Chenonceau, Chambord, and a Quinessential French Countryside Shot of Pretty Girls and Sunflowers

Chenonceau

A bed in a room.  Some royal

slept in it.  Then they died.

If James Morrison was the lizard king,

Francois I billed himself as the

salamander king.  Uh, why?

Catherine d'Medici's garden.

A quintessential photo.

The road to Chenonceau

There are sunflowers everywhere

in the Loire Valley

Chambord

Strange towers going every which way

at Chambord.

A Lovely Morning in the Loire Valley

It's early Thursday morning, and the sun is coming up over the mountains to reflect on the snow on top of Mont Blanc and Aiguille du Midi.  We are heading up the Plan Praz lift to Paraglide at 10am, and then jumping into the glacier water of the raging Arve river today for a sport the Euros call "hydrospeeding" and known as "riverboarding" at home in the States.

Mrs. Iron Tourist reluctantly agreed to sign up for both a few weeks ago.  Now she's really having second thoughts.  Of course, she hated the idea of snowmobiling in New Mexico and ziplining in Costa Rica, and ended up liking both.  She'll be fine -- that's what I keep telling myself!

Anyhow, going back to Monday, the first full day in the Loire Valley, I had forgotten to mention we stopped and had lunch in Blois (pronounced blwah, but on that day, pronounced blah).  We had lunch at a nice restaurant on a square, but when we walked through the rest of town, it was pretty well  closed.  Hard to tell if it was closed for the mid-day break, or closed for August while shop owners were on vacation.  Not much to blog about -- although we did not go to the chateau, so withholding judgment on that, obviously.

Tuesday is the day I personally really enjoyed the Loire Valley.  After quickly switching hotels, we changed plans after setting out and went first to the Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau.  The drive was short and beautiful as we wound our way along the Indre River through the hometown of Balzac and to the Chateau.  Built in town along the river, you start the tour up in the very cool attic, and work your way down.  The house is well-furnished, so there is a lot to see in each room.  We passed on the audio guides this time (still big fans), but there were English write-ups in each room.

The chateau was very uncrowded, and looked beautiful reflected in the water (I will post a couple of reflection pictures).  I like the description in the DK Travel book: "the interior is equally delightful, an airy, creaking mansion smelling faintly of cedarwood and full of lovingly re-created domestic detail." 

We walked all around the chateau and the river.  The shade, the trees, and the beauty of the river -- combined with a chateau with neat decorative towers -- was kind of more what I was expecting from a Loire Valley Chateau.  Think almost as nice as Chenonceau, but without the crowds.  It doesn't have the important history that Chenonceau has, but it's not like French history was my major (Carol and I both did something useful -- political science!).

After that, we walked into town and each got a delicious snack at a patisserie.  It was delightful walking through the small village, dodging cars and looking into shop windows.  The French know how to live, and how to eat, even if they don't know how to work or pronounce words (just kidding)!

From there we went to Chateau de Villandry, which has the most spectacular gardens of any chateau in the Loire Valley.  The gardens even make our friends, the Metters, impressive garden look underwhelming (and they have the most impressive gardens of anyone we know!).  It's telling that you can buy tickets for the gardens for 6.50 Euro, or tickets for the chateau and gardens for 9.50 -- so the chateau is only three Euros more. 

We did buy the combined tickets, and the chateau was worth it.  The best was the keep -- the top of the tower looking out on the gardens.  The story of the chateau is interesting -- it was bought by an American wife and her Italian husband back in the early 1900s (her money, not his) and they worked to restore the glory of the gardens in the Renaissance style.  It is still owned by the same family (great-grandson), so there are pictures of the current family throughout the chateau.  I read somewhere that chateaus that are open to the public receive a massive tax break, so I believe the family lives in one of the two large other buildings on the property.

There are also ten gardeners working every day -- the garden is perfectly designed, shaped, and weeded.  Between the flowers, the shrubs, the herb garden, the very cool water features (hard to describe), the gardens are spectacular, although the maze leaves a lot to be desired (a bit too easy -- American corn mazes are far more fun and challenging!)
 

Chartres Cathedral

Chartres Cathedral

One of three Rose windows

Not sure what this is, but it looks cool.

Partway up the north tower.

At the top!

Chartres from the tower.

Not a good day for him.

Weather-beaten Gargoyle

In Which The Reason for the French Revolution Becomes Clear

It’s Wednesday morning – hard to believe the trip ends Saturday. Today is the longest drive day, as we are heading from the Loire Valley to Chamonix in the French Alps. Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924. I’m ready to get back to the Alps – I enjoy the mountains so, and we have a pretty active schedule planned the next two days, provided I haven’t messed it up!

I’m blogging in the bathroom (no, I’m at a small dressing table for those of you who think the worst of me) of our hotel, the Chateau d’Artigny. It is a little fancy for our tastes, although quite nice. I’m glad we stayed here, although I’m glad it was just one night! Ironically, I can look out the window and see across the valley to the other hotel, Domaine de la Tortiniere, which we stayed in the previous two nights! We are also perched high above the River Indre.

My opinion of the Loire Valley changed from Monday to Tuesday. It became much better.

Monday (which was Carol’s birthday), we went to the top two chateaus in the valley – first Chenonceau and then Chambord.

The extra special directions we got from the nice folks at Tortiniere proved to be poorly translated and had the added bonus of being wrong. We figured it out and got there eventually. Chenonceau, besides being hard to type, is a beautiful chateau built right over the water. We got the audio guides for the tour, and started off.

Fighting our way through the crowds from room-to-room, we wandered as little sheep through the castle following the audio guide tour. Each explanation was about one minute or more too long, and was spoken by a Frenchman with great English skills, but at too slow a pace. Finally, I just would listen to the first couple of minutes and then move on to the next one. The audio guides were iPods, so they were very easy to use.

My personal favorite parts of the chateau were the kitchen and the views up and down the river, and of the garden. The stairs were neat too – they are believed to be the first in France that were not spiral. The biggest hassle was the place was packed and the rooms were kind of on the hot side. All in all, it was quite a pretty setting, and the gardens were impressive.

So we set off for Chambord. After a long drive through the countryside and a stop for lunch, we got to the chateau.

(As an aside, in France, Garmin GPS prefers back roads to the highways, which are pretty, but also quite a lot of work. Besides picking one lane roads with two-way traffic – I’m stunned the side view mirror has not been clipped off yet, Garmin also has a tendency in cities to have no idea where to go. Given that it was just downloaded and thus are the newest maps/directions, it doesn’t speak well of Garmin!)

Chambord is massive. There are over 400 rooms and 365 fireplaces (it was mainly used by King Francois I – the Salamander King, I kid you not – for hunting and to impress key dignitaries, so it was mostly used in the winter). It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci played a role in the design. The nearby Cosson river was diverted to flow in front of the chateau.

The roof is the most amazing part – the turrets and lantern tower look like they were designed by a predecessor to Gaudi, and were quite gaudy themselves! Inside, the Grand Staircase – an innovative double-helix was the highlight of Chambord.

It’s far to massive to even go into all of the 80 rooms open to the public, and we didn’t even try. We used the audio guides for a period of time, and then just gave up and gawked. The chateau was hot inside, so the relief came when we reached the terrace level on the fourth floor, and could walk around outside with decent breezes and good views.

In the view of Carol and I, Chambord was a bit too much (okay, that’s an understatement). It was neat to go to, and Maddy was particularly a fan. Perhaps on a less hot (it wasn’t Virginia hot/humid, but it was warm) and crowded day it would have been more memorable. It’s just big. Really big. I suppose you have to go though.  The only wonder about the French Revolution after seeing these is what took so long?

The Garmin tried to take us back via the country side, so I yanked the cord out and used the iPad map to get us back to the highway and to the hotel.

I did not think the Loire Valley countryside to the east of Tours was all that beautiful. The chateaus were overcrowded (I know, it is August), and was a little worried about Tuesday (fears unfounded).

We had a great birthday dinner for Carol back at the hotel, and then enjoyed a Cote d’Rhone as we watched the sun set from our private deck high atop the rolling hills of the Valley.

Pictures from Friday afternoon and Saturday

He and I have sat through the same sermons!

(Bayeux Cathedral)

The Adam and Eve house

in Bayuex

A 15th century house in Bayuex

In Honfleur

Busy restaurant row in Honfleur

Flip this church over and you have a catamaran!

Julia, after six weeks at Oxford,

striding confidently from

the Caen train station

Torie is overjoyed to see her

sister as Maddy hugs Julia.

Mother and daughter

Outside our hotel in Normandy.  Our bedrooms

were on the third floor, top right two windows.

 

Chartreing an Unusual Course

Sunday was our drive from Normandy to the Loire Valley day.  We decided to add a bit of a detour on to go to Chartres and see the Cathedral -- a sight Carol had always wanted to visit.

The Garmin took us the back route.  We drove through many Norman and then Loire Valley villages, and took very few highways.  We saw a lot of villages, country churches, cows, sunflower fields, sheep, and very few cars.  If we had been tracking the number of traffic circles since getting the car, it would number in the hundreds after that day's drive.  By the way, I've always been a huge proponent of traffic circles -- much quicker than lights, much safer than crossroads/stop signs.

Going to Chartres via Omaha definitely added two hours to the trip from Normandy to our hotel in the Loire Valley, but it was worth it.  (Not sure the girls agreed -- because we were traveling with luggage in the smaller car, the three of them are crammed into the back seat on travel days).  At least the car allows us to hook my iPhone or iPad into the radio system through the USB port.

After we got to Chartres and parked in the narrowest parking garage ever built, we had lunch across the street from the Cathedral.  My duck was excellent, and all of the food seemed pretty good.  Chartres is considered to be part of the Loire Valley, but it is further North and East than the famed chateaus. 

The Cathedral is spectacular (I know, I keep writing with the same superlatives, but it has the added advantaged of being true!).    Rebuilt after a fire in just 25 years, it was finished in 1250.  We went in through the elaborate South Porch and stared at the stained glass windows, which were removed for safekeeping during both World Wars.  The windows cover a surface area of over 28,000 square feet and are beautiful, particularly the three rose windows. 

We then climbed the 300 plus steps of the North tower -- which dates from the 16th Century and thus is, as a guidebook put it, "flamboyant Gothic in style."  The two towers are of different heights -- the North tower is taller, and we were able to go quite high on it, and then walk all around the outside of the tower, affording views of the farm lands outside of Chartres.

Afterwards, we got a snack and walked down to the riverside, through the windy streets.  It was Sunday afternoon, so most of the shops were closed, and there was not much going on.  A huge difference from the Saturday afternoon hustle and bustle of Honfleur the day before.

We made the two-hour drive to the hotel just south of Tours without incident, except for the toll machine rejecting our Visa card and spitting out our ticket to fly in the window.  Fortunately, the toll worker responded quickly to our button pressing and while it didn't take Visa, it did take American Express (sounds like an ad).  We've been using our credit union Visa card almost exclusively because the fees are lower on foreign exchanges, except for toll machines now!

Pictures from Mont Saint Michel

The abbey rises above the sea.

On the causeway

The West Terrace was windy!

Views of the marshes from the West Terrace

The abbey church

Aspiring to the top of the spire

The cloisters

One of the lower halls

Madelyn spells her name the

right way, but this is close

enough for the photo

Torie balanced on the huge pillars

If there is a large fireplace,

the Bolgers have to pose in it.

A nearby island, as the water retreats at low tide.

Over my shoulder is the Atlantic.

From the ramparts looking up

Out on the mud flats.  In a few

hours, they would drown at

this spot in the bay.

A good look from the mud flats up to the Abbey.

Mont Saint Michel rises like a dream across

the distant cornfields.

Honfleur, and a Family Reunion

We drove up the Normandy coast (well, actually in-land but along the coast), and everything was fine until the Garmin decided it had to take us not the fastest route, not the easiest route, but the back route on country roads.  Which would have been fine had it not then routed us through dead-end suburbs (not an economic commentary -- there was no way out of the subdivision once we got into it).  We finally ignored the system and found our way to Honfleur.  The little detour (or diversion as the French signs call it) cost us the chance to get there before the weekly town market closed.  Oh well.

Some background from Wikipedia:

It is especially known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell tower separate from the principal building, is the largest church made out of wood in France.

It is considered the inspirational birthplace of Impressionism (at least according to one guidebook), and is also famous for its block (on the water) of very narrow houses, because back in the day, people were taxed on the width of their house -- so they built skinny houses that went back and up.  But, as the libs will tell you, taxes do not affect human behavior. 

We had a nice lunch by the water -- tons of restaurants to choose from.  Carol and I had the Moules Marinier again (mussels mariner), and while they were not quite as tasty as they were at the restaurant when we had them during the D-Day Tour, they were still quite good -- second best mussels I've ever had!

Afterwards we walked around the quaint, charming, full-of-tourists town (you know what, despite the fact that it was packed on a Saturday afternoon), and went into the aforementioned Sainte-Catherine church.  The church was built by shipbuilders, and looks as though you could flip it over in the water and it would not only float, but serve as a pretty good double-hulled boat (like a catamaran, yet different).  We then got ice cream (Maddy claims it is the best she ever had. . .we thought it was good enough) and then headed to Caen (Khan!) to pick up Julia. 

(By the way, "Honfleur" is quite fun to say with a typical French sneer -- as you read this, say it aloud, unless you are in a public place, several times to yourself.)

We got to Caen just as she did, and we had a nice reunion outside the train station.  We decided not to have dinner in Caen (it was still just 5pm) but instead drive to Bayeux and eat there.  We went a bit out of our way and showed her parts of Omaha Beach.  It was low tide and especially touching. 

After dinner in Bayeux, and starting to get caught up on Julia's adventures at Oxford and on her travels (let's see if I've got this right -- London, Dublin, London, York, Paris, and Prague), we went to the hotel pool, Carol and I split a bottle of cheap Bordeaux, and the five of us talked to the sun went down, which means nearly 10pm!

More Notes on the Trip

I'm writing this from the patio of our hotel in the Loire Valley, as the sun rises and I look out a distant chateau.  It is Carol's birthday today, and we are heading for some of the grand chateaus of the valley.

Our current hotel is wonderful -- the Domaine de la Tortiniere.   Because the girls had a three person room, they upgraded Carol and I to a Superior Room.  It's large, and the aforementioned patio is great.  We are not in the main building, but I think we are better off in the side building. 

It's far better than the last hotel we were at.  The people here are friendly, not snooty at all, and it is a very kid friendly hotel.  Not that our teens (and now Julia, who is 20) are "kids" per se, but the last hotel (the Chateaux La Cheneviere) was not particularly friendly.  So far, then, we loved the Paris and Loire hotels, but didn't feel welcome at all at the Normandy hotel.  Which is surprising, because everywhere else in Normandy is great. 

(By the way, it is neat to see all of the American flags in Normandy, as well as the statue of Ike in Bayeux, and numerous memorials and thank yous to the liberators.  As Francis said, the rest of France might not like Americans, but Normandy sure does.)

Last night, dinner was great -- we sat next to a table of nine little kids and a guy who was in charge of them while their parents ate nearby.  The guy reminded us of Adam Sandler, and was nearly as funny to boot.  We were nervous that they would be unruly and spoil dinner (nine kids ranging from probably 4-10), but they were great entertainment.  My favorite line of the guy was "don't be a hater, be an appreciator!" and he had a great quip about them going to prison too.  It helped that the lawn was so expansive that he sent them off to play in between courses.  As we were leaving the spectacular outside setting, I told their leader how impressed I was with the job he was doing wrangling those kids.

With the three course meal, Carol and I had the wine pairings, so we got to enjoy some Loire Valley wines -- the Vouvray is now my favorite white (it's a short list), and the Chinon went perfectly with the lamb.  After dinner, Carol and I sat out on our patio and talked as we watched the bats fly around.

Now it's off to breakfast and then the chateaus.

In Which We Weave A Tapestry of Bravery, Double-Cross, and History

Since we had to pick up Julia around 5pm in Caen this day (well, Saturday, as I’m writing this Monday morning), today was going to be a quieter day – I let everyone sleep in till 8am (which might not sound like much, but we are talking about two teenagers and getting up early!).

We headed back to Bayeux to see the tapestry.  Bayeux is only a short drive from our hotel.  I could see in their eyes that the girls had their doubts about the tapestry, but the audioguide was so good at telling us what we were looking at – and the story is so interesting – that we all thought it was very cool.   

The tapestry tells the story of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings (which led to William the Bastard having his name changed to William the Conqueror – a slightly more manly sobriquet!) and the battle itself.  Basically, it’s an early history book, and without the audioguide we would have had little idea of what was going on in the scenes.  Instead, we were told an amazing story by an audio guide who sounded like he was narrating a BBC documentary. 

 
The museum was not crowded, so we watched the short movie on the tapestry and walked through the exhibits.  So far this trip, we have learned about the French Revolution, D-Day, and now the dramatic events of 1066. 

After that, we walked back the long way to the car, through our favorite French town of Bayeux (I had grabbed the first parking spot I could find) past the 15^th century Norman houses, the shops, and the restaurants.  The place was teeming with people since it was market day.  We walked around the market a bit – wow – it blows away any farmers market I’ve been to in the States. 

Fresh fish stands, fromage stands, a stand with rotisserie chickens, live chickens and rabbits for sale, a huge paella stand, many vegetable stands.  When we first got there, I watched the butcher cleave apart with his knife some thick pork chops – he looked up and smiled at me, as though to say – this is pretty fun!  Carol and I had some fresh raspberries, and we all had some crepes.  The nutella crepes (If you don’t know what nutella is, you aren’t living, according to the girls) were only two Euros ($2.60) and were the best ones we’ve had on the trip!

After the market, we stopped by a Subway to buy waters, which were ice cold.  It’s only noteworthy to mention that because nothing is served cold enough in Europe, so these waters (flat and sparkling) were a treasure.  Torie proudly showed off the ice that had formed in her water.  At some point the authorities will shut the place down for serving cold drinks.