Smurfy Semaine Deux: France

Loire Valley, Atlantic Coast and the French Basque Country

Day 8 of the Smurfy trip was upon us, and our first with guests - Anna and Perry all the way from London. The day started in Blois, with a short drive to center vile to pick up our new guests from the train station as well as to equip them with hired bikes from the local bike rental shop.

A meander back to the riverside camp spot and it was time for A&P to setup their tent. Actually, it was time for Perry to join me in a beer and for Anna to start setting up their tent. Just the way it should be.

After everything was setup, we settled in for a salmon and salad dinner and a few more bevvies.

Our theme for the three days we had in the Loire Valley were centered around biking, chateaus and wine. We had picked a couple of choice chateaus within easy biking reach of the campsite - and morning one, we prepared to leave to the first one - Cheverny Chateaux. Unfortunately we had a hitch ... While pumping up the tyres on Foldie, I damaged one of the valves and the tyre would deflate instantly. Bugger! As luck would have it, we came across a bike repair shop in town the previous day and so off Perry and I went in Smurfy to see if they could fix the little sucker. 10 euro and 15 mins later, we were sorted! They replaced the inner tube with what I can only imagine must have been a kids bike inner tube (Brompton is an English brand and very few and far between outside the UK).
 
After the little fiasco, we were finally on our way. We biked through fields and cute country villages, past thousands of sunflowers and old ruins. We popped into a supermarche to pickup some picnic supplies and after about an hour and a half of cruisy biking we reached our destination - Chateaux de Cheverny.

Chateaux de Cheverny was built between 1624 and 1630 and was opened to the public in 1914 (the first to do so) so the owners could pay for it's upkeep. The current owners supposedly still live in the Chateaux, in one of it's wings. The interior is as expected - very grand. Most of the original furniture is still on display which really helps to imagine how one may have lived in such luxurious surroundings back in the day. The layout of the rooms accessible to the public was exceptional - you basically kept following left and it winded you through the the chateaux in such a way as to not miss a thing.

The grounds of the chateaux were very grand - the highlight for us was the dog kennels where they house around 70 French Hounds. The hounds get let out of their large enclosure twice a week to go hunting. I'm not sure how hunting with 70 dogs would go, I imagine complete chaos, but it sure would be an interesting sight. I'm also not sure how feeding time works. Unfortunately we were not there to witness it.

The afternoon was drawing on and it was time to return to the campsite - via a slightly different route so we could visit a large supermarket for dinner supplies. We hungrily browsed the supermarket (one of the largest we've ever seen!) and left with bags of groceries in tow only to realise we had to now somehow strap the bags of goodies to our bikes and somehow bike them safely back to the campsite. Luckily, all went well, and we went on to enjoy a lovely crepe dinner ala A&P.

The second day started much like the first. Coffee, cereal and baguette for breaky followed by mounting our cycles and heading down the river in search of the second - and grander - chateaux, Chateaux de Chambord.

Chateaux de Chambord is absolutely massive and the largest chateaux in the Loire Valley. Built from 1519 to 1547 it was built by Philippe Hurault as a "hunting lodge" to be close to his mistress. A little overkill and hardly a lodge, it has 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces and 84 staircases. A number of the staircases were amazing - several spiral staircases - and one double helix staircase. The double helix staircase was absolutely incredible. The center point of the castle, it has two helix's that ascend the three floors without ever meeting. Thoughts of hide-and-go-seek were spinning though my mind (as well as paintball warefare!).

With this being our last night in Blois before A&P returned to London, we decided to take a break from the cooking, crack open a bottle of champers and enjoy a number of bevvies in the afternoon sun while having a quick petanq tournament in which G&T won the first match then G&A the second. Poor Perry on the losing team both games.

The evening drew into nighttime and high time we ventured into town to find some grub. We saddled up the bikes one last time and braved the riverside dusk bug infestation to settle on an unfortunately slightly less than average pizza/salad/burger joint as our grumbling tummies wouldn't let us search any further. With filled tums and headlamps donned, we returned once again to our little spot on the river for our last night in now one of my favourite parts of France.

Before A&P took to the trains, we had one last outting left in us - lunch. Wanting to leave the place on a food high we wandered the streets of Blois for a bit and settled on a lovely outdoor moules cafe and were not disappointed. We had the escargot entree, and I remember now why I hadn't tried the chewy garlic morsals since Contiki 2005 as they're a little odd. The Mussels arrived next with fries and salad and were delicious. Not your oversized NZ style mussels but the proper Belgian ones. Yum.

We au revioured our guests at the train station with the possibility of meeting up again in Croatia in 6 weeks time (ay guys??) and hit the road once again in search of some sand and surf!

In a couple of hours time we were back to the Atlantic and at a seaside town called La Rochelle.

Our first and only day in La Rochelle was spent biking along the beach front to the old town center. Unfortunately the path was slightly bumpy and it was Gini's turn to get a flattie. Not all was lost however, as we were close to town and managed to find a bike hire shop en-route which was able to fix the tyre while we explored the towns three towers. An interesting excursion but nothing to write home about so we decided to take a break from the sight seeing (yes, we were feeling a little lazy!) and headed to the beach for some R&R and a swim. We also picked up some prawnies and bread to have for dinner, Norwegian style.

We continued further south and with one more stop left in France at a small town called Biscarrosse, just south of Arcachon (where we visited on our last French excursion years ago). The campsite was picked as it was pretty much right on a beach - and a lovely beach at that. Our favourite of the trip so far.

After two last beachy days, we were in search of Spain .... And not too sure of where the border was, a toll we went through spoke to us in Spanish and informed us that yes, our French time was up and so is week two of our Smurfy adventure.

Until next Smurf week,
T