We arrived in Le Coudray from Paris after a long drive in our new car! Our house was a lot bigger than we thought it would be, we all had our own rooms. All the other rooms were large and spacious too, and it was pleasantly decorated. Unfortunately it was lacking some essentials such as dishwash liquid, dishwasher powder, mugs etc. Also there were lots of dead flies on the window sills and the bathroom had a bad smell! So all in all the verdict was not very good, especially when we tried the oh too saggy bed!
Never mind, we weren’t here to stay inside all the time, in fact we got out straight away in search of a supermarket, but we were too late so we rushed back into town to a little supermarket that was just closing and managed to get something for a late dinner.
The next day we slept in and did a bit of school work, then headed off back to the supermarket to do the shop for essentials (now we’re back in a car and can carry a bit more stuff). This took awhile because the shop was super large and super spread out so we didn’t get home for lunch till about 2.30. At 3.30 we hopped in the car and went exploring, ending up at Montresor a lovely village with a medieval ruined castle which we walked around.
Back home for a late dinner, then off to bed ready for the big day:
Chenonceau!
I’ve been looking forward to visiting Chenonceau, so swallowing hard at the 55 euro entry/audio guide fee we walked through the gates! There was lovely tree lined walkway and then, Voila there was the Chateau, just as I remembered it! (from 20 years ago).
It looked kinda like a fairytale castle and we picked up our audio guides then started the tour (after a trip to the W.Cs – did you know that 900 000 people visit each year, and they only provide 6 toilets – 3 for men, 3 for women. Really it should be 4 for women and 2 for men)
The tour was interesting, I enjoyed hearing of all the Kings and their Ladies that we’d read about in history (OK, my history book is for kids so it didn’t really mention all the mistresses..) The bedrooms were richly decorated and the kitchens were huge, but I couldn’t see a TV room anywhere.
I did suggest to Peter that if we ever build again we could attach a private library off the master bedroom. Probably never see him if I did that though..
It was a gorgeous day and I really enjoyed walking around the gardens (after sending the rowdy kids off with Dad to the maze). It was very peaceful.
We finished with a drive into Amboise, a very picturesque town with its own chateau. We walked down tourist lane and had fun going into the souvenir shops. I saw a really modern tapesty for 1700 euros – too bad couldn’t fit it into my bag..
Instead we had a coffee at a nice little shop – unfortunately my french let me down, I thought she said the coffee was 2.20 but it turned out to be about 4.00 euros so by the time we’d bought a pastry and two coffees we were 10 euro down – oh well, that’s still half the price of Paris! It did lead to Peter saying after another disappointing expensive coffee in Brugge a few days later that it was time to stop having so many coffees. Poor chap.
We headed home after our coffee and had a tidy up, ready to move onto Brugge the next day.
Le Coudray: Wed 29th August – Sat 1st September