Blogs from Centre, France, Europe - page 14

No biking today. The rain was persistent and heavy all day, so we decided to go looking for a shopping mall as we were all short on something warm to wear! I spent the morning at a local salon as there had been no time for a haircut in the lead-up to our trip, and I was badly in need. It was not so easy describing what I wanted in French, but the hairdresser and I did pretty well in the end, although the term "Feathered" as it applies to hair was one she struggled with! I was able to use pictures and gesture to help her understand, and in return she helped me with a few French phrases. Our trip to the mall was successful and Isabel managed to find jeans and a great jacket ... read more

Perfect Way to Spend a Day I do not quite remember when the information about Loire Castles came to my notice. I know that I wanted to visit them (a couple) the previous year, and that this year I bought a guided bus tour to three Loire Castles with FranceTourisme. I chose the company because of the price, it was 110 Euros per person as compared to 170 Euros with Visitscope (tours in Russian). I supposed this tour would be in English, but the language did not matter too much. The Chateaux de la Loire are part of UNESCO World Heritage. There is a very long list of them, and it is, I guess, possible to comfortably visit 3-5 of them within a single day. If one has a car, or a bike, or a motorcycle, ... read more

Chenonceaux. I was sorry to leave Bordeaux. There seemed to be so much to see that was unavailable to us on this trip. An excuse for a return, if we needed one. Today would feature another 300km ride north, with a non-remarkable pit-stop or two, heading for Tours. The Chateau Chenonceau straddles the Cher River, near the town of Chenonceaux, about 30km east of Tours. Dating to the 1400's, it was the private residence of a wealthy miller but over the course of history came into the possession of royalty. Cindy detailed some of the amusing, amorous escapades of some of the royals which led to various chatelaines and other occupants over the centuries. Simply put, it served as the personal residence of five French queens, including infamous Catherine de Medici, with whose affections one was ... read more

Happy Birthday to me. I suppose this was a milepost as I turned 60 today and that monumental achievement was the whole reason I got to choose the itinerary for this trip, but it really seemed like just any other day to me when we woke up. As far as I was concerned, everyday of this vacation was special because I was not at work and I was seeing all kinds of new things that really interested me. I was truly thinking that this region of France might be just as fascinating to me as Bavaria. After waking up in our budget hotel we took nice hot showers before packing up the car. As our trip was drawing to a conclusion we wanted to squeeze in as much as possible today. With New Year's Day following ... read more

Our time in Paris has been very busy. When we originally booked our accommodation we had been unable to get the first night at the B&B we preferred so as a result the first night was spent in a very ordinary hotel in what resembled a cramped dusty attic. Fortunately it was only for the one night and we were gone first thing in the morning. Where we moved into our preferred B&B appartment which had plenty of space, was very homely and had everything we needed. After we had seen the Eifel Tower and Palace of Versailles. John, Hayley and Carolyn were really wearing Tanya and I down with the question "So what day are we going to Disneyland?" and John was no longer accepting the answer "Disneyland is closed today". So we thought we ... read more