Carol "Sumi" Tomasa and Christian Chabot at one of the many international landscape gardening exhibits in the Festival of Gardens at the Chamount Castle.

We arrive in Paris on Friday, 23 June 2006. Anne-Marie was there at the Charles De Gaulle Airport at 8am to greet us. We took the RER train from the airport to the Chabots apartment in the 13 Arrondissement. It was so good to be back in Paris! Early Saturday morning the four of us went to the Gare de Lyon to reserve seats on the train for 1 July for Sumi and I and our trip to Menton. Lucky to have Christian along to translate the coupons I had purchased on the internet in the states were just that, and we needed to pay $6 euros more to actually have a seat reservation. The seats were all gone for 1 July 1st (height of tourist season, and all) so we got a night train for 30 June to arrive 8am in the morning at Menton, after changing trains in Nice. After this major accomplishment (Anne-Marie noticed that we hadn't reserved a RT, so back went our hero Christian to the station agent).

We set off for a 2 hour drive to Christian's childhood home (and castle) in the Loire Valley. We first stopped off at Christian's mother's lovely apartment in Blois to say hello and drop off our suitcases . . . then off to Chamount.

There is a little stone house at the entrance to the Chateaux that was occupied by Christian's family when he was a boy. This is truly a fairyland in the former playground for kings. At the top is another exhibit. the theme this year was Garden Play. Who doesn't dream of hiding in a tree-house? Who wouldn't risk getting lost in a maze of having a secret rendez-vous in a dark, cosy cave? Why not rediscover Alice in Wonderland? Having a swing or spinning like a top, in the middle of luxuriant, colourful, inventive gardens?

In the Festival pathways, each visitor is invited to participate in the show of recreational and interactive gardens. It was great to have Christian as our guide, because he had played on the castle grounds as a young boy with his brother. He pointed out the bridge over the stream. (it was off the beaten path and closed so we couldn't access it) Years ago the castle occupants buried ice in the ground to keep perishables fresh.