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 ...

Every manufacturer bring their cameras to market with a standard (normally sub-par) kit lens. Normally I discard these as “not-up-to-my-standard” and they end up in a corner somewhere. The only reason I get some of these lenses is when I can’t find a body only offer but sometimes these lenses surprise me with their image quality. Some of them are not to be discarded as I stated above, “sub-par”.

There are times a lens comes out ...

You may have noticed a lack of posts in September, that’s because of a lack of time in the first half and a sailing holiday in the second. Yes, a sailing holiday. In all we were five guests on the boat and two crew members. Two crew were necessary because the five us hadn’t a clue about sailing, but that didn’t deter us from enjoying the trip. The boat was a 54 footer with 3 ...

I believe I've mentioned that the Panasonic GM5 really got my attention after I took it with me to the south of France last year (as an afterthought). The camera and the lenses made for it are so small and light you really don't realise that you're carrying them around with you.

I normally use the two lenses made for it; the 12-32 f3.5-5.6 OIS and the 35-100 f4.0-5.6 OIS. These two lenses were especially ...