Chateau Cruising

Today the plan was for a leisurely day out with only one 'must-see' which was Chateau Chenonceau - about 45 mins drive away.  It was quite fine, a cool 6 degrees, but the countryside was lovely. Interestingly, since we left the Dordognes, whenever we have been lucky enough to have a clear day, it has been very hazy.  I asked one of our hosts if it was pollution, but apparently not.

Anyway, we were enjoying the peaceful drive and commenting how little traffic there was, until we arrived and saw the car park!  Huge and packed!  They must have come from another direction.  The castle and grounds were the best I have seen, vast but beautiful. This chateau was once the home of Catherine de Medici, who was a bit of a baddie I think.

Spent a pleasant three hours wandering around and eating lunch, then you know who (!) thought we could cruise by another couple of chateaus - just for fun.  One was inaccessible due to road closures for a marathon, but we ended up at Chateau Chambord which was truly ugly.  Worth seeing for its 'over the topness' but no architectural merit in my eyes - simply an ostentatious display of wealth.

[Allan: did have a brilliant double-helix stairway though]

By the end of the outing, it was 6.30 pm and I had walked 17,000 steps according to my pedometer.  That's about 12 km and worthy of a nice dinner out, I reckon.

We hadn't realised that a lot of the restaurants weren't open because it was Sunday, so we struggled to find something, but what we did find was a rustic looking little bistro.  The food was stunning - we have only had one dud meal in France.  Even the Pizza Hut we had on Saturday night was better than we expected.

Have been debating whether the exercise and the small to non-existent breakfasts and lunches will offset the three course dinners on the scales.  Guess I'll find out when we get home!

Touring to Tours

Saturday and we are enroute to Tours - around 225 kms.  Before we hit the road properly, we backtracked to a town called Saintes to see a Roman Ampitheatre constructed in AD 50.  It was a surprisingly interesting sight - simple but quite stunning.

We were on the A10 motorway for most of our journey.  You really eat up the kms at 130 kph!  Every 20 or so kms, there are rest areas with petrol stations, eateries or picnic areas.  We had a nice lunch at one of these, then paid our 18! euros toll charge.  I read that the 925 km trip from Nice to Paris is estimated to use 70 euros worth of fuel and incur 69 euros of toll charges - that puts it in context somewhat!

As you might expect, we popped off the motorway to see a few things (read chateaus!) on the way.  We did drive-bys on two then visited Chateau Langeais.  The chateaus of the Loire Valley are not so old as in the Dordogne and are generally furnished to give some context to the rooms.  This one was good and had lovely gardens, so worth a visit.

Hitting Tours at 5.30 pm on a Saturday, we thought we'd be ok, but no, another nightmare in traffic and narrow streets.  The situation was complicated by the fact that the hotel has no parking of its own, so you need to find a public park nearby.  Not the easiest on a Saturday night in the city.  Finally sorted, and wheeled our suitcases half a km to check in.  No lifts!  Lucky we are only on the second floor.  Our room is quite small and once again involves a bit of contortion to negotiate your way around the bed.  It's most obvious feature is that every (without exception!) floorboard squeaks - no sneaking off to the loo in the night without waking the neighbours!!