Greetings from Blois

...where I am visiting my friend Helene and her family (she was one of my roommates my sophomore year of college, and I have not seen her or her husband for two decades) and had dinner at L'Embarcadere before a quick tour of the town and château! Earlier in the day we drove into the Loire Valley to Fontevraud Abbey, where Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their son Richard the Lionheart lie in effigy (their remains were likely destroyed during the 1500s), then the Château de Brézé, which has the deepest dry moat in Europe and spectacular subterranean rooms. I have lots to say and many photos of all this but I am too exhausted to type, so here is the Château de Blois, more tomorrow!