As it glides gently east to west, officially separating the north from southern France, the
Loire river valley has come to the define this popular tourist region. The importance of the river in the valley’s prime location, in the centre of the country just south of Paris, have made the Loire a hot zone for more than thousand years. The Loire is known as the high water mark for the Moors as they pushed into Europe from Morocco. Today, this region is still the dividing line for the country for example weather forecasters would say, “north of the Loire and south of the of the Loire”.
Because of this history this region is home to something of more than a thousand castles and palaces of all shapes and sizes. During the 16th century, a valley address, was a must have among the hunting, crazed royalty, and the rich Renaissance palaces replaced the outdated medieval ones. Many of these castles are open to visitors, as many of the old time aristocratic Château owners are struggling to keep up with all the costs, and keeping them open they enjoy financial assistance from the government. So really a win win, as we get to these amazing maintained castles and palaces while the owners get to keep them operating while employing thousands of countryman, so, win, win, win.
For us with almost a cancellation in hand, literally, we are fortunate enough to know a few days prior to our departure that Jan’s wrist break was not requiring surgery, giving us a green light on making our trip. We were scheduled to be on a gastronomic one week biking tour in the Loire valley, followed by 3 days in Paris and a one week barge, canal cruise in the Burgundy region, finishing with 3 days in Lyon before heading home. So, yes, while getting our bike legs ready, Jan had a spill. She is doing very well and is in good sprints as she sports a pink cast and riding shot gun in our rental car.
We flew Air Canada directly to Paris, really the only way to go, no lay overs, took the train to Tours, rented the car and with my downloaded maps on the App, CityMaps2Go, we were on our way to our first Château accommodation. This app is great because you can download maps to use offline and the GPS keeps you on track. While not as good as GPS with voice, it’s free and does a good job - you just have to pull over at the tricky bits.
We checked in at the Château de Chissay and fortunately our Exodus tour operators where there to give us the lay of the land over the next week. So while not biking they also have an app with built in maps of our routes, most of which are quiet country type roads, great for us, we will just follow along in our car. Follow the map that is, this is a self guided tour, so we go when we like and stop for as long as we would like to. So the bonus for us is that we can stop and enjoy our sightseeing spots along the way without the time and distance pressures of biking the route.
Our anniversary dinner last night was simply amazing, best dinner ever, period. Six courses of some of the best food we ever tasted. The Loire grows many of the fruits and vegetables for all of France as well as has great local fish and game, not to mention the wines in this region, fantastic. We are even using utensils that I have never seen before, like a crepe spoon, yup.
I will cut this short at this point as jet lag is still fresh and I believe the pictures will speak for themselves. I will post again shortly on our amazing first day today.
Hope you enjoy!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment