DAY 8 (Wednesday, June 3) - Chinon...
Had 9:30am breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel and then off again to Futuroscope for the afternoon.
One of the fun looking rides was called the Dance of the Robots. The old folk (which includes me) didn’t ride it, but were extremely entertained by Jerome, who chose the Level 3 ride.
One of the attractions that we were interested in seeing was the “Future House”. This reminded us of the house at the Japanese garden that Marina took us to in Florida. While looking at the future kitchen, Jerome went over to the oven and started pushing all the buttons and in a short while got reprimanded by one of the workers. I knew that was going to happen, he loves touching things.
We left around 4:30pm after stopping at the snack bar and ordering crepes - surprisingly, pre-made. They heated them up and put the topping on. Jerome was a bit annoyed by that...I mean, heck - it is France afterall!
We then began our chateau tour. We stopped at a chateau (park) in Richelieu, on our way to Chinon – it was free to walk in the garden, but the main castle was gone. Torn down in the 1800’s.
Drove a little more and stopped at a hotel in Chinon. Gar’hotel - right across from the train station. Very cute. I was pleasantly surprised. I had just said to Jerome that I didn’t care for the look of this village – it just seemed a bit bland when Daniel pulled over and stopped the car. He made a good choice.
We had a nice relaxing dinner in the village of Chinon at a restaurant called Bistrot De La Place; eating outdoors with a view of the fountain.
There were a lot of English speaking people sitting at the tables. We sat next to one and I listened in to what he ordered and said to the waitresses. It’s fun to hear your own language in far off places.
I had veal on pasta. Was OK but not the best. At the end of the meal, I ordered a café aux lait, which apparently isn’t something you order at dinner time...the things you find out after coming to the country 9X…my sister ALWAYS ordered that, so I thought it was the norm. In France they will typically give you only one sugar packet, but I usually take my cup of coffee with half milk and half sugar and a hint of coffee flavoring. Anyway, the English speaking fellow next to us was about to leave when I noticed that he still had a sugar packet on his coffee saucer.
I got up the nerve to ask him if he wouldn’t mind giving me the sugar and he was completely happy to do so and then I had a friend.
He was a bit of a talker. He told me he was from the west side of Canada and showed us pictures of his son; a Canadian Mountie. He told us that he was on the Rick Steve’s Tour and all the places he had been and where they were heading. Eventually, Jerome informed his parents that we would need to hurry it up a bit because I would begin to feel trapped by this guy. So, we said our good-byes and we took the elevator up to the old village. We leisurely walked to the castle of Chinon, but it was closed. They are doing what looked to be some major work to the castle. Walked around the old streets, down some narrow paths and eventually back to our car and headed back the hotel.
Relaxing in bed and got up to get myself some water. Looked in the mirror and noticed something on my ribcage. It looked like a cat scratch; a dark spot in the middle of a red circle. As it turned out, it was a tick; really small and had his head buried into my flesh. I had Jerome use the tweezers and he worked the ticks whole head out. We put him in a bag to be examined. Then we checked each other to see if there were any more. There didn’t seem to be.
One of the fun looking rides was called the Dance of the Robots. The old folk (which includes me) didn’t ride it, but were extremely entertained by Jerome, who chose the Level 3 ride.
One of the attractions that we were interested in seeing was the “Future House”. This reminded us of the house at the Japanese garden that Marina took us to in Florida. While looking at the future kitchen, Jerome went over to the oven and started pushing all the buttons and in a short while got reprimanded by one of the workers. I knew that was going to happen, he loves touching things.
We left around 4:30pm after stopping at the snack bar and ordering crepes - surprisingly, pre-made. They heated them up and put the topping on. Jerome was a bit annoyed by that...I mean, heck - it is France afterall!
We then began our chateau tour. We stopped at a chateau (park) in Richelieu, on our way to Chinon – it was free to walk in the garden, but the main castle was gone. Torn down in the 1800’s.
Drove a little more and stopped at a hotel in Chinon. Gar’hotel - right across from the train station. Very cute. I was pleasantly surprised. I had just said to Jerome that I didn’t care for the look of this village – it just seemed a bit bland when Daniel pulled over and stopped the car. He made a good choice.We had a nice relaxing dinner in the village of Chinon at a restaurant called Bistrot De La Place; eating outdoors with a view of the fountain.
There were a lot of English speaking people sitting at the tables. We sat next to one and I listened in to what he ordered and said to the waitresses. It’s fun to hear your own language in far off places.
I had veal on pasta. Was OK but not the best. At the end of the meal, I ordered a café aux lait, which apparently isn’t something you order at dinner time...the things you find out after coming to the country 9X…my sister ALWAYS ordered that, so I thought it was the norm. In France they will typically give you only one sugar packet, but I usually take my cup of coffee with half milk and half sugar and a hint of coffee flavoring. Anyway, the English speaking fellow next to us was about to leave when I noticed that he still had a sugar packet on his coffee saucer.
I got up the nerve to ask him if he wouldn’t mind giving me the sugar and he was completely happy to do so and then I had a friend.
He was a bit of a talker. He told me he was from the west side of Canada and showed us pictures of his son; a Canadian Mountie. He told us that he was on the Rick Steve’s Tour and all the places he had been and where they were heading. Eventually, Jerome informed his parents that we would need to hurry it up a bit because I would begin to feel trapped by this guy. So, we said our good-byes and we took the elevator up to the old village. We leisurely walked to the castle of Chinon, but it was closed. They are doing what looked to be some major work to the castle. Walked around the old streets, down some narrow paths and eventually back to our car and headed back the hotel.
Relaxing in bed and got up to get myself some water. Looked in the mirror and noticed something on my ribcage. It looked like a cat scratch; a dark spot in the middle of a red circle. As it turned out, it was a tick; really small and had his head buried into my flesh. I had Jerome use the tweezers and he worked the ticks whole head out. We put him in a bag to be examined. Then we checked each other to see if there were any more. There didn’t seem to be.
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