Chenonceaux, France

Shortly after waking and stepping out of the shower I felt a mean stab of pain in my lower back that subsided into an uncomfortable and constant pain. Great – not something I wanted to experience on holiday; a flare up of an old back weakness and injury. Nothing to do but take a couple of pandadol from our first aid kit and hope that continued movement would free things up.

We had breakfast booked downstairs which was €8 each for a ‘French Breakfast’ that had received mainly good reviews on Tripadvisor. On our table was two slightly warmed croissants and two pieces of fresh baguette about 6 inches long. The host then came around with a tray offering one little square of butter, one jam, one yoghurt, a juice and then brought a coffee – which was half cold poor grade filter. Boy how tight was that – by making a big ‘to do’ about selecting a piece of this or that he really portion controlled everything and left us feeling a bit cheated. The quality of the product was fine (except for the coffee), it was just very cheap offerings for a not so cheap price and really not very sustaining at all. I really like a bit of protein for breakfast and a small yoghurt is not enough for a days adventuring. We certainly miss not having tea or coffee facilities in our room – or a fridge that you can pop something in. Note to self – buy breakfast out tomorrow morning.

The pandadol was helping a bit and then it dawned on me what I had done – having quite a loaded pack the last couple of days has made me throw my posture out to compensate for the weight and that has put pressure on that lower joint of mine that gets jammed. I will be more careful with my posture and wear my pack in the front more and try and load Vernon up as a donkey in future LOL.

Today we explored the Loire Valley for one of the things it is known for – its Chateau. We have seen quite a few grand homes and palaces so narrowed it down to two – or more so one ‘Chenonceau’ and a visit to the town of Amboise to see their chateau from the outside and visit the place that Leonardo da Vinci lived in which has quite a few of his models in the extensive gardens outside. Instead of taking a tour we chose to train it ourselves and free our time and schedule. We were also a bit late in leaving and had not booked a morning tour and the only way to see the two we wanted was to do it ourselves. The trains ran about 10 times per day, and the chateau were in opposite directions from each other – but both within a 15-20 minute train ride and fares were cheap – less than €10 each. We chose to go to Amboise first, due to it being close to lunch and the way the schedules ran. The day was still very warm at around 33 degrees, but a whole lot more bearable than the last two days.

The scenery around this area of the Loire is pleasant with small towns, views of the rivers – Loire or Cher, farmlets and horticulture. It is fairly flat and even with small hills here and there and good sprinkling of trees near the river in particular. I think the scenery was prettier back towards Nantes and further back to Brittany – with more trees and greenery, not withstanding it is still lovely countryside here. The color of the fields is more golden here, but there are still patches or green especially where there is irrigation for horticulture. Along with the rest of Europe and UK there is nowhere near the concentration of farm animals you see in NZ. The color of the cattle is white, silvers and goldens and reds – so I am picking a Simmental and Limousin breeds perhaps?

In our research of Amboise it was not rated as highly as Tours as a place to stay and explore the region from, so we were expecting a pretty ordinary place. This is not what we found at all when we arrived – it is quite a scenic town next to the river with a lovely shopping and eating district. So much so that soon after crossing the river and entering the town we stopped to enjoy lunch at a cafe on the edge. It also had an ice-cream parlor, patisserie, and chocolate making section (darn). We selected a cheeseboard and a hand made quiche with rillettes which is a slow cooked pork dish. Both were delicious – along with the pastries that happened to come our way (choux pastry with custard and a rum glaze, and a pear and chocolate cake) that was washed down by very good coffee. I am so pleased we have found more consistent quality dining this holiday and we are easily embracing the slow and appreciative art of dining that the French practice.

The down side of relaxed dining is that time disappears too quickly and the 3 hours we had for Amboise was half gone by the time we got up from the table. We headed off in the direction of Leonardo’s house which we thought was quite close to the main Chateau (where he actually is buried) but it was not that close. 15 minutes later and very hot after navigating a nice little slope we arrived at the Da Vinci house with only a little over an hour left. The entry fee was €19 each, which was quite a bit and we felt that despite the getting there it was not worth rushing around in less than an hour as we still had to make a train – which was nearly half an hour walk away. It was a bit disappointing but we resigned ourselves that we can always come back and know what to expect. We certainly didn’t regret seeing the town, having an excellent lunch and viewing the outside of the Amboise Chateau. Part of seeing these things is experiencing the actual area that they are in, which we certainly enjoyed in itself in this case.

We spent the rest of the time we had wandering around the town and making our way back to the station without stressing about missing our one key train to Chenonceau. Chenonceau is different or set apart from the other chateau as part of it spans the river Cher – making it very romantic and photographed more than many of the others that may be bigger, have grander interiors or larger formal gardens. It was built in 1513 by Katherine Briconnet and then further developed by other women such as Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici. It has been a royal residence and mostly under female headship and protection and fortunately escaped damage in times of conflict and war including the revolution.

It was a fantastic choice for our Loire Valley experience and we both enjoyed it – for a lot longer than we thought opting to ‘miss’ our booked train for one an hour and a half later (risked getting nabbed by a ticket person, but we were ok). We were allowed to take photo’s without flash and each room on the 3 levels that were open had its own character and special features. The owners have glorious and grand fresh flower arrangements in every room (as they would have had through the ages) and they were furnished with original furniture, bedding, paintings and ornaments and a collection of 16th century Flanders Tapestries.
It also has a good collection of old masters paintings: Murillo, Le Tintoret, Nicolas Poussin, Le Correge, Rubens, Le Primatice, and Van Loo.

Other features that we enjoyed were intricate details on window frames, ceiling carving and decoration, renaissance fireplaces, inlaid wooden furniture – the list goes on. It was so sumptuous we did not feel the need to go Chateau hopping and see any others as it just filled the bill perfectly and we didn’t want overload to ruin the experience.

The day had heated up again quite a bit and we got quite sweaty inside due to lack of air circulation and a lot of human bodies heating up the place further. At some points it was so warm it was almost too much where you didn’t feel the best. Outside there was a slight breeze by the water and a lot more shady places with air flow. The gardens were lovely – one very flower filled and less formal, the other more about the geometric shapes and formality. You could hire little boats to have a paddle around the castle/chateau but we did not have time for that. It looked a fun thing to do (especially if Vern had been doing the paddling).

We got back to Tours around 7pm and walked the long way home via ‘old town’ which was crazy busy, noisy, and hot. It certainly was not an appealing prospect to sit there and dine amongst the crowds and the heat so we continued walking towards home and chose a little place just a few down from our hotel – 8pm by this time. Vern just had a rump steak meal which ended up being the most tender rump we have ever had, served with foi Gra (actually the whole livers) french green beans, carrots, mash and a cream (brandy/mustard) jus. He even enjoyed the beans so much he said he could have eaten a plate of them alone. I think it was all the butter on them … I had a ‘triple deal’ which started with salmon tartar with pea puree, sea bass with shrimp and paprika cream sauce, followed by mint profiteroles. I also tried a local rose, which was very pleasant and a most attractive peachy salmon color. Price of meal was reasonable for the quality with Vern’s steak €17 and my triple €22. A pleasant end to a pleasant day.