Travel Agent Richmond

In September, 2008 I led a small group of friends to the Loire Valley in France. We have studied the French language together in Richmond, VA for years, and call ourselves "Mes Amis" - which means "My Friends". On this wonderful trip, we spent the first week studying at a French language immersion school in the medieval center of the town of Tours, France, the largest town in the Loire Valley.
We stayed at the terrific 3* Hotel l'Adresse just a block from Place Plumereau and our school, Tours Langues, and dined at the many colorful cafes in the Place every lunch and dinner.
Following the completion of our week of studies, we moved to a really wonderful hotel in an authentic 17th century chateau - Cheateau-des-Ormeaux, across the river from the charming town of Amboise. The hotel's owners are extremely charming, and have restored the rooms to a very lovely, and comfortable standard - especially for the affordable prices. Using the chateau as a base, we spent the next three days touring the many famous royal chateaux in the area - such as Chateau Chenonceau - built across the River Cher, Chambord - with its 400+ rooms, Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau, Cheverny-still owned by its original family, and the extremely impressive gardens of Chateau Villandry. We also enjoyed visiting the fascinating towns of Amboise and Blois, both of which have their own royal chateaux. Amboise is also famous as the resting place of Leonardo da Vinci, who served his final years here in consultation to the King of France.
Then some of us spent the next three days on a driving tour of Normandy. We spent our first night on the spectacular, and mysterious island of Mont-Saint-Michel, which has served as a religious pilgrimage site for over a thousand years. The island is a few miles out in the Atlantic, surrounded by tidal salt marshes, and accessible only by a narrow causeway, since the tides race in to a depth of 20 feet each day. I've wanted to visit Mont-Saint-Michel since I was a boy, and had a travel poster of it on my bedroom wall. The experience of staying on the island, after the crowds of day tourists had departed, definitely lived up to my expectations.
We spent our next day touring the D-Day beach towns - famous for the World War II Allied Invasion. I found Omaha Beach, where so many Americans died, to be particularly moving, and there's a terrific 360-degree movie at the visitors center in the small coastal town of Arromanche, the first French town liberated in the War. We stayed at a comfortable hotel in nearby Bayeux - most famous for the medieval Bayeux Tapestry.
On the drive into Paris, we enjoyed driving through the delightful harbor town of Honfleur. Then our group met up again for a final dinner together in Paris - at La Coupole, perhaps the most famous of the Montparnasse cafes, with its many paintings left by now famous painters from the turn of the 20th century.
I spent a final weekend alone in Paris, celebrating my 59th birthday. This was my eighth visit to the City of Light in the past 9 years, and it was here that I first dreamt of becoming a travel agent. I'm thrilled that my dreams have now come true, and I'm able to share "My France" now with so many friends, and clients.