Both sides now

This is a long-zoom panorama of the château at Saint-Aignan. It's the view from the north that you get when you drive into town and across the bridge, coming from the city of Blois. It looks almost like a row of grand but attached city houses.

From the south side, however, the appearance of the building is completely different. It looks more like what it is — a Renaissance-era château. The wing on the right, where the little car is parked, is still inhabited by the owner of the château, I believe. She's elderly, and her husband died a few years ago.

Visitors to the town and residents are welcome to go up to the château's main courtyard/terrace and see the outside of the building close up, but they are not allowed inside. I hope that someday — in my lifetime — the building will be opened up for visits and tours. I'd be very curious to see the interiors and the grand staircase. The old place certainly looms over the town and the river valley.

We are having summertime weather right now. Temperatures are supposed to hit the 25ºC mark this afternoon — that's close to 80F. Or, if you believe the forecasts on Télématin, I could get even hotter. That's more like July weather than May weather. We got a lot of good gardening work done yesterday.