The Louis XIV Tour of France - The Start

When Amanda visited in December, we didn't stray too far from Strasbourg. The weather was lousy. Moreover, the Christmas markets were far more interesting to us than doing more traditional tourist stops in France.

With this visit, however, we wanted to get out of Strasbourg.

Amanda was enchanted with the mystique of France at the height of it's power - during the age of Louis XIV. Louis is known as the Sun King, or le Roi Soleil to the French. During his reign in the 1600's, France surpassed Spain in the international sweepstakes. England had not yet established it's empire and taken it's position of supremecy. That came 100 years later. During the 1600's. life was very, very good in France if you were not a common peasant. This was a time of palaces and courtly love and all the excesses that we today associate with royalty.

So, two days after Amanda arrived we made a five-day-week-end to visit the Chateaux of the Loire Valley, Versailles, and Chartres. To wrap it up, we went to Bordeaux to see what is essentially a "rock opera" version of the life of Louis XIV.