Hello all, thanks for the mails requesting a trip summary! Glad to give it! So we were packed up 4 days before leaving, and when we unpacked upon returning we realized we had yet once again overpacked and never wore half of the clothing we lugged around France! Anyone else experience this too? Our flight from JFK to CDG was delayed multiple times for hours, until the pilot d his plane unfixable (yeah, right... current news headlines show us another story) and would need another plane flown in to get us to Paris. Oi vai! Nonetheless our flight, albeit 6 hours late, was quiet and smooth. Caught the TGV from CDG directly to Tours, where just outside of the station was the rental car place. One recommendation when you're toodeling through the countryside... get GPS. It came with the car and as good as I am with maps/ self navigation, I LOVED having the GPS! Okay, so we drove East to Amboise, then cut over to Chenonceau where we stayed in a Gite for 5 nights. Lovely English woman, Valerie, raised her three sons and now a granddaughter there over the past three decades. Huge apartment on an orchard/vineyard farm. Quiet and peaceful, nighttime skies so black you can see not only the Milky Way, but the dark matter clouds in it which masks the center of our galaxy! We went to Montrichard for dinner... what a lovely village! Next day (jet-lagged day) we visited Chenonceau.
Posted by
OP
indianapolis
228 posts
Part 2: Chenonceau was a great castle to visit! We would have loved to seen it without so many people and much less groggy-eyed. The (only) bathrooms were sparkeling clean, and I forgot how much the French love open doors and windows in their bathrooms... a little unnerving to have women washing their hands directly behind me as I try to use a urinal... I can barely do that with other guys waiting in line behind me, much less gabbing ladies a step away. I loved the gardens, Norm loved the architecture. After lunch back at our place (just across the Cher river; amazing that the French government would name an entire river after an American celebrity, ho-hoooooo)we found our way down to Loches. Now that's a "Must-See" town! Parisian like feel bistros and boulangeries, walled in city to explore at no cost, one fairy tale castle and another dungeons-and-dragons Donjon castle. Very, very cool town! (Amboise has a similar feeling). After exploring for hours, we were naturally hungry for what else than butter based pastris. We walked into a boulangerie and eyed everything... eventually buying one Apple Tart slice. It was the best Damn thing we've eating in months! (yes, I did say Damn). Went back two more times, each time the baker warmed up more and more to these Yankie tourists until they finally spoke with us more than "Oui".
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Perhaps you haven't finished typing yet, but I don't see anything about pork products. Did you sample the dreaded andouillet?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32746 posts
I'm waiting for the promised thumbs down too.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
Sounds great. But the words "too much" and "pork products" don;t go together in France, unless you're a vegetarian. And I too am waiting to hear about the pork products.