Amboise on the banks of the Loire River
After 4 days in the City of Light we left Paris in the early
morning on a “bullet” train for Tours. But what a rush it was to get from the
Marias to Montparnasse on the other side of Paris in morning rush hour. Although
we gave ourselves two hours to get there with the metro we boarded the TGV train
with 2 minutes to spare. It was close or we would have missed it. After an hour’s train ride we arrived at the
outskirts of Tours.
We rented a tiny Renault Modus at Saint-Pierre-des-Corps
train station and figured our way out of Tours and while driving the back roads
to Francueil where we rented a gite,
M observed that we are almost like two young continental backpackers that have just
finished school and are embarking on a “Gap Year” exploration: “Even though our
luggage is more than just a backpack and we walk slower than youngsters, we
have no idea where we’re going except going from roundabout to roundabout and
wherever the road takes us.” It was great to feel that freedom!
But we had help. We had Samantha, the insistent GPS voice
instructing us where to go and she proved to be most valuable even though she
sent us to a farmhouse once and at another occasion down a one way street. How
people traveled by car without GPS in years gone by I honestly don’t know. Maps
are good for general driving in the countryside, but once you get into a city
like Avignon, especially the walled portion of the city with its maze of
ancient narrow streets we learned that Samantha is very good in the cities. She
knows her stuff, so to speak. But we also had Michelin maps as a backup and we
needed it on the 2nd day of our visit to the Loire Valley. On our way to
Chambord we discovered the Renault’s power outlet packed up and the internal
battery of the GPS went flat and the rest of the day we had to rely on maps and
M’s excellent navigational skills to get us to Chambord and to the Chateau of
Cheverny and back home again. We made it!
The word “hamlet” arose in
English around the 1300s, borrowed from the Old French hamel, which
means “village”. “Hamlet” is simply a diminutive
of hamel, emphasizing the small size of a hamlet.
Our rented gite was in the small
hamlet of Francueil, 
Our plans for the next three days were simple: See as many
castles as possible (we ended up visiting 4 castles: Chenonceau, Chambord,
Cheverny and Amboise), enjoy the sights of the Loire Valley (the countryside is
mostly low country, flatlands, beautifully green and in the process of turning
to autumn), and eat good food and savor the local wine (but we had terrible food at an Italian restaurant in Blere (the only bad food we had on the whole trip). However, the next night we had absolutely excellent gourmet food at Le Cheval Rouge in
Chisseaux, a neighboring village).
And we did that while it rained quite a lot. Sometimes it was nothing more than a drizzle and at other times it poured as if the proverbial biblical flood was playing out in Western Central France. At night thick mist and a wet cold would cloak the valley and the smell of wood-burning fireplaces permeated every particle in the air.
And we did that while it rained quite a lot. Sometimes it was nothing more than a drizzle and at other times it poured as if the proverbial biblical flood was playing out in Western Central France. At night thick mist and a wet cold would cloak the valley and the smell of wood-burning fireplaces permeated every particle in the air.
Although the Loire Valley doesn’t have any of the dramatic
Provencal countryside or the concentrated grandeur of beauty of a Paris, it is,
notwithstanding the rain, a beautiful easy-going region to visit. I loved
driving the Loire country roads that snake through the grape and vegetable
farms and wine estates. We avoided any form of highway and never travelled any
of the toll roads. It was back roads travelling all the way. It was leisurely
loitering in the Loire.
Amboise, France
Chateau de Chambord - Workers' village
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