One late afternoon, we wandered through the green woods of Piolant. Not a park or town, but a place.

The rest of the story follows.

No, this is not our apartment! This is the dining room of a surprise bed and breakfast stop. It was our anniversary (#42!!!) and we were on our way to a mission conference. I had been sneaky and reserved a special place for us to stay for the night. After telling Liz (as were were driving) that I had seen an interesting place to visit on the way, we pulled up to this "bed and breakfast", and after she admired it for just a minute, I surprised her with the fact that we were staying there for the night. This was taken the next morning.

West view of the Piolant Chateau. Out in the country, over a mile from the nearest other farm. It was a beautiful place with a gracious hostess and a history going back several hundred years.

Liz liked this living room. The owners worked on two floors for two years after buying the building, doing most of the work themselves with the help of one son. I think they did a great job.

How often do you get to look like you own a Chateau? That's Liz in the window above the entrance. It turned out that we were the only guests that evening, so we wandered around, enjoyed the views, and felt like this will be one of our favorite visits anywhere.

A closeup of the previous view. Does she look like she's enjoying herself?

A memorable Senior Missionary Conference. All of the seniors in our mission met together, as we had some inspirational meetings and socialized. Three of these couples have gone home now. We enjoyed getting to know them.

As part of our mission conference for the seniors, we visited two chateaux in the Loire Valley. There are dozens of these castles, mostly not open to the public, but we were able to see two of the most famous ones. This is missionaries walking from the parking lot to Chenonceau Chateau.

One of the most beautiful Chateaux (castles) in the world, Chenonceaux sits on the bank of a river, with the long rectangular wing on the right actually crossing the river. The wing was originally built as a bridge so Diane de Poitiers could take her friends across and go hunting. It was later covered and used for balls and other entertainment, and served as a hospital in WW I. More photos will follow at a later date.

This is Chambord Chateau with the senior missionaries and our President and his wife (standing next to us). A fairyland castle that was built, no joke, as a hunting lodge!

This is not a prize-winning photo, but is a reminder of the noise in La Rochelle. Boisterous groups would go past our apartment at all hours of the night, so we kept 2 fans running on the weekends for background noise to let us sleep! Then one day, Brad discovered three sheets of 2" pink styrofoam waiting for the garbage truck. With a few deft strokes of surgical skill with his pocketknife, he fashioned a jigsaw of pieces to completely block off the window in the bedroom. Aaah! Piece at last.