Steve Haas Travel

Tag: Loire Valley

  • 2022 France: Day 12 – Chateau de Chambord

    2022 France: Day 12 – Chateau de Chambord

    We were up about 7am. Had some “it will do” instant coffee in the room and then got ready to go out for the day.

    Ash had taken Paul out for a bit of a walk while I put some stuff in the car. I met up with them on the long drive up to the house from the road and we left from there. We stopped first to get some pastries and “real coffee” and consumed those at a sidewalk table before we got on our way.

    There was only one destination for the day: Chateau de Chambord. It’s about an hour’s drive from where we are staying, back in the direction of where we last were yesterday. Depending on who you ask, it’s either the greatest castle in the Loire Valley, or all of France, or all the world. So, expectations were high.

    And they were met at least, maybe exceeded. The history of it is interesting by itself: King Francois I – who’d grown up at Amboise, the first castle we saw on Saturday – built this in the early 1500’s as a hunting lodge, along with 13,000 acres of land. All of that is still intact today and the whole thing is a national park. When you first turn onto “Route du Chambord” you’ve got another 5 kilometers – just over 3 miles – to go before you get to the castle.

    And he only used it for hunting, which was so much his passion his nickname was “the father of hunting” because of his dedication to the sport, including ushering in the first official code granting hunting rights during his reign. In those times, hunting was a “pastime viewed as being useful in honing military, political and diplomatic skills” yet had been limited to nobility up until that point.

    This was our first real glimpse of it from the parking lot as we were walking towards it. We were bummed that so many of the towers are covered in scaffolding because it really detracts from the overall look, but glad they are taking care of it so it remains a place for the public to continue to spend time.

    Ash got in line, and I had to walk quite a way up the driveway before I could get far enough away to get the entire wall. You can see how small the people are in the center of the photo. That’s where Ash is.

    I took the liberty of lifting some photos from the internet so you could see it without the scaffolding. And the blue sky helps see it better, too. I didn’t realize until this moment as I was putting this together that we didn’t get a photo of the other side of the castle. This is the front entrance.

    Here’s an image of the entire layout. You enter through the wall in front.

    This is the view from the back. Or is it the front? It’s amazing regardless. Much has been written about that rooftop, intentionally asymmetrical. The idea was for it to look more like the skyline of a village than a unified house. So there’s a lot going on with different chimneys, different ornamentation, etc.

    In the center you can see people on a balcony. We will be up there later in the afternoon.

    We took Paul with us for our first run through it. Everyone always loves having Paul around.

    Beyond the size and the roofline, the most famous thing about this castle is this staircase in the middle. It’s a double-spiral: 2 different entry points going up in unison, but you will never see the occupants of the other staircase. It is largely believed to be designed by Leonardo da Vinci, who was a good friend of Francois. (If you read our entry on Amboise, you may remember that Da Vinci lived there for a time is buried near there.)

    There are 60 rooms (of 426!) that are open to the public. We got through about 20 of them probably. Because we’ve been in So Many castles/palaces, on this trip and others, I didn’t take that many photos. Mostly I wanted to capture what was unique. And in this photo, its’ the size. 15-foot ceilings and just enormous rooms. Francois never lived here full-time, in fact only a total of 7 weeks for the remainder of his life, all around hunting. The castle was too big to heat during the winter, so it was empty then. Everything that was needed for hunting trips was brought at the time. With an entourage of up to 2000 people, that’s a lot of furniture, food, etc., to bring and the logistics were ridiculous. Can you imagine having that much money to fund all of that? It’s astounding to think about.

    Paul needed a little rest at the other entrance to the staircase.

    Here you can see clear to the other side, but you can’t see the start of the other staircase which is just to the right of that wall.

    This is what the inside of the staircase looks like, looking up.

    For some reason I loved this clock.

    As the “father of hunting” there were several rooms dedicated to that theme. Paul was interested in this stuffed game!

    Painting of dogs after a boar in a hunting scene.

    Looking out from one of the balconies, but not the high one. One of the things about that helix staircase it is really messes with your sense of direction. You get in on one side of the castle but sometimes exit to the other side. I generally have a good sense of direction, but I got pretty turned around.

    We went to a “horse and birds of prey” show that lasted about an hour (we wouldn’t know exactly since we left early for our lunch reservations). It started at 11:45am and we left about 12:35pm. If you’ve ever been to a Renaissance Faire, you’ve seen stuff like this. Here’s one of the birds, just taking off to fly from the girl’s arm.

    Lots of costumes, horses, and even costumed horses. It was all in French so we really could barely tell what was going on.

    But the kids loved it, and there were a lot of them. There was a lot of goofy, physical comedy.

    Here’s another bird flying back and forth over the audience between its two handlers.

    As I said, we left early for lunch. Ash booked a spot at I believe the nicest restaurant on the property, apparently just in time. We must’ve gotten the last reservation because we saw them turn many people away after we were seated.

    We’d taken Paul back to the car for the show, so Ash went to get him. I snapped a selfie since I realized I wasn’t in any of the photos in yesterday’s entry. I’m still here!

    Ash came back with Paul just as they brought the first course.

    Ash had a “perfect egg” in a roasted cauliflower soup.

    I had asparagus with what was like a lemon whipped cream on top and below a lime flavored – cheese? Sorbet? It was cold but the texture was hard to identify, but it didn’t melt. It was unique and tasted great.

    That was our view for lunch.

    Ash had the salmon….

    …I had the veal. This was my 3rd time having veal on this trip and each time it’s been amazing and completely different. Veal is easier to find in Europe because dairy is such a big deal here that breeders use the male baby cows for veal. Their methods of raising cows for veal are more – let’s just say civil – than the kind that get protested.

    A tiramisu built to share. We can eat it here because, unlike in the US, it doesn’t have alcohol in it. Yes those are very thin pure chocolate wafers sticking out of it.

    And finished off with the standard coffees.

    We went back to the castle because I wanted to get to that top balcony. It looks a little nicer against a blue sky.

    I love this whole crown thing in the center. Note again how small the people are. Factor in that we are about 6 stories up already. That’s how high this thing is.

    An “ussie” as Ash likes to call them.

    Notice how different each of these towers are. It goes to the idea of wanting a very diverse skyline.

    This might be my favorite photo of the trip. Looking out towards the back of the castle.

    We crossed to the other side to get a photo of the front.

    Only when you got to the very top of the stairs could you look over and see into the other side of the double spiral. I used the panoramic feature to try to capture that here, so the folks in the middle are a little scrunched.

    We left around 3:30pm – that’s 5.5 hours there and we barely scratched the surface. Of course, a 2-hour lunch didn’t help, but it was a lovely relaxing meal. I’d said to Ash early this morning “let’s not do another 2-hour dinner tonight, OK?” Which he agreed to instantly; but then books a long lunch. Oh well. Talk about luxury problems. Still, it might’ve been nice to walk some of those gardens, rent a golf cart to tool around the 13k acres, paddle boats for the ponds, etc. It’s a great outing for a family and there were lots of people out enjoying what was mostly great weather, especially when the sun was out – a high of 71.

    Ash is playing bridge again – he’s practicing for some tournaments he has coming up – and I’ve finished the blog up to this point. It’s almost 7pm. For sure we will take Paul out again and, if we eat at all, it will be something pretty simple.

    It’s now after 10pm. Ash had a couple of calls to make after bridge and we didn’t get out of here until a little after 8pm. We went to the closest thing we could find which was open – there weren’t a ton of choices.

    It looked quaint enough but was pretty “fine dining” inside, although the prices were right. We got out of there with 3 courses each for just 50 Euro, total (including a bottle of sparkling water). That’s happened a lot on this trip, actually. Most restaurants seem to have the deals for several courses, and we’ve been surprised at how reasonably priced they’ve been. This was one of those times.

    Ash started with an avocado salad.

    My first course was cold cooked white asparagus with a dill sauce. I’ve eaten a ton of asparagus on this trip and at least half of it has been white. Must be the season.

    Ash had the fish for his main…

    …and I had the beef. That gravy was something else – really strong flavors especially peppercorn. It was wonderful.

    Ash’s dessert was supposed to be tiramisu – that in the little glass. Plus, some weird lime tart. We definitely liked mind better.

    Mine was profiteroles. I’ve only had this one other time; at a really nice place we ate at in Napa on our first trip together in February 2021. This was not as good as that but it definitely worked: cream puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce over all of that. What could go wrong?

    And that was our day. Tomorrow we are making a stop in Orleans on our way back to Paris. We’re staying in a hotel near the airport for our last night, leaving Saturday morning. It’s been quite a trip! Almost done…

  • 2022 France: Day 11 – Chateau de Chenonceau and Royal de Blois

    2022 France: Day 11 – Chateau de Chenonceau and Royal de Blois

    This was our last morning in Montsereau. We were up by 6am and went out about 7am to find breakfast. We’d forgotten to notify the hotel we would be eating there and after our first experience there didn’t really regret that.

    It was 47 degrees this morning. You can see the mist from the cold coming off the river.

    We went to the same place as the prior morning for coffee and got pastries from two doors down. After a couple of coffees, we made our way back to the hotel, finished packing and checked out. We were on the road by 8:15 just like we wanted to be. After a stop for gas, we got to our destination right about 10am.

    Chateau de Chenonceau was originally built in the 1200s. It was torched as punishment for an act of sedition then rebuilt in the 1430s. It was sold again due to debt and bought in the early 1500s by Thomas Bohier and his wife Katherine Briconnet. They tore much of it down and started over, loving to entertain nobility, including King Francois I, who later seized it from the son for unpaid debts. It passed to his son, Henri II, who then gave it to his favorite mistress, Diane de Potiers, who happily turned it over to Queen Catherine de Medici upon the King’s death.

    There’s a lovely long walk leading up to it.

    It’s very castley.

    Although I admit at this moment, I was shocked and a little disappointed that the front tower wasn’t connected. That’s left over from the one built in the 1300s.

    One of the most unique things about this castle is the entire thing is built over a river, the Cher. Quite a construction feat for those times.

    There’s a beautiful chapel just off the entrance. The windows are modern, done in 1954.

    This long gallery Medici added. Being from Florence, she was inspired by Ponte Vecchio.

    It had what was considered a very modern kitchen for its time.

    King Louis XIV had a room here because, apparently, he had a room everywhere! I’ve lost count now. He got around.

    Same wing as the earlier gallery but one floor up.

    A beautiful mantle at the beginning of that gallery.

    Looking back across the front from the balcony.

    The main gardens.

    If the gardens above were 12 o’clock, this would be about 4 o’clock from where I was standing then.

    The galleries we were in earlier extending behind the castle. And you can really see here how the whole thing is over the river.

    The angle view of the gardens.

    We left here about 11:30 or so, moving on to the next stop of the day, the Royal Chateau in the city of Blois. Blois was a major arts center in the 1400s, and when Francois I became King, he established his first court here.

    We stopped for lunch at a little place outside the castle, sitting under those umbrellas. That’s a part of the castle there in the back on the left.

    We split a ham, cheese and mushroom crepe with salad, and fries.

    This castle doesn’t look like much from the outside, very untypical in that and other ways.

    The other thing that makes this untypical is it had 4 wings centered around a single courtyard, each built in a different architectural style. In the above photo you have Renaissance, specifically Italian, built between 1515-1519 by Francois I. Notice the outdoor staircase which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen, and we loved. On the left is French Classicism, built between 1635-1638 by Gaston of Orleans.

    This is the Flamboyant wing, built by Louis XIII between 1498-1508. At the very left edge of this photo, you see a small part of the small portion of the castle that’s Gothic from the 13th century.

    A lot of the first few rooms are dedicated to the castle history and restoration.

    From the inside of that outside staircase. Prety cool.

    One of the King’s halls.

    The other end of that hall.

    You can definitely see the Italian in this hall, and that harpsichord. It was made in 1572.

    The rest of that same hall.

    Another cool indoor/outdoor space.

    You can see the town just beyond the castle. Unlike the others that were on grand estates, this is literally the center of town.

    Some pretty vases. We would love one for our living room!

    Another huge hall, this built in the 1200s, in the Gothic portion of the castle.

    This is the staircase in the French Classicism wing. Really beautiful.

    The ceiling in the staircase.

    We were done here about 2:30pm. It took us about 90 minutes to get to our next stop, where we will be staying for the next 2 nights, because of some construction detours. The town is Salbris, population about 5000.

    The place is Chateau de Rivaulde. The first castle was built here in 1524, but this version is practically modern, built in 1902. It’s had an interesting occupancy history, including single families, summer camps, and turned into condos at one point. Ash’s current guess is it’s a senior living facility. He found it on Airbnb.

    This is the living room. I’m sitting at that desk to the left of the window as I type.

    This is the view out that window. (Except of course it’s dark at the moment!)

    The fireplace just to the left as you walk in.

    The bedroom in the corner. There’s a window facing the same front lawn…

    …and another facing a little patio below and lots of yard out back.

    Random aside: I’m impressed by how fast the Wi-Fi is here, much faster than the prior 2 places. At the last stay, we gave up and just used our cell phones as a hot spot.

    I tried to explore but there’s not much to see. In our wing there’s just a staircase with its own entrance from the front. This is through the front door. All of the doors have mirrors on them and are locked so you don’t get any sense of the rest of the house. Bummer.

    But the staircase is great!

    The back of the house.

    Nothing but open field behind it.

    Looking back up at our bedroom window which we left open, top right.

    Paul made himself at home quite quickly.

    Ash had an online bridge game at 5pm. I ran up to the supermarket to pick up a few things, then came back and worked on the blog while he finished his bridge game. We left around 7:30pm to go to dinner at a hotel on the other side of town (all of about a 10-minute drive).

    Domaine de Valaudran, another grand house turned hotel.

    Lovely restaurant.

    The amuse bouche was gazpacho.

    I had the snails as my first course, in a pea soup again. That seems to be a theme for this trip. But it was wonderful.

    Ash had a cold crab bisque.

    Ash’s main was scallops.

    I had the veal, this was wonderful.

    You got to pick the cheeses you wanted for the cheese course, which Ash got but I passed on.

    Ash had souffle for dessert.

    I couldn’t really tell what this was going to be from the description – in English even – but it was like a Napolean. Crisp wafers between layers of caramelized pecans and something like a vanilla pudding. Cold cooked pears on one side and a pear sorbet on the other.

    Ash spent most of his dinner dealing with a guest issue in San Francisco (where he runs an Airbnb if you didn’t know). But it’s all been resolved now so at least he’ll be able to sleep in peace. When we weren’t talking about that, we were talking about Chateau de Chambord where we will go tomorrow, our last stop on the castle run. Should be a great one.

  • 2022 France: Day 10 – Chateau de Villandry and Chateau d’Usse

    2022 France: Day 10 – Chateau de Villandry and Chateau d’Usse

    This might be one of the most beautiful posts I’ve done (out of 274 according to WordPress!). Not that I had anything to do with it. The scenery around here is just gorgeous.

    We both got up about 5:30am. This was the view out our window around 6am.

    Breakfast isn’t until 8am so we took Paul out for a long-ish walk. And were greeted with more beauty along the way.

    We came across a little place open at 7am so stopped for some coffee…

    …and sat outside enjoying the fresh air. No smokers around, yay! That’s the dark side to all this lovely outdoor seating over here.

    I mentioned the very narrow street in yesterday’s entry so decided to include a photo of it. And it’s not even one way. Thankfully we haven’t encountered anyone else on it yet as we’ve gone up and down.

    A lovely snippet of river between two buildings as we walked back to the hotel up that street.

    Breakfast was in caves. Literally. Caves built into the hillside of the hotel.

    We left around 8:45am, headed to our first stop of the day, Chateau de Villandry. It’s about a 30 minute drive east along the river.

    Chateau de Villandry was first built in the 1600s for the minister of finance of King Francois I. In 1906, it was purchased by a Spaniard and his American heiress wife, Dr. Joachim Carvallo and Ann Coleman, and they restored it to its former glory and improved on the garden. While the house is gorgeous, this stop is really all about the gardens.

    The front of the house.

    The courtyard. I love that brick on the ground. You toured the house entering on the right, the gardens on the left. We didn’t follow instructions and did the gardens first.

    You enter the house and move upstairs to be dumped onto this path which hovers around the gardens. See the landing over there on the right? That’s where I took the next photo.

    Spectacular. These rival Versailles and I think I actually like them better.

    There are many different sections with many different looks.

    A variety of fountains all over.

    A maze of course.

    There are also herb and vegetable gardens – cabbages in this photo.

    This was past the herb garden, I loved the look of this.

    The house was pretty simple as these things go, which made it sort of endearing – like you could see yourself living here. The Carvallos raised 6 kids here and the estate is still in the family, run by one of the great-grandchildren. (Or is it great-great? I forget…)

    Beautiful dining room.

    And an art gallery! Ash and I joke (often) about needing a house big enough for a gallery.

    At the end of the gallery was this room with an incredible ceiling.

    This was the top of the tower. There was a sign posted as you entered the stairs: “Difficult ascent and descent. Priority to the descent.” Meaning: enter at your own risk. For sure, it was the most catawampus staircase I’ve ever climbed.

    But we made it. See that little slit in the wall to the left of the door?

    This is the view into the courtyard from there.

    We left there after 11am and made a stop at a little shop in the village for a small bite to eat. The breakfast at the hotel was pretty simple and we didn’t eat a ton.

    The next stop was Chateau d’Usse. It dates back to the 11th century, but much of the version that remains today was built in the 1600.s Charles Perrault, who wrote the best known version of Sleeping Beauty, spent some time here and this castle was his inspiration for that telling.

    It was literally magical as we approached it, especially with all of the children around.

    There are lovely gardens built across the front of it, on the right there.

    Because you’d be disappointed if he didn’t….

    I do love this photo of Ash.

    This is looking back at the road that led up to it. When we first turned onto it and I saw this in the distance I literally gasped.

    The courtyard. As we were walking into it I may have gotten choked up a bit, can’t even explain why. Everything about this environment was just so breathtaking.

    That new wing which you can identify on the far right by the change in architecture is occupied by the current residents. Ownership last changed hands in 1883, when Count Bertrand de Blacas inherited it from descendants of the Duchess of Duras, who’d had it since 1807. It has remained in the Blacas family ever since, currently occupied by the Duke.

    The turret and tower on the left side does a whole Sleeping Beauty thing which was so for the kids but surprisingly fun.

    The rooms are decked out in images from the story.

    And of course there’s a prince at the end. You can see the whole thing here if you’re interested.

    I just loved the colors in the flowers at the entrance.

    This was actually on the other side of the castle. I refrained from taking too many photos since so much of this stuff starts to look alike. But this was unique: the little cubby the nobleperson sat in and was carried around the village in. They called it a sedan.

    We do love dining rooms and this was beautiful and elegant.

    The King’s Bedroom, named because Louis XIV would stay here when visiting, as well as other royalty from other places. The last royalty to stay here was an Emperor from Ethiopia, in 1971.

    If you’ve read a bunch about castles, you know the major ones all have their own chapels. This was built in the late 1800s.

    Simple but pretty.

    It was after 1pm when we were done and we were ready for lunch. We walked a little bit into the town and had lunch at the hotel restaurant.

    I loved the dishes here.

    Ash started with lentils….

    ….and I had a salad. That tower thing is layers of apple, beets and goat cheese.

    We both had the chicken, in a lovely gravy with balsamic mushrooms and a teeny egg soufflé. Wonderful.

    There's a beautiful old classic car in front, maybe from the 30's, with a driver leaning across the front door posing for me.

    We were sitting at that window on the right. I noticed people outside taking photos of the restaurant and I thought “I didn’t think it was that remarkable” and then I realized it wasn’t the building they were interested in. And then they all got in it and drove away! Must’ve been a special limousine service or something. (Hey, Pat – what kind of car is that?)

    We skipped a big dessert but had coffees and shortbread cookies.

    We got back to the room after 3pm. Ash took Paul out for a long walk. I got a nap in and started working on the blog. There were a lot of photos so I kept culling to get them down a reasonable number. Finished up until this point about 6pm. We will head out to dinner – just across the street – around 7.

    A photo of Paul which Ash took on their afternoon walk by the river.

    We went across the street – sidewalk really, it’s so narrow – to the restaurant we made reservations at earlier. When we pulled up from our earlier excursion – the parking lot here is the same as the hotel – they were setting up outside and we asked if we could get a table for tonight. They said they were full. Ash let them know we were guests of the hotel and then suddenly they had a table if we could come early, which was fine with us. Dinner is later in Europe than at home – not unusual for some to eat as late as 9pm. We were just fine with 7. (At home 5:30pm is not unusual!)

    Ash had scallops for his first course.

    I had a split pea soup with some bacon. As in yesterday’s meal, didn’t really have any idea what to expect. I knew I didn’t want salmon or foie gras so other than the scallops this was the only choice. We’d figured out it was soup just weren’t sure what. It was delicious. Good thing I love peas.

    Ash had the fish which was pike and he said it was great.

    I had the beef which had a great flavor but had a lot of fat and gristle. That said, it wasn’t an expensive meal so I’m not that surprised.

    Ash had a lovely chocolate thing for dessert.

    Mine was a spice cake with vanilla frosting, some whipped cream and a madeleine.

    We got back to the room a little after 9pm to take Paul out one more time.

    There’s a garden just past the restaurant we hadn’t noticed before.

    The sun was just starting to set behind the castle.

    I let Ash and Paul walk some more and came back up to finish the blog and secure tickets for 2 of the remaining castles we have planned, one for tomorrow and one for Thursday. And there’s one more we will probably go to, plus the one we are staying at tomorrow and Thursday night. This show is going to keep getting better so if you’re enjoying it, be sure to come back. The best is yet to come.

  • 2022 France: Day 9 – A lazy day by the Loire River

    2022 France: Day 9 – A lazy day by the Loire River

    I didn’t get up until about 7:30am, which is pretty late for me, but I’d stayed up the night before to get the blog finished. Ash had just left to take Paul out so I had a few minutes to get ready for the day by myself. We went down for breakfast when he returned around 8am. We weren’t in a hurry to get out – checkout was 11am – so we took our time with breakfast and packing and finally meandered out of there around 10:30am.

    The weather wasn’t great and wasn’t going to improve, plus many things are closed on Mondays so we weren’t even sure what we’d be able to do exactly. We’ve discovered that accuracy of internet information out in the country isn’t very reliable. We decided to drive by Chateau Montgeoffroy because it was like 10 minutes away in the direction we were headed so why not.

    But, alas, it was closed. So I snapped a couple of photos, above and below, and we moved on.

    We couldn’t check into our next place until 3pm so had plenty of time. We stopped around 11:45am for coffee at some random place just to kill some time. It was nothing to write home about, so much so I didn’t take a single photo. But the coffee was great.

    We decided to stop by Chateau Saumsur because we’d heard good things about it. But it, too, was closed. But you could still walk around the grounds and it was a great looking castle so we did. I love in this photo the grapevines in the front and the town sloping down on the right.

    It had an honest-to-god moat…

    …and an actual draw bridge.

    This is like the epitome of a castle. It was originally built in the 10th century, this version was constructed in the 12th century.

    Did you expect anything less at this point?

    The side view. It’s very “Wicked Witch of the West” don’t you think?

    We loved these vistas of the town of Saumsur.

    We got to our hotel just after 1pm so it was too early to check in. She directed us to just about the only restaurant in the area that was open today, just back down the street we’d driven up.

    We were so worried about whether or not it was actually a street because it was so narrow we’d never noticed the restaurant on the corner.

    The view out the windows of the restaurant – still on the river.

    It was a nice little place. And since it was the only place open, we came back for dinner and sat at that table just behind me – I was where the guy in the red shirt is now.

    The first course was gazpacho and some salmon over a carrot and ginger salad, as seen below.

    Second course was fish with some nice vegetables and a great sauce. Ash essentially had the same thing for dinner later; it’s a pretty limited menu. Both of these dishes were excellent.

    This is the wide part of the street (!) which took us back to the hotel.

    Hotel Le Bussy, we found it on Booking.com yesterday morning. Really reasonable rate and a cute location.

    That’s the parking lot I was standing in when I took the prior photo, with a chateau just behind us, Montsoreau.

    Charming lobby.

    Charming room. Small but pretty comfortable. We agreed these beds are more comfortable than the last place we stayed.

    Our view directly out the window…

    …and to the left, with the Loire River in the back there.

    The weather was temperamental all day. We took advantage of a bit of blue sky to take Paul out.

    Some of the town looking back from the parking lot.

    It’s a pretty wide river.

    I loved the pink wild flowers growing on the side of the row.

    And speaking of pink, these were growing outside someone’s wall as we walked back up to the hotel.

    At some point in the afternoon we went out in search of dog food for Paul. These are houses built into cliffs.

    This little bridge was a trip to driver over. Check out the short video below.

    We got back around 4:30pm and just relaxed in the room until it was time to go out for dinner again.

    As I said before, Ash had the same thing he had for lunch. So unlike him. He’d originally ordered the risotto for his main. I’d gotten this for my first course and when he saw it, he changed it to the fish. We were thinking something completely different, but this was definitely risotto, just in wild rice and a sauce we couldn’t quite identify. One thing about being in the country vs. Paris: nothing is in English out here, and the English of the locals isn’t very good, so sometimes you just punt. I wasn’t expecting all the ham on the side but if my French was better I might have known it was coming! This was interesting but not great.

    I had the duck for my main. Also interesting but not great.

    I had strawberry cheesecake for dessert – served in a bowl almost like a pudding, with the graham cracker crust at the bottom. It was good.

    Ash had chocolate cake with a warm filling and raspberry sorbet. This was very good.

    And that was our exciting day. Some driving, some eating, some walking around. And never went more than an hour up the river from where we were. It was just what we needed after spending a good 5 hours in the car each of the last 2 days.

    We have a couple of nice castles picked out for tomorrow, we will see if the weather cooperates. The forecast isn’t hopeful.