I swear I must be one of the only people on the planet who has technically been to France 3 times but not seen the Eiffel tower! After my last day at work in Cheltenham and the move back to London I did some serious packing and the girls (Emma, Jess and American Alison) and I flew out to CDG Airport in Paris at a ridiculously early hour in the morning. We got a hire car and drove straight out of town south- so yes, technically I have been to Paris, but I still haven’t seen any of it apart from the road out of the airport. I will go there one day, but there is so much of the world that is further up my “to do” list.
Anyhow, after a busy and gear-crunchingly slow drive south we made it to the absolutely gorgeous town of Amboise. This town had come via the recommendation of Emma who had studied French there a few years previously. My French, non existent, was getting a wonderful workout. I would personally like to apologise to the entire French nation for my dreadful accent, and the fact that I tried to substitute most of your language for English or German, my bad, I hope to do better next time.
We were all pretty shattered from the ridiculously early morning and the late night before that so we checked into a very cheap, but very convenient hotel…the next day we were getting up early to see some chateaux (look I know a French word!).
After a traditional French breakfast of croissants and pain aux chocolat (even more! I’m brilliant!) We drove to see firstly the amazing chateau Chambord. Now this is a building that makes you feel inadequate, envious, poor, and very very jealous! It is absolutely gorgeous, huge, intimidating and wonderful (do you think I’ve used enough adjectives?) It’s the kind of building that screams wealth and absolutely rubs it in your peasant face. I quite liked it really. The most famous part of the building is the double helix staircase thing (you know, like DNA) that was apparently designed by Leonardo da Vinci. It’s definitely the most fun you can have climbing stairs.
After quite a long while there we drove back through a pretty town called Blois (pronounced Blah! – yes I did have a lot of fun with this one) and on to another Château (look I can even say it with a French accent thingy!).
This one was called Chenonceau (or something to that effect- don’t quote me on the spelling) and it was as pretty as Chambord was awe-inspiringly grand. It was apparently the favourite place of Diane de poitiers who was mistress to the French king Francis (I think), when he died Catherine de Medici booted that tart out because she had always loved it and made it her own little escape. It was a very “feminine” chateau which was built out over a river with two big gardens either side of it. The one to the left was built by the the mistress and was geometric, grand and kind of showy. The one on the right, made by the queen, was smaller and more intimate, and homier. While it wasn’t as “look at me I’m a gorgeous flawless garden” as the other, I preferred it.
Inside, a lot of the rooms were still furnished, and up on the top level there was an art exhibition of some pretty dreadful modern looking art. It was a gorgeous place on the whole though, kind of homey (as much as a grand chateau can be) and it had a maze in the garden -which was a nice little diversion for 10 minutes or so.
Next stop was back to Amboise to see the Chateau there called, fittingly, Chateau d’Amboise. This one was right on a hill in the centre of town and pretty much dominated the whole place. It was the most castle/fort like of the three that we had been to with fantastic views over the river and the rest of the town. The highlight was the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci which is in a little chapel inside the grounds. Apparently da Vinci spent his last few years in Amboise so on this theme we decided to take a trip to the house in which he stayed in when he was there. It was just up the hill and had been done up as a museum of everything da Vinci. It was pretty nice and not very crowded seeing as we got there about an hour and a half before closing time. Inside the house you can see some of the rooms which he stayed in and downstairs there is a collection of some of his inventions. This guy was brilliant! His art was amazing (and anatomically accurate), and his mastery of so many fields of science was absolutely incredible! We spent so much time inside that by the time we got outside to see all the collections of things in the gardens it was totally dark! And while the place was still open, the garden was so poorly lit it was not worth trying to explore in the dark (I already cracked my shins quite hard on the garden furniture and I think the French people there understood my cursing!). So we made the decision to leave then, even though we hadn’t seen everything and go and eat some dinner…..mmmmm French food!
The next day we were off to Bordeaux. Home of fantastic French wine, huge traffic jams and some pretty nice buildings and shopping. We slept in as much as we could, and had another traditional French breakfast in a town on the way. I can’t remember the name of the place, and it’ll annoy me for quite a while (especially when I go through the photos!) but it had the most awesome car park I have seen in my entire life! I know awesome and car park doesn’t go together very often but this place was truly brilliant! You drove your car onto this thing, got out, left it unlocked with the handbrake off, put your mirrors and aerial in, and this machine automatically pulled the car into this lift and it took it up into god knows where and put it into a little park. It was an automated car park and I absolutely loved it! When it came to collect your car you gave the guy your ticket and you could watch your car on these little televisions automatically coming back to you- and when it came out of the lift it was on a turn table thing that spun your car around so you could drive straight out! Brilliant! Apparently they have these in Japan too, but it was the first one that I had ever seen and I loved it!
So, finally to Bordeaux! It is a pretty city (with dreadful traffic) along a big wide river. We managed, by complete accident to find a decent hotel that we managed to get a park right outside (luck!) and then went to explore the city. At the time we were there, there was a fair on, so of course we all had to go on the Ferris wheel (yes I know, not very extreme- but it gave us lovely view of the city). After that and some more exploring our bellies were rumbling and we decided it was dinner time. Strangely enough there were not all that many places to eat at in the city centre! There was one restaurant with a ridiculously long line outside, and then not all that much else! Either we were looking in the wrong direction or there just wasn’t much! In the end we found a fantastic place (I had a lovely vegie pasta thing made out of black noodles) and washed it all down with a couple of bottles of Bordeaux red.
The next day we had a wander around downtown Bordeaux (after the traditional breakfast- it is starting to lose its novelty). That afternoon we joined a bus tour which went out to a winery (good fun looking at all the grapes and eating a few when people weren’t looking) but the wine was not really to my liking. After that the bus went to the gorgeous little town of St. Emillion- possibly my favourite place in France. It is full of steep winding cobblestone alleys, every second store sells wine (or something to do with wine) and it has the most amazing cathedral ever. The cathedral, called the monolithic cathedral is exactly like the name infers- completely carved out of rock. From outside you can see some windows carved into the rock face of a big cliff. Inside it is absolutely huge. Literally cathedral sized. Brilliant, amazing, indescribable- I was very sad to leave that gorgeous little town and I will definitely be back to properly explore.
That evening we had booked in to stay at a winery, a simple hour drive from Bordeaux. Not so simple. I managed to get us completely lost on the way, we drove around in circles for about an hour, asked for directions, got lost again and finally got there much, much later. Too late for dinner there- so we had to dump our bags there and drive back in the direction we came from to get a feed! It was such a shame because it was a gorgeous little family run winery and we didn’t even get to sample their wares!
The next day we were off to see the Millau viaduct. The biggest bridge in the world (part of the perils of travelling with Jess the architect I suppose!) It was a very long drive across France. But it was a big bridge- quite nice to look at (if you didn’t mind standing outside in the snow- crazy French weather!). After the unexpectedly long drive we only got as far as a town called Narbonne that day. Narbonne is pretty much like any other town. We drove around for a bit looking for a hotel close to the centre of town. We managed to find one that we liked – but one of our party who will remain nameless (not me!) insisted on keeping on looking for something better. The next place we went to, I can quite confidently say is the scariest, dingiest hotel I have ever been to in my life! When we went down this dirty alley and went inside, a scary looking little guy with a moustache and a voice like a jockey (with a French accent) came out from behind this beaded curtain and leered at us…we shouldn’t have even bothered looking at the rooms, but we gritted our teeth and followed the guy upstairs to a long dark hallway that screamed mental asylum (complete with buzzing lights and bad smell). The rooms…….were not entirely to our taste no matter how cheap they were- this is the most diplomatic thing I can say about them without screaming SERIAL KILLER D GRADE HORROR MOVIE HOTEL HELP ME HELP ME!!!!! quite loudly. Needless to say we didn’t stay there and went back to the other hotel.
After that unpleasantness we took the advice of our non scary hotel people and tried a award winning restaurant in town. Absolutely bloody gorgeous! Great food, even better wine, and hot waiters! What more could a girl want after such a dreadful scare!
Tomorrow we are off to Barcelona. Talk to you then- Vive Le France! 