September 25, 2023
Day 30: Tours
Our hotel St Jean though small and old still has some very pleasing aspects. One, already mentioned, is the power outlet at either side of the bed. With those outlets we can fill our heads with stories from the cell phones all night and still have them charged and ready to go in the morning. Another thing helps to counteract the steep staircases. Once you make it up the first flight, there is a "rest area" that features a while leather couch!
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The next plus for the St Jean is the two ladies that run the place - Evelyn and Madelaine. Evelyn in particular has taken us under her wing, making sure we have cold water in our bottles and plates to eat our takeout food on.
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We were pleasantly surprised also by the quite decent breakfast on offer here this morning, including good croissants, fruits, eggs, etc. A slight twist was the number of those Camembert and Brie style cheeses in little foil packages. My favourite is Coeur de Lion, but there were others. Tomorrow I will try to document what they all were. In one case I was trying to read the fine print on the label, reporting out where in France it was made, and so on, but noting that the type of cheese was not listed. Dodie said "well it's goat anyway" and I said "how do you know that?". Her reply - "that's a picture of a goat on the label". Duh!
Next though, the hotel wifi remains down, That means we are limping along with mobile data coming from Lycamobile UK. I can still upload some photos, but it takes over a minute each. Today was one of the fullest and best days of the tour so far, and we have ton of photos. Loosely the day had two parts - touring Tours, including the fascinating Saint Martin precinct, the medieval centre, and the more modern bit, and then riding out 20 km to the gorgeous and fascinating Villandry chateau and formal gardens. I am going to trying starting a bit with part A, and then put the rest into tomorrow. Here goes.
Before even setting off to explore the St. Martin Basilica and all the structures and stories surrounding it, we nipped across the street to "Les Halles", which is the name often given to covered markets. Today Les Halles had only a smattering of vendors, but there still was the chance for some of my favourite lurid photos of pastries. I also found that cheese I have been talking about - it's called Peccorino and if it is the right one, it's from Italy. Perhaps tomorrow we will buy some and try it.
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Oh my, things are really unusably slow! It looks like I need to quit. Tune in tomorrow for all the stories!
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