois before moving on.

From the map above you can see how large the zoo is.

Not too far away from Blois situated in the middle of nowhere is one ...

Today, for our first visit, we did a village north of the Loire River. All, or most, of the popular chateaus seem to be on the south side of the Loire. I wonder why? Anyway, the first village we visited was Talcy. Of course it also has a chateau. I think every little village in this part of France has a chateau. We didn't visit these villages for the sole purpose of their chateaus, we ...

To make up for the disappointment yesterday we headed for two different locations. My shutter therapy is falling short right now!

Our first stop was Cheverny. Built between 1620 and 1634. All the finishing on the towers weren't completed until 1648 however. It's the first chateau to be built as a chateau without any defensive or military purposes in mind. And what a beautiful building it is. I could see me living there too, ...

Apart from being in the Loire Valley to see the great chateaus, I am also here to test some lenses which I mentioned in one of my last posts. I find it a good time to do this because I'm pretty relaxed when I'm on holiday. So today I decided to mount the Tamron 14-150 f3.5-5.8 on the E-M1 and see how things turn out. The last test I carried out with the Tamron was ...

The heat is oppressive today. We feel like taking a shower every 15 minutes. Despite this we battled our way to the largest chateau in France, Chambord.

As you can see from the map above, Chambord isn't far at all from Blois where we were staying for some 10 days. The map shows where a couple of hundred chateaus are situated in the Loire Valley. That's why we chose Blois as ...

I've been so impressed with the Samyang lenses that I started thinking about them in general. Although they are all manual focus lenses, once you get used to them you really don't miss autofocus at all. Well, that's me speaking of course. Horses for courses and all that.

I now have the 12 f2 for MFT and for Fuji X mount.

This lens is small, unobtrusive, weighs in at 260g and ...

My last post was just me philosophising a little about what X-Mount lenses to buy or not. I still haven’t acquired the Fujinon 10-24 f4 because it’s just too expensive. Can’t justify it, and if I personally say that about a lens then it’s got to be serious. It doesn't mean that I've given up on that lens though, it's just on hold.

I decided to go another route with my X-Mount lenses with ...