Not much to report today… after a brief journey through space and time we arrived at London for the final few days of our trip. Jake’s day 1 London review is up next.
Actually we got the TGV, the Paris Metro, the Eurostar and the Underground. But next time we’ll just take the TARDIS.
Ok we’re tired and near the end of the trip, so back to interview mode for our penultimate day in France.
Jake: Château Chambord - it was the biggest and the fanciest.
Sonia (s.g.a.): I liked the second one because you could see that it was a rich family that lived there.
Note for readers: “the second one” was the Château de Chenonceau
Miles: I liked Château de la Bourdaisière, because we got to sleep there. It was really tall and it had a tomato garden with tonnes of different tomatos. There were also lots of flowers. Our room had one TV but it was really small. Jake and I slept downstairs and there was a secret bathroom with a shower in it. There was a spiral staircase that leads you upstairs where my mum and my dad slept. Behind the curtains was a bathroom with a bath tub.
Note: the table formatting needs fixing; apologies in advance.
| Château | Commentary | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Château Chambord | Good château, extensive forest, used a distribution centre for art being hidden during WWII. Needs more chambord. | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| Château de Chenonceau | Very good château, nice gardens, used a distribution centre for people fleeing France during WWII. Water views. | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| Château de la Bourdaisière | Modest château with not too many tourists, garden contains 785 tomato varieties, accomodation was spacious. Wasn’t allowed to sample the 785 varieties of tomato, however they did make me a rum with selected tomatoes from their garden as a consolation prize. | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Jake, Miles and Sonia, before they got the hang of the “hide in the château photo” game
Jake, Miles and Sonia, after they got the hang of the “hide in the château photo” game
Jake, Miles and Sonia, after they got fed up with playing “hide in the château photo”
Is it a bike day? Yes! It’s a bike day!
The first port of call was my chosen bike shop, Détours de Loire Tours. Arriving at 9:29, we waited an agonising minute until opening time, only to be told that they had no vélos pour enfants. Sadface (😭😭😭).
The second port of call was Rouelib Tours, who were just around the corner. Herein follows my non-sponsored review of the business:
| Friendliness of staff | ⭐⭐⭐ | |
| Helpfulness of staff | ⭐⭐ | |
| Quality of vélos | ⭐⭐ | |
| Quality of maintenance of vélos | ⭐ | |
| Availability of vélos pour enfants | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
| Overall rating | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
5 minutes later, we were on our way with quarte squeky vélos, ready to explore Tours.
Due to time limitations, the rest of this blog takes the form of a Strava embed. Please address any complaints to Rouelib Tours, 55 Rue Bernard Palissy, 37000 Tours.
We did manage to sneak in the obligatory round of “family holiday mini golf”.
Shut up and watch this drive
Jake faded in the last 5 holes and ended up 4th, behind Miles in third who almost pipped Sonia to second place. It is left as an exercise for the reader to determine the victor on the day.
| S | tayed at Mercure Hotel |
| T | aught about wine |
| - | |
| É | xciting attractions |
| M | aking wine area |
| I | mpossible to miss |
| L | earn to prune grapes |
| I | t has nice châteaus |
| O | ld towns that were built around the 16th century |
| N | ow let’s go to the wine museum |
| B | asic | |
| O | ld town | |
| R | ound | |
| Some stuff were | D | iagonal |
| E | xciting | |
| A | t some places up had six statues or more | |
| U | p tall | |
| E | X | treme |