October 25, 2016
Chateaux and Mont
St-Michel
I’m sitting here typing with my hoody over my head because
it is soo chilly in here. The apartment is cute, but could stand better
heating. Roger just figured out how to turn on the heat in the bedroom, the
only room heated, and turned on the towel warming rack, so we’re good to go. 
Anyway, to get you up to speed with our travels, we arrived
in Amboise, in the Loire Valley, by train, of course. We had to take a train to
Paris in the early morning, and, on arrival there, we took the Metro to another
train station, and hopped on another train to Amboise. We arrived before noon,
without a hitch . . . until we reached the town and had to walk several miles
to where we were staying. We found it without a problem, partly because we
bring up satellite views of where we are going to be walking the day before,
take pictures of them when we still are on WiFi, and then use the pictures to
help us get to where we want to go. It works, usually. On the way to the
Airbnb, we stopped at a sandwich shop and bought some lunch and at a Carrefour
City market, which are small Carrefour (like our Costco) stores. We bought food
for breakfast, etc.
The place we stayed, was an apartment with a garden that was
run by a young couple. It was tastefully decorated and had everything that we
needed. We then walked back to town, purchased some seats for an informal tour
to two of the Chateaux, on Sunday. We then went to visit the Chateau Royal D’Amboise.
This is a large piece of property, overlooking the Loire River, right in the
center of the city. Leonardo Da Vinci is buried here. It is an impressive place
but not as ostentatious as the two we visited on Sunday. After walking through
the chateau, we started our walk back to the apartment and while walking went
past some cave-like dwellings that used to be inhabited by the poor but now are
renovated homes for the wealthy. Some of the unrenovated ones are used for wine
storage, due to the constant temperature. We came to a local restaurant built
into one of these caves and had soup and salad . . . both yummy.
Sunday morning, we walked into town and bought some train
tickets for the next two legs of our trip, and then walked through the huge
open market that they have every Sunday. There were all kinds of baked goods
and other food items, flowers, live chickens, clothing, etc. You can tell that
this is where people go on Sunday, not church. In fact, the main church in the
center of town, is open but empty of pews, etc. Sad.
We then met our van to take us to the Chateaux. The driver
spoke good English and could answer some questions, and we watched a short DVD
presentation, each person in his/her own language. Our 8- member group was made
up of Mexicans, Japanese and Chinese and us. The chateaux were about an hour
away, so we were glad that we had a driver.
We ended up stopping at Chambord and Chenonceau chateaux.
Chambord is mammoth and surrounded by a 20-mile-long stone wall. Its main
attraction is its architecture, including a double-helix staircase. It has 440
rooms and a fireplace for every day of the year. It used to be a monument to
the royal sport of hunting.
The next place was Chenonceau. This was a 16th
century Renaissance palace which arches over the Cher River. It is impeccably
maintained and has beautiful gardens and fresh flower arrangements throughout
and roaring log fires in some of the fireplaces. The setting is very impressive
and is the most visited chateau in France. We enjoyed this one the most of
those that we saw.
On Monday, we caught an early train to take us to Pontorson,
so we could visit Mont St-Michel. Three trains, and about 8 hours later we
finally arrived and caught a bus for a short ride to Beauviour where we stayed
for one night. Our Airbnb was in a small town and our room was a renovated 250
year old stone room in a very small hotel run by a French man with his British
wife. We loved the setting and the room. Since we were needing to get to Mont
St-Michel before it closed, the owner told us how to walk the back way, across
farm fields with a wonderful view of the Abby. 
We arrived at the Abby in time
to walk all over the island and up to the top, but the Abby was closed, to our
disappointment. The experience of being there was satisfying. It is a small
medieval town which surrounds a huge church built in the center. The island is
surrounded by mud flats and arrival there was always subject to the tides but a
causeway has been built to take care of that problem. Even though our visit was
short, we were happy that we had the chance to experience it.
This morning we left Pontorson and took the train to
Bayeaux, which is near some of the D-Day sites. We plan on visiting the
American Cemetery and Omaha Beach, tomorrow. Today, we walked around the old part of the
city and took our own tour of the massive cathedral here that was built in
1066. Old but beautiful!
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