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Published: April 2nd 2013
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We feel terrible about falling behind on the blogs, it's been a rough couple of days (more on that in a sec). I forgot to mention on last night's blog that we did laundry before leaving the apartment in Paris! For the most part everyone still line dries their clothes, but this apartment features a washer and dryer in one (why don't we have these in the US?). They are very very tiny so not a lot of clothes at one time but it certainly did the job. The only downside is that the dryer is actually heated with water around the cylinder. I know this because in the morning when I pulled out the clothes, the jeans were wrinkled beyond recognition. I tried to "re-toss" on 'dry only' and heard water (slight panic attack) and found that 40 min later they were not less wrinkled. Now picture me ironing Matt's jeans :-).Matt went to pick up the rental car from the nearby train station. When he arrived back, his words were "That was fun, I already pissed off a motorcycle and have no idea
why." The adventure was about to begin! Our mission? Drive out of Paris without dying! I was immediately assigned a job, "Do not make any reactions." LOL....wow! It was a pretty stressful drive getting out, as there are motorcycles and scooters that just zoom all around the cars whether you are moving or stopped. Once we were on the outer skirts, we were OK and then we hit the highway towards Loire Valley (2.5hrs). These are toll freeways which we are used to...get a ticket at the beginning and pay at the end. The toll for 1 hour on one freeway way 14 Euros! YIKES!Our first stop was Chambord. This is the castle that everyone says is "the best." It is breathtaking on the outside and immense, but inside was almost completely empty (bummer). The château features 440 rooms, 282 fireplaces, and 84 staircases. Construction started on it in 1519 by King Francois I, but it has a long history of tenants, alterations, renovations, etc... Really no one lived there for very long periods of time? We think it is because it would take
a forest of wood a year to heat the place...it was freezing!We really hadn't had breakfast so decided to grab lunch onsite at the cafe. Their Plat du Jour was Coq au Vin which I ordered, and Matt ordered a panini that was supposed to have ham (everything here has ham, LOL) and a white sauce with mushrooms. Well, this was the worst lunch we may have ever had in our entire lives. As I am typing, I am gagging....literally. Matt ended up getting a frozen pizza version of a baguette with meatballs, sauce, etc.. that was burnt and not what he ordered. We split as soon as we could and headed to the next chateau.The Loire Valley is much more spread out that we had thought. The castles are not close together, hours apart even at times so we only had time to visit 2 since everything closes at 5pm :-(. Chenonceau was far superior and our favorite. It was so beautifully decorated with a lot of
the original furnishings and featured the most incredible floral arrangements and tablescapes (Easter themed.) It was built in the 1400's.So this is where the day took a downhill turn. I had not been feeling well all morning so I took some aspirin and ignored, but it keep creeping up at me. And yes, like EVERY vacation, and I mean every vacation....I was ill. By the time we reached the hotel in the town of Amboise, it was clear I had a high fever, I was freezing, etc. They had a bath so I tried to warm up that way but to no avail. I ended up just going to sleep, no dinner, hoping to feel better the next day. Matt walked around town a tiny bit but it was a dud of a night :-( Not sure why this always happens to me....such a disappointment.
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