July 31 - Tours and Amboise in the Loire Valley, France

It is very ‘crisp’ this morning. It is clear and sunny and eventually became a warm day.

Our first visit is to the Château Chenonceau. It is a beautiful 16th century estate/castle, built right on the Cher River.

The major player in the story of this visit is Catherine de’ Medici. We visit early enough for there to be no other visitors when we arrive – this is lovely. 
This place is beautiful with enormous trees and manicured gardens. 

Of course there is ‘free-time’ at the end of our tour for about an hour – we decide to do a tasting of 3 of the area’s wines in a wine cave followed by a glass of our favourite in the sunshine.

The landscape here is full of thick forests, crops - especially beautiful are the sun flowers.

Amboise is a small town where we stop for lunch. I have a ‘Chevre Chaud’ a salad with lettuce, topped with a ton of bacon, tomatoes and goat cheese melted on small bits of toast – I would eat that again and again! This was followed by a stroll around the town and an ice cream. 

Château Amboise

The afternoon ended with a walking tour of the old town of Tours. There are many half-timber houses leaning and slanty. 

A major attraction of the town is the Basilica of St. Martin.

The afternoon ended with a walking tour of the old town of Tours. There are many half-timber houses leaning and slanty. A major attraction of the town is the Basilica of St. Martin. A highlight of the day is those of us on the tour teaching our French guide the word for horse manure. When she described it as ‘shit’ it must have been obvious by some of the reactions that there might be as she put it ‘a more polite word’. It was quite hilarious.

before

after

Although we could have stayed in the room all night, we decided to go for a late night dinner. I didn't order dessert, but with coffee came those little sugar-covered jelly fruit squares that I haven't thought of for years - tres bien!!

July 30 – Leaving Paris and Tours

Holy Cross Cathedral

Holy Cross Cathedral

The sun is finally shining…still cool, but no rain and little cloud.

galettes for lunch

Château Chambord

Joan of Arc statue in the cathedral

2 hours south of Paris is Orléans – most famous for Joan of Arc. There a re only 20 people of on this pre bit of our river cruise so the bus is far from crowded and everyone has a window seat. Truly there is little but countryside to see, but there is lots of room to spread out. We have a short walking tour where we see the replica of the house where Joan of Arc lived – the original house was destroyed during World War II bombing. We also visit the city’s Holy Cross Gothic Cathedral. Lunch is on our own and we decide on crepes. These are delicious. I have one with mushrooms, cheese and chicken and Chris has one with a fried egg. Apparently the difference between a crêpe and a galette is that a galette is made with buckwheat flour and is savoury – I had no idea about the savoury part.

Château Chambord

After lunch is a visit to the Château Chambord. This place is stunning. It is built like a fortress even though there was no war at the time. Really it’s like nothing I’ve ever visited before. It has over 400 rooms and 250 fireplaces.

Today and tomorrow we are staying at a hotel in Tours. Dinner is at the hotel restaurant and is also delicious. After a bit of hotel-room-bathtub laundry we head to Tours’ old city for a drink.

July 29 - Paris

Museé Marmottan-Claude Monet

A delightful day, no rain, sunny, a bit cool, but great for touring

We were greeted with NO HOT WATER this morning, which was not TRES BON! I, being tougher and more considerate of others did what I could under an ice cold shower. Hardly the end of the world, but burrrrr! By the time we got back in the late PM it was scalding again. Apparently the 1000 rooms in the hotel were without hot water all morning.

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

We started out with quite a walk (about 3K) out of central Paris along a park and horse riding trail to the Museé Marmottan-Claude Monet. The vast majority of the art here is by Claude Monet and some of his own personal collection. I’d say this is my favourite of the museums I’ve visited in Paris. One reason is the art, but another is that it is small and quiet – there aren’t many visitors here and there certainly isn’t a line-up to get in. There was a group of about 12 pre-schoolers here learning about Monet – very cool! Unfortunately no photos were allowed.

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

Our hotel is partnering with the Palais de Tokyo – a museum housing 21^st century art, very ‘out-there’. One part of the museum was boats on an indoor lake. You could ‘sail’ through one of the exhibits. The pictures say it all really…there is no Monet’s Water Lilies here – WOW. While definitely not our cup-of-tea, there are things I like seeing. This was near the Eiffel Tower, so we got to see that again.

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

A salad, pizza and wine for lunch let us catch our breath before heading to the business area of downtown. La Défence is the visual attraction of the area, it can be seen from the Arc de Tripomph. It is a huge hollow cube. We took the Metro there and back.

A little shopping and a happy hour cocktail ends our afternoon.

Mussels and fries are for dinner followed by one last pint at our local.

July 28 - Paris

way down from the Art de Triomphe

Cool, cloudy and windy, great for touring, little rain.

The top of the Arc de Triomphe was today’s first stop. This is walkable from our hotel up the Champs Elysées. Our museum pass gets us past the line and quickly up the stairs. It is 50 metres high that we climb to the first level and then a floor or so more to the outside observation level. It’s still overcast, but not so much so that the Eiffel Tower is obscured.

What goes up must come down…the stairs have a railing and treads on each step which are a pleasant change from the stairs we remember from last year’s trip to Greece.

After the Arc we stroll more of the Champs Elysées, stop at a very small park with a Canadian Maple tree gifted to Paris, cross the Siene and wander some more.

Our destination is the Museé d’Orsay. We expect it to be busy and it is thronging with people. Fortunately we have been inside before so we take a pass. I’d have loved to see the Vincent Van Gogh room again, but not at the expense of a giant line and a sardine-like experience once inside – even with the Museum Pass the line was HUGH. We head to the Auguste Rodin museum instead. Although there is a line, we breeze right in with our passes. This museum is half indoors and half outdoors. It’s very cool to have major pieces of art in the middle of a garden exposed to the elements. I suppose once these pieces are in bronze they are pretty indestructible. There is a tiny café where we have a glass of wine (which I order in French!!) and take a rest. I think we’re still recovering from the hike to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Next we visit Invalides. Inside is a military museum and Napoleon’s tomb. Napoleon’s tomb, here since 1861, is huge but simple in a domed church.

It is way past lunch time when we sit around 3:30 in a bustling square for wine, pizza and a croques monsieure

Napolean's tomb

Conveniently we are near the Eiffel Tower, so we wander through the park area surrounding it. We don’t go up as it isn’t included in our Museum pass and although we tried to reserve online weeks ago, we didn’t try early enough – more huge lines. We climbed up the last time. We were here, so staying on the ground is just fine with us. By this time it is spitting quite a bit so we find a Metro station and head for home.

church where Napoleon's tomb is

viewer to see detail of Rodin's Gates of Hell -
can you see the Thinker?

only in France are the chips a specific cheese!

July 26 - Paris

Not sure what the temperature was today, but there was a lot of RAIN. For the most part it wasn’t cold…maybe 14 degrees.

It’s Tour de France day, the last day of the Tour through the streets of Paris and very close to our hotel. Although we were up at 8:30, it was far too easy to turn over and get about 4 more hours.

We knew the riders wouldn’t be in town until about 5, but also knew there would be the Tour caravan (a whole bunch of advertising ‘floats’) a couple of hours before the riders and plenty of people mulling around the Champs Elysées.

We wandered around a bit up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe and found a spot for a late lunch - fresh cheese, strawberries and balsamic vinegar. The rain came and went, but by the time we were ready to sit for lunch it was pouring. We were able to sit outside even though it was pouring under an awning and heat lamps.

winner in yellow

lunch - remembered to take a pic after the first bite

Seeing the riders was at the same time exciting and a bit of a let-down. By the time they finally made it, they were there and gone in about 10 seconds.