Château de Sully-sur-Loire

Saturday
We enjoyed a great day out today, driving to the nearest of the Loire châteaux, at Sully-sur-Loire, which took us about an hour and twenty minutes. The day was mainly quite bright and sunny, except for a couple of hours early afternoon, but there was quite a cold wind, so I was glad I'd taken a warm coat, rather than just my fleece which was all I'd needed most of the week. We had seen this Bugati in the car park outside the gates, but just as we were about to go inside the chateau, we heard it drive up the driveway and saw it park in front of the château, so naturally I had to go back and get a picture of the château including the Bugati! Once we went into the château we discovered they closed for lunch at 12 noon, and by this time it was almost 11.30, so we decided to go off and walk around the park, then get some lunch, and return after 2pm. The imposing medieval architecture has dominated this stretch of the Loire for seven centuries, and was the residence of Maximilien de Bethune, Duke of Sully, minister to Henri IV, who acquired it in 1602 and carried out significant additions and modifications. From Sully we drove to nearby Benoit sur Loire to see Fleury Abbey. Founded about 640, Fleury Abbey is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe. It claims to possess the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia, however this claim is disputed by the monks of Monte Cassino. Its site on the banks of the Loire has always made it easily accessible from Orléans, a center of culture unbroken since Roman times. After exploring the inside, we went for a bit of a drive, trying to get a view of it from across the river, which we eventually succeeded in doing, finding a nice walk along the somewhat swollen river.