July 23 2011 France

July 23 – 2011

Today we are sadly checking out of the Grand Hotel in Dinard. We have such precious memories of this spectacular property and the wonderful staff of young men and women that took such good care of us. We are heading back to Paris. Instead of taking the freeway straight back to Paris we will drop south to the Loire Valley to see a little more of France. Our route takes us through Angers and then east toward Tours. Everywhere we go there are endless miles of farmland, mostly corn and hay, interspersed with large and dense forests. Along the rivers and tucked in everywhere are campsites with vacationers in tents and small RV’s. Passing through some small villages, we see many beautiful displays of flowering hydrangeas in long rows of reds and purples. In some towns the round-abouts have flowers and sculptures in the centers.

Our first stop is Chinon, a famous wine town. We visited the limestone cave, where the wines of the Chateau de la Bonneliere are stored and sold. The cave maintains a perfect temperature of 52 to 54 degrees. To picture this cave think of slight ramp heading into the cliff, about 150 yards long and wide and tall enough for two UPS vans side by side. There are barrels of wine and wire bins of bottled wine stacked everywhere. We bought 6 bottles thinking to bring some back, but almost two are gone already.

We are so dependent on our Tom-Tom GPS, so imagine the problem when we found our GPS taking us in a circle twice as we were attempting to leave town. To change things up, we headed out randomly on what soon became a paved cow path, very narrow, with cows and fields on all sides. It worked as the GPS knew this tiny road and after a bit, led us to a main road.

The Loire Valley is dotted with elegant chateaus, built for the French royalty and aristocrats. Our choice is Chenonceau (www.chenonceau.com). Considered a Renaissance masterpiece, this castle has been preserved over the years and is beautiful to behold. The gardens nearly steal the main attraction from the chateau itself not to mention the maze (everyone needs one), and the huge vegetable gardens needed to feed the royals while at the chateau. And of course the chateau is built on a beautiful river which helps provide the mote for its protection.

As we were coming into Paris, the sun was setting at nearly 10 pm. Just enough light to find a rare parking space near our flat. Our GPS worked flawlessly getting us to the right street in Paris.
Bonsoir,
John

Added by Carol: It was not quite that easy, however. Parking is not free on the street and we had explicit instructions from our hosts on how to use his ‘cards’ in the PARK machine and be sure to display in the window. After hauling all bags and luggage 1-1/2 blocks from our spot to the building, loading on lift and getting everything to our apartment John was going to head down but I wasn’t letting him go alone! So down we went together to tackle the parking situation. You can imagine being on a strange street at night in a strange city struggling with the language and the card will not work! After at least fifteen minutes I suggested how bad could it be, the next day was Sunday and we could go out in the morning. John agreed and the next morning as he once again struggled to work with the machine in the daylight he ran into a neighbor who spoke English and learned parking was free on Sunday and we had to go to the Tabac shop to get a card for it (something our host had forgotten to tell us). And so we could close that chapter of our first trip out of Paris into the countryside, safely parked without fear of our host’s car being towed away.