Dodie is scoring well with what had been a rather tough project of finding good accommodation for six people and six bikes. Today's apartment was huge, and swallowed us easily. No
It's a bit scary to realize how much liie me my son Josh is. His intention, like mine, is to stop at every bakery along the way, if not in all of France. As we were all about to leave the hotel, he remembered the bakery around the corner, and ran off to check it out.
Just at Chambord, this bird - which I take top be a Great Tit, flashed by. If it is a Great Tit, it is not our first this year. I remember humourously recording two of them in Spain.
Scott AndersonI think it’s more likely a yellow wagtail. It would be pretty strange seeing a great tit down on the pavement. Reply to this comment 4 months ago
So many times that we have been in gift shops of castles, we look at swords and knights and stuff, thinking how our grandkids would like them. Now at last, we have the actual kids on site, and yes, they love them.
Chambord is my favourite castle, for its wild design. It is, after all, just a country house or hunting lodge, but it is still over the top extravagant. Chambord dates from the early 16th century, and it was first occupied by Francois I. It was later also used by Henri II and Louis XIV. The state acquired it only in 1930. We were surprised to see a piece of graffitti with the date 1757 scratched into a wall. Whichever king or noble had it at that time would surely not be pleased with guests defacing the tuffeau!
Google maps listed Chambord castle today as "as busy as it ever gets". It sure was busy. We sent Joe running ahead to get a place in this line at the entrance. Inside, it took a lot of patience to make one's way through the crowd.
In the gift shop, Dodie squawked when her time at the front of the line at that checkout was too long. The man explained that their computers had gone down. Dodie said, "fine, I will just pay cash". The man was slightly taken aback, but Dodie started adding up the purchases in her head. He soon fell in line, and in a return to ancient history, a tally was made by hand and the account settled with actual money. Our societies need to hang on to ways to achieve stuff when technology fails.
I had been extolling the Chambord Biscuiterie for a long time, mainly because of its policy of unlimited free samples. It seems to be a good strategy, because we and most people ended up buying a pile of stuff.
Aside from the gift shop, I had been very pleased to take the kids somewhere else we treasure - to the small villages and open fields of France. We now continued through more of this, to the village of Bracieux. From our hotel we strolled five minutes to the small town square, where a bit of a festival was in progress. Josh took some photos, which we will post later. We also found a restaurant, the Cafe du Commerce, which offered an all you can eat buffet. This was modelled, said the owner, on all you can eats in North America, specifically Chinese ones in Montreal. But here, we had great French quality, and we all really enjoyed it a lot. Again, Josh got some photos, which we can post later. Why did I not get any photos? I was so beat from the heat and the action packed day, that I uncharacteristically failed to bring my camera out to the restaurant!
THE KIDS' TAKE
(Joe is rapidly developing into a better photographic blogger than I!:)
Today's ride: 31 km (19 miles) Total: 77 km (48 miles)
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Rachael AndersonIt is wonderful you could all take this bicycle tour together and each participate in writing the journal! Reply to this comment 4 months ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Rachael AndersonIt really is good fun. So far Joe is the most dedicated photographer/blogger. He is very serious about it all. Reply to this comment 4 months ago
