What a life these past few days: fantastic breakfast at this beautiful ancient house we’re staying in, then exploring the surrounding area to see amazing chateaus scattered all over the countryside along the beautiful Loire River valley, Our ‘home base” is Amboise, which has its own centuries-old chateau, and now we’ve explored Fontainebleau, Vaux le Vicomte, and Chenonceau. Today, off to Blois and Chambord…but first, a bit about dinner last night.
We chose last night’s restaurant, La Forchette, from a recommendation in Rick Steve’s book on the Loire. The choice was confirmed by the recommendation of our host, Gloria. It was only a few blocks from Le Vieux Manoir, so we strolled down uncrowded narrow streets and found it at the end of a narrow space that looked like a well-maintained alley. Tiny inside, maybe room for a dozen tables, with a small kitchen and everything spotlessly clean. This was a fun spot: run by two women, plain delicious fare, good local wine, decent prices, and very pleasant atmosphere. No, you don’t see this kind of place where we live. We had a wonderful evening, and walked safely back “home”. Sweet!
Breakfast today was amazing, as we’ve come to expect. Gloria, our host, taught me about some cheeses, so I tried some new tastes. My technique is to eat a major meal at breakfast, because it’s SO GOOD, then snack at lunch and have a fun supper. Works well so far!
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| Chambord from the side, with Lynn, Jack, Sherye, Linda and Andy |
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| Guys outside front wall Chambord |
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| Lynn, outside spiral staircase |
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| Chambord side |
The drive to Chambord was beautiful, as the country is mostly agricultural, situated along the Loire River. We got mis-directed by our navigation system into a dirt road ending at a lumberyard by the river…but after a reset, made it to the Chateau Chambord. What a place! It is the biggest chateau I’ve ever seen, easily as big as many major castles, and was designed and started in the early 1500’s by King Francis. The DESIGNER of the chateau is unknown, but is believed to be Leonardo DaVinci, an idea we will explore later this week. Fantastical place, unlike other chateaus: huge central stone spiral staircase with TWO staircases twining around each other up and down 4 floors; TWO main turrets of huge diameter with big rooms inside and conical roofs penetrated all over the place by chimneys and spires and steeples; and huge grounds that will sometime in the future be sumptuous. The whole place is under renovation, so towers are covered with scaffolding, the grounds are all plowed up and being rearranged by big earth moving machinery, and the total effect now is very not-inspiring. This will be a great bicycle destination in a few years to see how it all comes out! We had a blast exploring all over this place, but got tired and hungry, so set out for the town of Blois.
The Chateau at Blois was our excuse for visiting this town but we loved exploring the town so much we decided to pass on entering the chateau. First order of business was lunch: we found a restaurant serving food in the plaza just outside the chateau wall, so settled in for some food and beverage to rest up. Andy and I split an order of “Moule et Frite"…Mussels and french fries. These were delicious, even though I probably would never eat them in the USA…go figure. Lynn had a burger (always a risky proposition in France IMHO) which was a big success, and everyone else did salad or similar. We then split up: girls for shopping, guys for finding wine, cheese and bread for tonight’s evening snack. We walked all over this beautiful riverfront town, including the huge long staircase leading to an unseen upper-level of the town center. Us guys found a cool wineshop, where the owner helped us pick some local wine and cheese...while putting up with our attempts to speak French and using his own limited English to help us. We all met back at the car for the drive home. The Blois chateau looked pretty from afar, I can attest to that…but not as pretty as a privately-owned chateau we saw along the river while driving. Florida tells us that one was built for Madame Pompidou, and later bought and restored by an Arabian millionaire, who has now put to on the market for sale. Want one?
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| The beautiful brains of this operation, back at Le Vieux Manoir |
Thanks for following our adventures. Tomorrow is reserved for DaVinci and maybe another Chateau or bike ride. I’ll let you know what happens!
Photos are here:
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