The Loire Valley

We have spent the last two days camping in the Loire Valley in a city named Amboise. We had chosen this particular village because it was well situated in the Loire valley and was in close proximity to most of the castles and chateau’s we wanted to see. Also, the village only has a population slightly over 10,000, and we were looking forward to a quieter place to stay.

In leaving Paris, we had to start driving again, and this time it was Christine’s turn at the wheel. Giving some poor directions to her, we finally managed to navigate onto the right road. However, shortly thereafter I mis-read a sign and poor Christine was off down the wrong track. Now while I am more than willing to do u-turns, back down roads and stop in between interstates (among other poor and illegal driving practices), Christine is a bit more of a rule follower on the road and much the safer for it. Since we were lost, I encouraged Christine to pull off the wrong side of the road so we could turn around. No sooner did she do that, than we saw a pretty blue light and a Gendarmerie (police officer) hailing us from his car. After a comment of “Vouz ne pouvez pas faire n’importe quoi madamesoille” (Translated: You cannot do whatever you want) and a “Pardon, je suis perdu” (Translated: I’m sorry, I’m lost) from Christine, he was off. I suspect that if it had been a hairy Armenian driving the car instead of a pretty young damsel, that there would have been a ticket issued. After not more than 20 minutes of driving Christine has had her very first encounter with the law.

On our way south to the Loire valley, we decided to stop at Versailles for several hours. The castle is absolutely massive and very ornate, with some of the most beautiful and well manicured lawns you could imagine. The French dominance over nature was on full display here. We had a wonderful time wandering through the palace, and the visit was made all the more pleasurable when a friendly French gentleman gave Christine a spare ticket that we got (a 2 for 1 visit to Versailles – what a coup). I can’t help but comment that the gentleman didn’t offer me the ticket.

As promised, we shifted away from the hotel and chose to camp in Amboise, having found a 2 Star campsite for only 2.5 euros a night, nice and cheap. The campsite had a surprising number of included amenities, such as hot showers and in theory a washing machine (though that was broken – what can you expect for a 2 Star).

We spent the last two days touring through the Loire valley, visiting different Chateau’s and castles. We discovered that the difference between a chateau and castle is that the castle is built for defense, while the chateau is built for comfortable living. This made sense as I kept commenting to Christine how so many of the castles were in a horrible position to defend themselves. But surprisingly, the chateaus also had defensible walls around them, probably to keep the common riff-raff out. Apparently the walls weren’t so successful since Christine and I had no problem getting in J

The most splendid chateau we visited was that of Chambord, located close to the city of Blois. This particular chateau is absolutely stunning and apparently the largest in the Loire valley. We both instantly fell in love with it, and if it was located with the Ocean out front and lake in the back, it would be perfect. Christine considers this to be her new home, however, I had to break the news to her that my government salary isn’t quite enough to cover the mortgage on a 500 room house with a 13,000 square feet of property in Central France.

One other Chateau of note that we visited was Cheverny. This particular place was made popular by the French Tintin comics, as it was the authors model for Captain Haddocks manor called Marlinspike (Mark you may want to tell Rudy to pay the place a visit). The Chateau is beautifully adorned and was a pleasure to visit. We were surprised to discover that the owners of the Chateau still lived on the inaccessible top floor. I’m not sure that we could handle having hundreds of strange visitors in our house everyday, but c’est la vie.

After stopping at a few more Chateau’s in the valley, we returned to our campsite before our big evening. We had purchased tickets earlier in the day to a large event being held in the castle of Amboise, which is incidentally the resting place of Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci spent his last 3 years in Amboise before passing away. The spectacle was quite an event, and the performance involved more than 500 people from Amboise and the surrounding villages. The costumes were exceptional and the show quite splendid. It was a re-telling of the history of Ambroise surrounding the development and completion of the castle and the various kings and royalty that played a role in it’s development. There was a bit too much of the old medieval dancing, which can be a bit slow when there is more than an hour and half to sit through. The event was well attended, as it was the final night and the bleachers were packed. It was a fun event, sitting inside the castles walls, watching a medieval performance unfold.

This morning, after two nights in Amboise, we packed our tent and traveled south in an attempt to get close to the Spanish border. The day has been relatively uneventful, as it was mostly driving, including a few accidental as well as intended detours along our travels. We made some excellent time, passing Bordeaux and then heading out to the ocean. We decided to try our hand at a 4 star camping in an Oceanside town called Mamizan. The town is quaint and the hotel quite nice. The apparent difference between a 2 and 4 Star hotel is the amenities. This place has a couple of pools, nice restaurants, a theartre and a shower with consistent water flow and temperature. Apparently the price of the campgrounds also dropped just today, and we will assume this is the end of the popular European camping period. The price drop was considerable, by almost half, making this 4 Star campground almost as cheap as our 2 Star from the last couple of nights.

Tomorrow we will most likely strike out for Portugal, but may spend one night in Spain en route. So far the trip has been absolutely fantastic and it is nice to spend so much quality time together.

I have to mention that my French is passable and I can get around with minimal stares, but Christine’s French is amazing and we have had no problems wherever we have gone. Unfortunately neither of us speak Portugese, so things should get more interesting from here on out.

Best to all of you,

Christine and Hovan