My favourite château

... Chenonceau!

It was my favourite when we visited the Loire valley a quarter of a century ago, and today it was as lovely as I remembered, both castle and garden!

As well as the fritillary butterfly and bee, spotted lots of other little bugs and beetles. The red one here is tiny, but his bright colour drew my attention. I think he belongs to the Pyrrhocoridae family, but haven't narrowed it down further than that.

After Chenonceau, we drove to Amboise - enjoyed a fabulous lunch - and then visited Clos Lucé, home of Leonardo da Vinci. Wonderful to stand at his window and imagine his seeing almost the same view - certainly of Amboise castle, home of his friend François I.

From a rainy start, the sun came through with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Celsius. Glorious!