Back on the Grid

We have been off of the grid for the last few days, so I have been unable to post. We are now back in Paris with Wifi access. Ahhh civilization! I have uploaded all of our photos, but the are too many to explain them all now. Click on the slideshow to the right to see the album. When we get back I will go through and explain the important photos. We are in the Hotel Bourg-Tibourg in the Marais district of Paris. Tres Cool!

Our stay in Saumur

 Our next stop was Saumur. We had to endure another beautiful drive through the French country-side. This time we managed to find our campground without too much trauma. When we arrived the campsite seemed to be under construction and was not very pleasant-looking. We checked in and drove to our assigned campsite. Our lot was on a hill with no trees and it was very hot, we were becoming increasingly disenchanted with Saumur. After a slight break we went up to the office to asked if we could be moved. The young lady was very polite and spoke English very well. She asked which lot we would like to move to we gave her a couple of numbers and she said it was fine for us to move.
So we picked a nice shady, flat lot and settled in. We cooked some dinner and went to sit by the river. We drank some very good French wine as the sun set on the Chateau. The next day we walked into town. We had brunch at a creperie. I ordered the Omelet Gourmond and Husband ordered a galette. Then for desert we shared a Cointreau crepe. Delicious!!! We noticed that the cafe across the street and wifi access. We sat outside while Husband made sure that there we no catastrophes at work. Fortunately, there were none. We did look over the shoulder of another patron's newspaper to see photos of a horrible Formula One crash. The US Grand Prix occurred while we were gone, so we knew nothing.
After relaxing a little, we heading up the street to the G20(a supermarket) to replenish our supplies. We knew that we must take the bus so we decided to just buy what we need for that evening and purchases our race supplies when we could park the RV next the store (a feat impossible in the downtown area of a small French village, as we discovered earlier)
After deciding to make a pasta dish for dinner, we purchased a French version of pancetta, noodles, cream, mushrooms (the region is known for its mushrooms), along with other supplies like beer, wine, salt, and toilet paper. We took our bags and went to the bus stop. Apparently, French children use the public buses to get home from school. So there was much screaming and running around. The bus that we were supposed to take is a special tourist bus that runs to the island. It does not run very often and doesn't have a designation consistent with the other buses. So we were pretty sure that it was our bus that was driving past the bus stop where we were standing. We were also pretty sure that it was our bus that was stopping two blocks up from our current postion, and we were also pretty sure that it was the last bus of the day.
So we walked. The walk to our campground was not bad, as we had just done it that morning, of course we were not carrying several bags of groceries each. That was not a fun walk. We did make it back after many timeouts. After freshing up and cooking some food, we had a very pleasant meal. In France, campers move their camping tables out into their lot, set the table nicely with candles, plates, open a bottle of wine and eat while watching the sun set. We were not so well-supplied, but we did have a wonderful dinner and some nice wine.
The next morning we leisurely got up and packed to go. We drove to the office to check out and our little magnetic card that is supposed to raise the parking-garage-type arm does not work. This is how they make sure you pay before leaving. Your card is only good until the day you tell them you will check-out. Ok, what time is it? Noon! They are at lunch. The sign says they will return in 2 hours. We cannot leave. When will we ever get used to this French lunch thing. Apparently the nice young lady was eating her lunch in the office. She poked her head out and raised the arm for us, but the office was still closed. We felt guilty, but decided that we could not stick around in the parking lot for two hours. We would go supply shopping for the race and return to pay our bill.
We had already asked if there was a camping store in town and knew where to go. We went to Decathalon, a sports store. We need camping chairs, camping table ( we wanted to have our dinners like the other campers), something to build an awning and a grill. We found everything easily except, a grill. This was the most important item. From Decathalon, we headed to E. LeClerc, a mega-store. We were pleased to find out that they had items like bbq grills. This freed us up to buy many camping-type food items. The region is known for it mushrooms and rillettes and rillons, smoked pork. We bought the specialties and some pre-prepared chacuterie items, such as Lamb skewers Provencal and Dijon Pork skewers. We also got local wines and Pate du Champagne. Too many items to list them all.
After checking out and squeezing our groceries into the RV's kitchen, we drove across the parking lot to the E.Leclerc gas station. There was much confusion about how to pay for the gas. There was a slot to put your rewards card, but not your credit card. Husband went for it, just filled up the Pilote and realized that you cannot leave without driving by the lady in the toolbooth. We paid there and drove back to our campground to check out.

Our stay in Amboise

 RETROPOST:This portion of our trip was my most favorite. The town is idyllic with its fairytale castle and its numerous sidewalk cafes.
Before leaving I mapped our driving directions from place to place using GoogleMaps. Up to this point it had worked flawlessly. Our directions got us to the outskirts of Amboise with no problems, but once we started to enter town we could not find the roads listed and lost our place in the instructions. We even back tracked and tried to reset our place but it was to no avail.
Road signs in France do not ofter tell you the name of the road, but rather where the road is headed. It took some days to adjust to this and to stop looking for confimration that we were on the right road. I instead was content to be assured that we were headed in the right direction. I knew that we needed to go into town and cross the bridge because the campground was on an island. So we headed into town, looking for the river on whatever road we happened to be driving. This was working well until the road became increasing narrow and was eventually tiled, as a pedestrian walkway might be.
Knowing that we should not be driving down these sorts of streets or goal changed from finding the campground to getting out of the center of the village. Our narrow road ended at the base of the castle, and our choices were to turn left (which I thought was the direction of the river) and try to drive through the crowd of people hanging out in the street/walkway in front of the cafes or turn right down an even more narrow street. We choice to turn right. There were cars parked along the already too narrow road, and we became more and more afraid that we were driving into a place were we would not fit and would be forced to reverse through the narrow pass. Within four or five blocks we finally reached a normal two laned road and were then able to cricumvent the downtown and reach the bridge. Later when walking throught the town, we did notice the signs prohibiting our large vehicle from using the roads that we had driven on earlier.
After this experience we where happy to have no problems finding and checking into our campground. The campground was municipal. I guess the villages themselves own campgrounds. They are pleasant, but basic. We had a nice shaded lot. The advantage is that you are within walking distance to the town. You can see the fairytale castle from your campsite!
We walked into town looking for somewhere to eat. We discovered that there was a brass band competiton/festival going on. After debating which of the cafes had the type of food we wanted and the best view, we selected the Cafe du Chateau. It was located at the base of the chateau and had a stage for the bands right across the way. I had the Salade Gourmande and husband had the Bruschetta Pili. We both had a couple of Leffes. We people watched and listed to the brass bands. All was right with the world.
After eating we wondered around the bars and cafes. We finally settled down at the Bar du Cheval Blanc near the river. There were two large group of revelers sitting outside. We took our place at the end of one of the long tables and ordered 2 Painte du Mois. Husband struck up a conversation with the man to his right and discoved that they were one of the bands that had competed earlier in the daay. In fact, they considered themselves the favorites.
Husband went to the marche next door and purchesed cans of Kronenbourg which we drank while walking along the riverfront as the sun set. On the way back to our campsite we stopped in at Shaker's Bar. The view from Shaker's terasse was awe-inspiring. The castle and the bridge are lit up at night. The menu of drinks might be questionable though. They serve what we have come to call fru-fru drinks, two person drinks,blue drinks, etc. We dove right in and ordered what we thought would be the most obnoxious drink on the menu, they did not disappoint. We sat and drank our fruit-flavored rhum in a funny shaped glass and looked a centuries-old chateau and bridge alignside a beautiful river in France.
The next day we got up, checked out, went up to the Chateau. We walked through the Chateau and grounds, then walked up Rue Victor Hugo to Leonardo Davinci's last house. We toured the house, known as Clos Luce'. On display were several of his inventions. The house was given to him by one of the Kings that lived in the Chateau d'Amboise (King Chalres ?) in exchange for occasional conversation with DaVinci.

Our visit to the Chateau

We felt obligated to visit a Chateau if we were going to be driving around the Loire Valley. My guide book told me that Château de Chenonceau was one of the most popular. So we stopped in on our way the Amboise. I can't remember all of the historcial data about the chateau. If you want the background story see the wiki.

The coolest part of the history that I can remember was that during WWII the banquet hall was turned into a hospital and since the castle stretched across the river, people used it to escape the occupied area.

We might as well have been on the Eiffel Tower, everyone was speaking American English and most of them we sorority girl types, that had "gone abroad for the summer". The types that we were taking this vacation to forget. They still have a working vineyard and cellar. In the cellar, they have wine tastings for 1 euro. The 1999 was not bad so we bought a bottle. After that we loaded up the ol' trailer and headed for Amboise.

Our drive to the Chateau

RETROPOST: After leaving money for our stay in the campground, we headed back into Mer to pick up supplies. We had spotted a nursery on our way into town and thought it might have some items that we needed (Don't ask) As we approached the store, it was looking kind of desolate. Oh yeah, it was lunch time. The sign said they would be back in two and half hours. How silly of us to try to make purchases between 12-3. So we continued on our way.

We drove along the Cher river. Our trip was from Mer to Chenonceaux, mostly on D764. I think that we chose our route wisely. The scenery could not have been more picturesque. Driving through small villages and through the country-side. Cars would be stopped along the river for a picnic. A few times a large Chateau would loom in the distance.

It completely matched the expectations I had when planning this trip. The following is a slide show of pictures that I took from the passenger seat of the RV.

Our First Campground

RETROPOST: After successfully navigating out of Paris and through the beautiful contryside, we arrive at our first campground, replete with requisite Chateau. It was about 8:00 PM and the office was closed after a few nervous moments about where we would sleep that night, I saw the sign telling us to just chose a site and check-in in the morning. OK disaster averted. When I went back to my waiting husband to tell him what I had discovered, he was speaking to a lady in a golf cart. I hear her say "What language DO you speak?" Apperently husband had become so tongue-tied trying to think in both French and English that he was reduced to uttering incomprehensible mono-sylabic sounds. Once he was able to represent himself she told him very nicely the same info that I had just got done reading in the sign. We were golden.
The place was perfect. We picked a great spot, hooked up and went up to the restaurant to get some food. We sat outside, has a beer, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Went back to the camper and slept peacefully. Still jet-lagged we woke up around 10AM, cleaned up, ate and mulled around. Around 12:30PM, we decided we should probably get going and went up tp the office to check in and out.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by a sign telling us that the office would be open again after lunch. Apperently, lunch in France ends at 3PM. We could not wait 2.5 hours for the office to open. We wrote a note telling them that we had stayed there last night, but had to leave. We slipped 24euros along with the note explaining our ignorance of the 3 hour lunch and drove off.

Let's Go Rent the RV

RETROPOST: The plan for our first morning in France was to get up at 9:00AM, so that we could get to Avis caraway before Noon. They close from Noon till Two for lunch. We were just beginning to learn that everything in France is closed from Noon-2 (and sometimes 3). Anyway, Husband set his cell phone and I set my watch alarm for 9AM (=3AM EST), so that we would have plenty of time to reach Bretigny before Avis closed. At Noon we were awoken by the Anne Frank sirens.
Noon was also check out time for our hotel. We jumped out of bed and checked out. By the time we got ready, checked out and took the train it was 2 o'clock when we reached Avis. We rented the RV from Martine with no problems and were on our way by three. We stopped at an Aire for Jambon Baguettes and headed off to Orleans for supplies. Upon planning the shopping trip, I reasoned that the Carrefour in Orleans would be better supplied than stores in smaller towns along the highway. It never occurred to me that I might be selecting an intercity grocery store located in a shopping mall, where the only available parking was a parking garage with limited height clearance.
After driving in circles for 20 minutes, husband found us a parking spot and paralleled parked our RV. This spot was several blocks from the mall. After completing our essentials shopping we were dismayed to discover that the designers of this mall had carefully laid out the mall and adjoining parking parking garage so that shopping carts could not be removed from the premises. We were then faced with the aspect of carrying a shopping cart worth of groceries several blocks or attempting to push our cart through the parking garage barrier gate. The problem was that the only way to exit the mall was down staircases or the elevator to the parking garage. Then we spotted it, the wheelchair lift. Husband pushed the cart unto the lift while I operated the buttons. (We had to forfeit our deposit on the cart) We had finally made it to the city street with our shopping cart. Now do we push the cart down the sidewalk for five blocks or do we pull the RV up to the sidewalk blocking of the utility access to the mall? We chose the latter.
I waited with the cart, while Husband retrieved the Camper. He parked across the access drive, while we quickly unloaded the cart into the RV. It was uncomfortable, but successful!