Getting cosy at Chateau de Chambord

After our lovely stay in Cordes Sur Ciel we had a bit of a drive on our hands to get to Paris in time. I can’t believe I thought I was going to get a visit to Normandy in on this trip – that plan went out the window about a week ago. My spatial abilities when looking at maps are obviously lacking. Anyway, here’s the bullet point breakdown for the rest:

• Ingrandes: This was quite literally a “stick a pin in the map approximately two hours away from here” choice but turned out to be a good one. Saint Victor La Grand Maison was a beautiful old house which, as we were the only people staying, we could explore and stay as long as we want. Our host Marie was playing piano and singing opera and it was a real hoot. Unfortunately the weather turned rubbish and we could only stay one night. Also, small villages with restaurants open on a Monday night are few and far between.
• Tour-en-Sologne: Same principle as above for choosing this one, but we lucked out on the old-world charm of the rooms. Still, a good base for exploring the ten zillion chateaus in the area. We only went to one: Chambord (I think mainly because I love the liqueur), but it was pretty spectacular. Weather remains miserable but restaurant situation improved dramatically with a visit to a Michelin-starred restaurant, L’Orangerie in Blois.
• Paris: I think Paris needs its own post, but you just know there’s going to be shopping and drinking involved J

OK, so the plan to travel through France staying a night at each place was quite obviously a flawed one. It is exhausting – even when you have your own car. After Carcassonne we were fortunate enough to be able to extend our next stay to four nights at Cordes Sur Ciel. Actually, we had a bit of a hidden agenda because we’ve been looking for a property to buy in France and this area was on our hit list.

Only €200k and this could be yours…

We had also found a place we liked so arranged an inspection with a real estate agent, but holy crap was there a lot of work to be done! I was going to freak Emma out by sending her the picture and saying this is where we were going to live, but it freaked me out too much to do that. No, we’d like to buy somewhere like the place we stayed: Laborie Grande (but smaller). I’m still not convinced of the plan for me to make jam and yoghurt in rural France, but maybe the time’s right for a sea change?* (my family are just falling off their chairs laughing at that… in fact anybody who knows me probably is!).

Mind you, there’s still a lot of France to see and we’re not going to impulse-buy a country house no matter how much I like shopping. Just keeping our options open… and who doesn’t want to know someone who has a house in France where they can stay for free reduced rates?

*btw, if there’s no internet access it’s just not happening.

Sur le pont, D’Avignon

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update – but that’s because we’ve been driving through France staying a night here, a night there. Nothing *terribly* exciting has happened, so I’m just going to give you a bullet point break down of the first week:

• Nice: Nice was only supposed to be our entry point into France, but if I’d known how nice it was we would have stayed longer than one night. Stayed in the worst hotel ever, but when you get in at 11 pm, you don’t have too many options. Return visit is definitely in order (just not on a Sunday because all the shops are closed!!!)
• Brignoles: Meh… Was lured in to staying here because of the B&B pictures, which didn’t quite live up to expectations. Luckily we only stayed one night. There’s a story to tell here when I’m back home after a couple of glasses of wine 🙂 Drove to Cotignac for dinner. Not worth mentioning food-wise, but after our meal we went down a dead end alley way where what seemed like hundreds of cats were having committee meetings. As we drove through their little heads would pop-up, then they’d run away. Of course once we’d realized it was a dead end Chris had to reverse back out for a few hundred metres dodging cats along the way. It went something like this:

  Chris: Just tell me if I’m going to hit something
  Sam: bwahahaha (had a few drinks)
  Chris: $*@!

  It was fricken hilarious. Well, I thought it was funny…

• Avignon: Of course I went there just to stand on the bridge and sing the song. Well, I sang it in my head. Have taken a thousand photos, but they’re all crap.
• Carcassone: The medieval town is postcard perfect, but restaurants are very hit and miss. Anything that’s good needs to be booked days before hand so all you’re usually left with is the touristy rubbish. Did find a very nice wine bar on our last night so as long as we can drink the good stuff we’re OK. Shopping was a disappointment, BUT… I did find one shop and now have an entirely new wardrobe. Must keep me away from shops when I’m bored. It’s very expensive!