Take your broad-brim hats, your favorite pair of ballerina shoes, your sunglasses with large rims, like Mlle Deneuve in "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" and let`s continue "La balade romantique" in some of the most wonderful castles in the world. On the Loire Valley....

• Amboise – I like the way this name sounds, sweet and suave: Amboise…also known for the Saint-Hubert chapel, where Leonardo da Vinci is believed to be buried; he was the guest of the king Francisc I, the one who offered him a space for working, at Clos Lucé. Amboise is a castle with a peculiar charm. Standing on a hill, it seems to be watching over the town and the Loire, protecting them even if our time is different from that old time it lived 4 centuries ago.
  
  

• Serrant – even at first sight, Serrant has something peculiar: its architecture is a bit different from the rest of the castles I have seen so far, because it was built on the place of a former fortress. But this doesn`t make it less imposing or important than others, on the contrary.
  
  

• Angers – a fortress, too, was used in the days of the Romans. Angers seemed quite spectacular to me. With a special structure, hosting some fantastic tapestries, the one depicting the Apocalypse being the most renowned, this castle raised by the Anjou earls, counts among my favs
  
  

• Langeais – I reached the end of my list of cute little castles, with one of the oldest on the Loire Valley, Langeois, an old medieval fortress, an example of early Roman style
  
  

• Saumur – built also for defense, turned into a prison in Napoleon`s time, and lying on top of a high hill, Saumur is somber, but at the same time, spectacular. The castle has also an interesting abbey.
  
  

À bientôt, châteaux chanceux !