Tours and Chateaus in Loire Valley

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June 23

We arrived in Potiers at 6am and there was a noticeable difference in the temperature. It was cold, but that was nice as it had been so hot in Seville and even in Madrid. We went into the station and found the train to Tours didn’t leave for another half an hour so we had a little wait before leaving for our destination. Our train arrived in Tours around 8:30.

We oriented ourselves on the map. Filip asked someone directions and we were on the right path toward our hotel. We got to the hotel around 9 am, too early to check in, but they allowed us to leave our bags until we could come back and check in around 1pm.

We went to the tourist office and got info about the Chateaus and how to get there. We got a map of Tours and what to see there. The excursions to Chateaus were about 50 Euros/person/day so we went to look at car rentals to see if that would be a better way of going. There were only 2 places, one was way too expensive, and the other didn’t have cars available. We decided rather than taking the bus or train we’d opt to do one of the excursions where you are driven to the chateau and then you walk around on your own there.
We ended up having to go to Mc Donald’s to get a wifi connection, and when I ordered orange juice, the guy thought I ordered cheese. So after he had put Filip’s things on the tray he asked if I wanted to come back for my cheese, I was confused. I just responded “orange juice?” and he realized the mistake he had made. Not sure why he was thinking I would just order cheese.

From there we walked through the markets that were available today and then went to the river to sit down in the shade a bit. It was still too early to go to our hotel, but we walked along our street anyway and stopped at a creperie. Filip got an apricot crepe and I got a basic salad. We were both feeling quite exhausted at this point and stopped by our hotel in hopes that our room was ready by now. It was, and they had already moved our bags up there, how nice.

We made plans to meet up with our friend James from Utah, who is doing his study abroad here in Tours. He is playing in a show tonight with people from his school so we will go watch that. Then we both slept for hours since we didn’t get much sleep the night before on the train from Madrid.

In the evening we got ready to meet up with James and tried to find the place online where he was going to be playing. It looked like it might actually be the place we had seen earlier down by the river. We stayed there until about 9:30, then decided to walk around a bit on our way back to the hotel and stopped at a market. We also decided to do the afternoon trip to Chambord and Chenonceau tomorrow.
-Molly-

June 24

In the morning we made reservation for the afternoon trip to the chateaus. The cost was 33 euros per person. We found a pastry shop for Filip to get some breakfast. After walking a bit further, and running into the strike that is going on today all throughout France, we found another shop that was selling pastries that Filip got for half the cost, but that was because it wasn’t a place you could sit down and they didn’t have any drinks. Filip got a sandwich to take on the excursion and I got a baguette.

We were lucky we did not need to use any public transportation today including trains, because everybody was on strike. We later found out why people were on strike. There is a plan to increase retirement age for public sector employees. We were also lucky that the strike was only today. Our tour guide later told us that he remembered a strike in the 90's that lasted a whole month.

We went back to the hotel and got ready for excursion, then got to the tourist office about ½ an hour early. We had a snack across the street in the park before getting in the van to go to the chateaus.
Ride to Chambord took 1 ½ hours, then 1 hour to Chenonceau, then ½ an hour back to Tours. Our driver spoke English well and gave us a lot of information as we passed things, and also played this video-audio guide of the two chateaus we would be visiting.
We arrived to Chambord and the lady in ticket office had bad news for us. The chateau was temporarily closed, because wild bees flew into the chateau and stung bunch of tourists. There are very high ceilings in the building, so they had to call firefighters to deal with the bees. She said it would reopen quickly, but we were in a hurry. We only had 1 hour and 30 minutes to look around. The chateau was huge. One could easily spend two or three hours there. Fortunately part of the chateau was open and the remaining parts gradually reopened as we were walking around. There was an awesome double helix staircase in the middle.
From Chambord, we drove to Chenonceau. This chateau was much smaller, but it was furnished more inside. The building spanned across the river Cher and had a very feminine touch. There was a garden maze and lovely gardens. The tour was definitely worth the money, although we wish we had little more time to explore Chambord.

We met up with James again to go to dinner. Filip had random French dishes from the menu he did not understand and was disappointed, when both dishes contained animal organs (liver, kidneys?) instead of normal meat. Eating animal organs must be quite popular in France. Then we went to an Irish bar called The Pale for drinks.
-Molly-

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Photos

Firefighters in Chambord
Leaving after smoking out bees

Chenonceau
Under construction

Tours - by Loire river
Filip pretending to read French newspaper and drinking German beer.

Concert in Tours
Our friend James on stage in Tours right by Loire river

Breakfast in Tours
French pastries are the best