Today took us out to two more chateaus, the first being Chateau Langeais. Originally founded in the year 992 today's chateau has no resemblance to the original castle. The old keep itself lies in ruins. It is the second earliest knows chateau and is where the marriage between Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII took place in secrecy (1491), which bonded Brittany to the rest of France. The new chateau, what stands today, was started ...

Today we moved on from Blois to a little town called Veretz. It's not too far from Chinon (which I always thought was a large town - it isn't) and planned to stay there for the day until our friends turned up later.

Chinon wasn't exactly on the way to Veretz but we had time to spare until our friends came.

We stopped at Chinon (population 8000) for the day before driving further ...

Today was going to be a long drive. Unfortunately it was the only day we could do it on but I wanted to see this location. It was rather cloudy and grey but there wasn't anything we could do about that.

Fontevraud Abbey was founded in 1101 by the hermit Roberts d'Arbrissel for both men and women and was the largest of its kind in France. It is quite large but is only ...

Today, we did Chaumont-sur-Loire. Built between 1466 and 1510. That's nearly 50 years for a project. You have to let that go through your brain a little to realize how long that really is. Wouldn't work today of course but when you think about the tools they had then, I think they did pretty well to finish it in just under 50 years.

In the above map you can see the location ...

Today we took a break from looking at chateaus, even one chateau per day can be too much at times so we headed out for the town of Orleans. With some 120,000 inhabitants, it's one of the bigger towns in the region and offers some great sights to see. It was the capital of medieaval France until the mid-18th Century. During the French Revolution it bacame stauchly Republican. The cathedral dominates the town (Cathedrale-Ste-Croix) and ...

We headed south west in the direction of Chenonceaux which is the village that gives it’s name to Chateau Chenonceau. Aptly named as  the “Palace of Women” because over the ages only women have owned and lived in the chateau. Originally built in 1512 by Catherine Briconnet it was Diane de Poitiers who would build the bridge that spans the Cher river. Catherine de Medici then added the galleries over the bridge.

Chenonceau ...

Ten hours it took to drive from Frankfurt, Germany to Blois, France. Blois is the regional capital with some 50,000 inhabitants. After finding the flat we had rented for the next 10 days, out we went to see what delights the town could offer.

For those who are curious to know where Blois is, it's right in the middle on the Loire Valley where most of the chateaus of this famous valley lie. From Blois, ...

Having just tested the Olympus 14-42 f3.5-5.6 EZ I was expecting the same sort of performance from this lens. Lets just look at these two for a minute; both are 14-42mm, both are f3.5-5.6 and both have a power zoom (or electronic zoom). Lets see the specs for the lens:

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42 f3.5-5.6 PZ Power O.I.S.
Weight: 95g
Size: 27mm x 61mm
Aperture: f3.5 - f22
MFD: 20cm
Filter: 37mm
Price: €330

This lens (or my copy) can't be described as Olympus' greatest achievement. I think this was the kit lens with one of the earliest EM models. Forgot which but it doesn't really matter.

Olympus 12-50 f3.5 - 6.3 EZ (24-100 35mm equivalent)
Weight: 212g
Size: 83mm x 57mm
Aperture: f3.5 - f22
MFD: 20cm
Filter: 52mm
Price: €230

I like the range 24mm - 100mm in FF ...