France: Loire Valley and Paris. May 25 – June 5, 2015.

Ellie and Kuau wanted to visit France and asked us to come along, an invitation we were happy to accept.  They also found out these inexpensive EWR-Paris Orly fares on OpenSkies, a British Airways subsidiary, which for their “biz bed” class worked out to a little more than what I expected to pay for coach, especially with a hefty discount provided to AARP members.

Monday 5/25.  Since I had an obligation at church on Sunday, Anne and I left on Monday.  Eric T gave us a ride to the airport.  Ellie, Kuau, and Reid had left two days prior and stayed in Paris.  Calling Biz Bed first class or business class would be a huge injustice, the seats are flat bed, but so narrow that I had no place to put my arms next to my body.  It resulted in a wide aisle, though.  I had a backward-facing window seat.  I didn’t realize the climbout of a 757 is at such a steep angle, in fact I was a bit worried that it was too steep.  Anne reassured me that from her forward facing seat it felt quite normal.

Unfortunately I didn’t get much sleep during this 7 hour flight.

Open Skies is the low cost carrier of British Airways.  This is a 757.

 A Business Class seat.  Seat felt a little tight, with four across there is a wide aisle.

Not much to choose from in the menu.

Tuesday 5/26.  We landed at around 9:25 am, 40 or so minutes ahead of schedule.  Immigration was straightforward.  Ellie and Kuau were to pick us up after we land.  We didn’t get started until about noon due to Paris traffic and a miscommunication on where we should be picked up – the latter took an extra 30 minutes.  Reid was in his car seat kicking, happy to see us.

The drive to Villandry was quite uneventful except for an illegal U-turn we had to make (at the suggestion of the toll-booth operator).  We also stopped at a rest area for about an hour for lunch.

Villandry is a small village about 250 km from Paris, and our house is about 3 km out of town, in a hamlet of about six houses, beyond which are cattle and wheat fields.

Ellie and Kuau went to Carrefour to get groceries.  We ate at the house.  Anne and I walked around a bit after dinner.  Sunset is at 9:40 pm, and it is still bright out at 10 pm.

Backyard of "Nature and Chateaux" is next to a cattle ranch.  Somehow the winds were in such a direction that we weren't downwind during our entire stay there.

Lots of cattle around.

Reid checking out the flowers in the yard.

An abandoned house down the road from where we stayed.

With many electronic devices with US plugs, this is the jumble of wires we have to keep them going.

Accommodation: House “Nature and Chateaux” in Villandry, arranged by Ellie through Airbnb.

Wednesday 5/27.  Reid took his nap at around 10 am, so Anne and I drove to the same Carrefour and bought a few necessities and snacks for our stay.  We drove to town for lunch, and decided we will visit Chateaux Usse popularly considered the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty story.  There are hundreds of chateaux and palaces in the region, and those who open up for visitors get subsidies from the government (per Rick Steves.)  It is a rather impressive looking building, but not quite worth the E14 we paid for admission.  We nonetheless spent quite a bit of time there exploring, with Reid enjoying himself by running around the grounds.

Outside Chateau Usse.

Family relaxing on the grounds of the Chateau.

Lunch in neighborhood restaurant in Villandry.

Sausage of unknown meat.

Dinner was again a home-cooked meal of hamburgers and sausages.

Thursday 5/28.  After Reid woke up from her early morning nap, we left the house at about 10:30 am for Chenonceau.  We bought at a small local shop various food items (sandwiches, quiche, cheese, and salami) for a simple picnic on the grounds outside the Chateau.

To quote from Rick Steves’ guide: “Chenonceau is the toast of the Loire.  This 16^th-century Renaissance palace arches gracefully over the Cher River and is impeccably maintained, with fresh flower arrangements in the summer and roaring fires in the winter.  Chenonceau is one of the most-visited chateaux in France.”  We must have hit it during the low season as there was no one waiting to buy tickets to get in.  The chateau was located at the site of a medieval castle, but was first to be built for pleasure rather than defensive positions.  After having visited three of these chateaux, I get the feeling the all have a similar history.  Castles were built in the middle ages, built over by various Kings (sometimes for their queens or mistresses,) and eventually fall into private hands; in other words, playgrounds of the rich and powerful.  Of course individual chateaus have their distinctive histories, but that gradation is best left to the serious historian.

When it comes to Chateau de  Chenonceau, the memorable aspects are (i) the ladies involved in its early years, there is a painting of “Three Graces” hanging in the chateau; and (ii) it is built over the Cher river.

Chateau de Chenonceau is built over the River Cher.

This hallway is right above the river.

They had several antique cars parked outside the Chateau.

We got back to Villandry at after 4 pm, and felt energetic enough to visit another Chateau, the local one.  Kuau and Ellie wanted to tour only the gardens, considered the best in the area.  Anne and I bought tickets that would allow us to visit the building itself; a climb to the top (called “The Keep”) also allowed us a bird’s eye view of the garden.  Reid was having a good time, which was interrupted briefly when he fell and had a lot of sand on his face, and a few bruises.

Chateau Villandry.

Panoramic shot of the Chateau's gardens. (Click on photo to get a larger version.)

Dinner at restaurants don’t start until 7 pm, even the one that starts at 6 didn’t have workers show up until a few minutes before, a bit late for Reid.  Anne and I ate at home while Ellie got Reid to sleep.  They went off to dinner in town.

Friday 5/29.  What with people still somewhat struggling with jetlag, and our inability to get things organized, we didn’t get started until around noon time.  Our goal for the day was quite modest: visit to the nearby Chateau d’Azay-le-Rideau, a short 15 minute car ride away.

We first had lunch at a café right outside the chateau.

This chateau’s origin was purely pleasure, it was built by a rich financier to the King.  Its royal connection was it was seized by King Francois I; the owner had fled because his partner was executed for embezzlement.  It’s now owned by the French government.  Unfortunately when we visited it was in the midst of a 3 year renovation project, so the entire main building was covered up.  We still could tour the inside; frankly it is not that different from others we have seen, only smaller.  Reid had a lot of fun playing in the yard, including picking up the pebbles on the walkways and trying to eat them, the latter fortunately without great success.

Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau.

Ornate interior of Chateau.

The main part of the Chateau is enclosed for a 3-year renovation project.

This was the fourth chateau, perhaps two more in our immediate future?  (Langeais and Chambord; the first for being close, the second for being the granddaddy of them all, with over 400 rooms and 300 fireplaces.)

On the way back we stopped at (another) Carrefour so Anne and I can have a meal at home while Kuau and Ellie went back to Azay-le-Rideau to have dinner at Cote Cour.  Of the 14 meals they have had since they got to France, they thought this was the best.

Saturday 5/30.  We got started relatively early, thinking we will head to Tours for lunch.  Since Reid fell asleep along the way, we drove straight to Chambord instead.  Chateau de Chambord is the largest of all the chateaux in the area.  It was indeed quite grand.  We spent about 2 hours touring the building, famous for its architecture (Rick Steves thinks it might be designed by Da Vinci, the chateaux itself making the claim without any reservation.)  While the space is huge, the rooms are many, and the double-helix staircase interesting, I didn’t find it overwhelming as I did when I first saw Versailles, Angkor Wat, or the Great Wall.  Having seen several large castles perhaps contributed to that feeling.  In any case, Anne and I both decided we have develop some level of chateau fatigue, that doesn’t mean we won’t be bored enough over the next two days to visit a couple more though.

Chateau de Chambord is the largest castle in the area.

Courtyard.

Reid is having fun climbing up and down the many steps.

After some discussion we decided to head back to Villandry after the visit.  Dinner was home-cooked, everybody stayed in.

The countryside abounds with flowers like these poppies.

Sunday 5/31.  We again left at around 10 am this morning, and got to Chinon at about 10:40 am.  Anne and Ellie stayed in the car for Reid to finish his morning nap, and Kuau and I walked around the medieval town by River Vienne for about 20 minutes.  The town is one of the largest we have hit so far, and there was a market in the center of town for the morning.  We bought a roasted chicken and some roasted pork there.  Lunch was at Le Café Des Arts.  On the menu they had an item called “rib beef” which Kuau and I both ordered, thinking that it is spare ribs.  Turns out they were rather large pieces of steak on the bone.  Kuau finished his, I had a lot of left over which the staff kindly put inside a box for us.  This was the most expensive meal we have had and it cost E120, including an item from the kid’s menu and tip.

The town has a statue of Joan of Arc because she lived there for a while.  I was surprised that she was only 19 when she was burned at the stake.

 Town of Chinon.

Statue of Joan of Arc.

All said and done we didn’t get back until 3:30 pm.  At around 5 pm Anne and I took the car and drove to Tours.  We passed by the city several times and had not been impressed with it.  Turns out the city center is a few blocks away from the Loire, and it was okay.  They had a wine-tasting festival going on, which drew quite a few people into the town center area.  There is also this light-rail track that stretches for many blocks.

 Tours is a large town.  This is the train station.

Tram tracks through the middle of town.

Dinner consisted of the left-over beef from lunch, and the meats we bought in Chinon.

We briefly entertained leaving town tomorrow so we could visit Versailles.  Turns out Versailles is closed on Mondays, so that idea was nixed.

Monday 6/1.  It is interesting that in Rick Steves’ Guide Tours is used only as a reference point for the chateaux in the area: as in “east of Tours” and “west of Tours.”  There is no description of the city itself, as there is for Chinon and even Villandry.  Fodor’s devotes a couple of pages to it.

Tours was our destination as we didn’t want to see any more chateaux, and we thought it was worth a visit by Ellie and Kuau (and another one by us.)  We parked our car a little after 11 am, and then walked to Cathedral St. Gatien and then let Reid play in the garden of Musee de Beaux Arts.  The cathedral is quite impressive, church history in the area dates back to the 4^th century.  It was finished in 1484.  On the grounds of the museum there is a Cedar of Lebanon that is over 200 years old, with an impressive girth and canopy.

We then walked to Place Plumereau with its many restaurants and had lunch.  There are buildings at the square that dates back to the 15^th century.

While Reid slept in his stroller, we walked around a bit more, visiting the ruins of the old Basilica St. Martin.  The building must have been very impressive, if the standing clock tower (Tour de l’Horloge) and Charlemagne tower are any indication.  And it is also interesting to note how the ground level has been raised in the intervening years since the 4^th century.  We also stopped in the “new” St. Martin Basilica, completed in 1924, with its neo-Byzantine theme.

 Garden of Musee de Beaux Arts, Tours.

 Cathedral St. Gatien dates back to the 4th Century.

 Inside of Cathedral.

 We had lunch at a restaurant in Place Plumereau.

 Charlemagne is one of the remaining structures of Basilica St. Martin, Tours.

 The current St. Martin Basilica.

Interesting statue in Tours.  "Large polyester sculpture of a monstrous man."

It was then time to go home.  Anne and I then went to Carrefour to pick up provisions for dinner, our last one in Loire.

As I type this, I do wonder why there is not as much sense of history as I would expect, given how far back the area goes in time.  Perhaps a question to be answered some other day.

Tuesday 6/2.  When we thought Reid was ready to take his morning nap, we started our trip to Paris, with Ellie driving all the way to Rue d’Amboise, where we would stay for three nights.  A straight shoot from Villandry to our location should take about 2 ½ hours, it ended up taking 3 ¾ hours because of the traffic jams around the city, even in the middle of the day.  Traffic inside the city was actually quite okay, just a bit chaotic, and Ellie handled it with aplomb.  We used multiple guidance systems (Google, Waze, and the car’s GPS) to work through the many detours we ended up taking.

We checked into the top floor apartment, accessed via a small lift and a flight of stairs, while Kuau returned the car.  It was then off to lunch at La Saotico across the street.  It was still serving food at 2:30 pm, which was great for us.  The dishes are not particularly expensive, but the presentation and taste were much better than what we found in the Loire villages.

The La Saotico Restaurant is across the street from the apartment we are staying in.

After lunch I went to Opera Bastille to buy tickets for the evening’s concert while Anne returned to the apartment to prepare for her conference call.  We stopped by McDonalds by the Richelieu-Drouot station before heading over to the opera.  It was about 11:15 pm when we left the opera house, and we got back to the apartment a bit before midnight, stopping along the way for a Filet-o-Fish.

Accommodation: Apartment in 5 Rue D’Amboise (3 nights.)

Wednesday 6/3.  We (mostly Anne) were to babysit Reid for most of the day so Ellie and Kuau could have a day of their own.  So from morning until 4 pm it was walking on the streets in the area, getting Reid to sleep, to eat, and playing silly songs on YouTube for him.  At about 3:30 pm we met up with Ellie & Kuau at a café in Tuileries Garden for a 3-hour hand-off.  We did have coffee and croissant with them (at E8 each) before heading off to Musee de l’Orangerie.  This is a relatively small museum (at 145 paintings per its brochure) dedicated to impressionists.  The ground level is dominated by eight murals painted by Monet hung on two large oval rooms.  In the basement there is a good collection of paintings by various painters.  With the hour or so that we had, we couldn’t study the works in detail, so we bought a book to read later.

One of Monet's Murals at Musee de l'Orangerie.

We decided to eat before doing evening duty with Reid.  The Del Arte restaurant near the Richelieu-Drouot Station is an Italian establishment that has been around for 30 years.

Thursday 6/4.  We split up with EKR after walking the mile or so to the Louvre together: they wanted to take the hop-on hop-off ferry, Anne and I went to visit the Louvre yet another time.  Strangely, it felt a bit overwhelming this time since we didn’t want to spend too much time and consequently found it difficult to decide what to see.  We ended up touring the old part of Louvre (from medieval times) and how much work was involved with construction of the pyramid in the courtyard.  After seeing Venus di Milo and touring a few other halls, we gave up and headed to lunch instead at the museum café.

The design of Pompidou Center is unique in that the “plumbing” is located prominently on the outside of the building.  I don’t know if all or most of the plumbing is thus situated, but know that it is not pretty, although not ugly either.  It houses the Museum of Modern Art.  The museum seems to indicate modern spans from 1915 (or so) to 1965, and art after that is considered “contemporary.”  Regardless, by this definition modern artists include Picasso, Mondrian, and Giacometti, whom I get somewhat.  Contemporary art, on the other hand, still escapes me.  A great example is a canvass that is painted purple, or a long line of spherical objects arranged by size.  We spent some time in the modern section, and walked quickly through the contemporary section.

 The Pompidou Center ...

... and some of its art.

On the way back, I got off the Opera metro station to get tickets for tonight’s ballet while Anne continued on to make sure EKR come back to an open apartment (we had only one set of keys.)  Palais Garnier is well-known as the fictional setting for the Broadway show “Phantom of the Opera, although it is used nowadays mostly for ballets and concerts.  I was offered seats that cost either E130 or E12, and opted for the better seats, joking to the agent that they got all my money.

Anne and I left the apartment a little after 6 pm, had dinner at Le Gramont around the corner, and sat through the 2:45 hour performance (including intermission and curtain calls.)  It was then trying to finish packing and get some sleep for tomorrow.

 Ceiling mural in Palais Carnier.

 Lobby, jugglers would perform during intermission.

 Auditorium.

Curtain call, Les Enfants du Paradis.

Friday 6/5.  We got up at around 6:30 am, and left the apartment at around 7:45 pm for the airport, taking 2 Uber cars.  Traffic was already quite busy, and evidently was very route dependent.  Anne, Ellie and Reid left later than Kuau and me, but got to the airport first.  Check in was simple, and we spent some time in the Iberia lounge which is quite a distance away from the gate area.  Immigration and customs were a bit slow, and I was one of the last to board the bus.

Reid started fussing when it got quite warm in the bus.  He also fussed for quite a while, not being able to fall asleep.  He is now, and let’s hope it is for a while.

We arrived on time, and took the train home.