Chris' Hotel Chinon

... cliff a few times we finally found the campsite.(Damn you GPS) .We are trying to stay away from night driving but when the drive is 5 hours long and its dark by 5pm it gets difficult.

I also remember that France has A LOT of farm land. That’s all we drove through. It’s crazy. Anyway, after a quick stop here it was off to Bordeaux for the real fun to begin!

... 1084;ельч 72;йшее новое позна 85;ие дает мощне 81;ший insight. Ведь в конеч 85;ом итоге дело не в том, ка ...

... flowers and some crazy-looking gourds which I think may have been zucchini. It was very peaceful.

For lunch we set up a table on the grass near the coach park; Rolinka had done some shopping earlier in the day. She made up a salad of lettuce, lentils, tomato, corn, onions, yellow peppers and pine nuts with balsamic dressing. There was also goat cheese, salami, ham, pickles, a strong black radish, and bread. Everything tasted really good, and the sun even came ...

... has been credited to da Vinci, but since he died the year that construction of Chambord began, he may not have been the man who designed it. You can walk up one of the staircases and not see anyone coming down the other staircase. It's pretty nifty, actually, but tiring to walk up because of the low risers.

On view were various rooms used by Francois and also the duke who thought he would be Louis XVIII. Francois's symbol, the salamander, is all ...

I took a day trip into Tours, which is the biggest city around here. It's a pretty amazing places, I still have a lot of exploring to do here yet, but I wanted to post some pictures of my first trip that I took into Tour alone.

Enjoy

... and Jan of my concurrent adventure and a welcome was extended for me to come and help out. It sounded like a nice time, so I figured why not? I shot them an email, I was invited, I shlepped out to Chinon (which is in the middle of nowhere) and here I am 15 kilometers away from Chinon. Thus, I am 15 kilometers from nowhere.
For the past three days I've earned my keep by--guess what?!--painting! Yes ...

... around the pool in the sunshine for a week, until the weather changed and became more autumnal. Helene left us after a fez days, and we stayed on our own in coussay whilst papa, maman and granny went back to Thouars. It's nearly the end now, only one more stage until we come back home!

Even though the weather is starting to slowly go to hell we are taking the road to Chambord, one of the biggest castles of the area. A little background: it was the summer house of Francis the 1st so the expectations are quiet huge. We are all surprise by the size of the thing.... it is way too big for one person alone. The rooms are amazing and for the times quiet comfortable, but to top it all it features "the staircase" the one ...

... a little cafe named A La Pause Rabelaisienne, we wandered on to Eglise Ste Ettienne (church).  Outside of the church is a little square named "Place Henry Dunant" and as anyone who works for the Red Cross knows, Henry Dunant was the founder of the Red Cross.  Just couldn't get away from work could I!

Finding somewhere for dinner was a challenge.  Especially at 6:30pm.  Yes I know we were the old ladies looking for the earlybird special but we were hungry okay!!  One croissant and a ...

... were still and almost deserted--even our whispers seemed to echo aimlessly off of the cobblestones. We eventually found a few restaurants packed with diners savoring their meals, but compared to the teeming bustle of Biarrtiz, Collioure, and Aix-en-Provence, the town of Chinon had a secretive feel. Where were the people? The tightly shuttered buildings around us certainly offered no answers. This morning, in the light of day, the town seemed to come ...