Blogs from Blois, Centre, France, Europe

We learned that Sunday is an extremely quiet day in France. We knew that going in, but we couldn't fathom just how quiet it is. Everything was closed (except a few boulangerie in the morning), and there were few people to be seen anywhere. Makes us wonder, where do these people go? If they're spending the day with family, how come no one was out for a walk? It wasn't always raining so you'd think at least they were out visiting people... We started off the morning just outside of Chartres, staying in a hotel just off the autoroute. This was the day to explore and hunt the castles of the Loire valley. Well what I mean by explore is drive, see from the outside, click, click, click and move on. If we spent ten euros ... read more

Castle number two - tick. Although it was castle number one on our list. This is the supersized most extravagant and most visited of them all. And it did take our breath away from our first glimpse of it during one of our many u-turn manoeuvers on narrow country roads. It really is impressive with it's size and whole cityscape of turrets domes and sculptures on top. We were pleased our early morning start got us half way up the number one carpark rather than the other parks a couple of kilometers away. This place certainly was geared up for the tourists with markets restaurants and souvenir shops forming a little village within the grounds. The grounds were very unimpressive. Little more than badly kept paddocks. Although the large forest surrounding the castle is of note ... read more

Today we went to chambord. It's a fancy castle. It's one of the biggest ones in France. It is known for it's staircase when two people can go on it. They can see each other but they won't pass each other. As we went in all the rooms there wasn't much in it compared to the one we went to before.  After we had lunch we went to hudins magic house. The first floor was pretty cool. We went into this coffin shaped hallway that had mirrors on all it's sides and it looked like it when on forever. As we went onto the last level a man us some kind of like glasses but they've got a mirror by your nose so that you can see what is above you. Then you walk down a ... read more

We had the morning in Blois, and then trains to Caen, where we would catch a ferry back to the UK. I spent some time wandering a crowded street market, buying fresh local chevre to bring home, and wishing I lived there so I could buy more. I topped that off with a wander through the royal chateau, which had the interesting trait of having wings in different styles of architecture. It also provides beautiful views of the river and the city below. Our connections took us through Tours which was also a large city, and it seemed very interesting and multicultural. Worth a second look. Finally at Caen, we had to cycle 15 km to reach the ferry port, which isn't actually in the city of Caen, but in Ouistreham. We moved along a canal ... read more

Loire Valley, Chateau land. The entire area is dotted with elaborate chateaux plumped in the middle of sprawling, intricately manicured lands. The vast majority would put the Beverly Hillbillies mansion to shame, although none of them had any ceement ponds. Plenty of billyard rooms though, and with fancy eatin tables and racks of pot passers (this is the result of a misspent youth being weened on Looney Tunes and 1960 American comedies). Meanwhile back on vacation, while these chateaux are spectacular (and expensive to visit, they could bleed you dry if you visited all of them), they are a glaring reminder of how much fun life was for the elite in France back in yore, but also how tough it was for the far greater number of plebs at the other end of the economic scale. ... read more