France
Trip Report 1999
"Go to France" he said . . .
"Go to France" he said . . .
The morning RER commuter train out of Bures-sur-Yvette took us back to the Gare Montparnasse where we hopped on another TGV to take us south again for the holiday part of our trip to France. The Loire Valley. Land of the Chateaux. And we were going to stay in one. But first we had to get there. Research had found that there was an Avis car rental outlet adjacent to the Saint-Pierre-des-Corps train station. Now, I will admit that I was nervous. I have an enormous amount of steering wheel time under my belt but that was not in Europe. And I was rusty with manual transmissions as well. But after the tension of a round-a-bout or two, I got into the groove and I did OK.
We easily followed the Cher river road as it wound through several picturesque villages to ‘our’ village with ‘our’ chateau: Le Château de Chissay. It was magnificent towering above the small village, nestled on a hill overlooking the Cher in the distance. A fortified three story building with corner turrets and an inner courtyard with a cloister down one side. We had a large room on the third floor with fabric covered walls and a modern bathroom in the turret. We felt like Renaissance royalty. According to its website, it was “built under Charles the 7th for Pierre Bérard, chancellor of France and husband to Anne de Rondard. Charles the 7th and Louis the 11th both stayed here.” During WW II, it was situated just south of the Vichy line which ran through nearby Chenonceau and it hosted numerous leaders including General Charles de Gaulle. And now us!
We easily followed the Cher river road as it wound through several picturesque villages to ‘our’ village with ‘our’ chateau: Le Château de Chissay. It was magnificent towering above the small village, nestled on a hill overlooking the Cher in the distance. A fortified three story building with corner turrets and an inner courtyard with a cloister down one side. We had a large room on the third floor with fabric covered walls and a modern bathroom in the turret. We felt like Renaissance royalty. According to its website, it was “built under Charles the 7th for Pierre Bérard, chancellor of France and husband to Anne de Rondard. Charles the 7th and Louis the 11th both stayed here.” During WW II, it was situated just south of the Vichy line which ran through nearby Chenonceau and it hosted numerous leaders including General Charles de Gaulle. And now us!
Le Château de Chissay
We also found out that it hosted an owl. Both nights, we were surprised by a loud god-awful screeching noise outside our window as this predator hunted around the back of the castle. An eerie shape zooming between the trees in the moonlit sky. That certainly helped to foster the spooky atmosphere of the place at night although the darkened stairs and the warren of passageways did a good job of it as well. And on the subject of wildlife, I scared up two deer in the forest above the chateau on a solo walk one morning. A nice reminder of the days long ago when the Loire valley was prime hunting ground for the well-to-do of France.
Since our time in the Loire was very limited, we decided to concentrate our chateauxing day to just two chateaux: the biggest – Chambord and the best - Chenonceau. It was a good day for a great drive through the gorgeous countryside, passing the Château de Cheverny along the way and stopping at a farm vineyard for a tasting of the local crop on the way back. We finished the afternoon with another tasting at the Caves Monmousseau as we strolled around the town of Montrichard, which was just a stone’s throw from the Chissay. It was so close, in fact, that we walked to town for dinner that night to a small restaurant called Deux Soeur, that Yves had found for us in his Michelin Red. A typical family-run eatery in France is pretty hard to beat.
Since our time in the Loire was very limited, we decided to concentrate our chateauxing day to just two chateaux: the biggest – Chambord and the best - Chenonceau. It was a good day for a great drive through the gorgeous countryside, passing the Château de Cheverny along the way and stopping at a farm vineyard for a tasting of the local crop on the way back. We finished the afternoon with another tasting at the Caves Monmousseau as we strolled around the town of Montrichard, which was just a stone’s throw from the Chissay. It was so close, in fact, that we walked to town for dinner that night to a small restaurant called Deux Soeur, that Yves had found for us in his Michelin Red. A typical family-run eatery in France is pretty hard to beat.
After this wonderful sojourn, it was back to Paris for two more nights before we had to head home. We changed hotels to the Right Bank to feel the difference – the Brighton on the rue de Rivoli was my choice with a window and a teeny balcony looking right at the Ferris wheel in the Jardin des Tuileries. (Did I mention how wonderful the parks are in Paris? And how great it is that Parisians use them?) Outside the front door of the hotel was tourist hell with bus stops, taxis, roaring traffic and ticky-tacky shops but in our room we were oblivious to it all.
Now we were on the last bit of our strange business/vacation trip. It was count down time to see the remaining sights and hit the shops. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the shopping. You see, we arrived in the last two weeks of July, before the stinky heat of August makes Paris unlivable or whatever Parisians say as they are heading south en masse to the beaches of Côte d'Azur for their annual holiday month of August. Since many of the stores are closed for the month, the end of July is a major time of year for inventory dumps. Of course, the one thing that we needed – or thought we would need but didn't - was a bathing suit for me which we bought – not on sale – at Le Bon Marché. My spouse however, had a ball shopping for dresses in the small boutiques that dotted the Left Bank. We also browsed the art and book vendors along the Seine and window shopped the warren of streets in the Latin Quarter and the posher shops along Boulevard Saint-Germaine and its tributaries.
On our last night in Paris, as we walked through the Louvre and over through the Jardin des Tuileries, we heard a roaring sound. It was thousands of rollerbladers coming down the rue des Pyramides and into the tunnel toward the Seine. The city had closed some streets to traffic for them to use. Incredible.
And that’s what Paris was to us: incredible. Certainly one of the most comfortable cities in the world and our personal favorite. Would I want to live there? No. But I wouldn't say no to another chance to visit.
(Since 1999, we have made three more trips to Paris and I have been two more times alone for business.)
Now we were on the last bit of our strange business/vacation trip. It was count down time to see the remaining sights and hit the shops. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the shopping. You see, we arrived in the last two weeks of July, before the stinky heat of August makes Paris unlivable or whatever Parisians say as they are heading south en masse to the beaches of Côte d'Azur for their annual holiday month of August. Since many of the stores are closed for the month, the end of July is a major time of year for inventory dumps. Of course, the one thing that we needed – or thought we would need but didn't - was a bathing suit for me which we bought – not on sale – at Le Bon Marché. My spouse however, had a ball shopping for dresses in the small boutiques that dotted the Left Bank. We also browsed the art and book vendors along the Seine and window shopped the warren of streets in the Latin Quarter and the posher shops along Boulevard Saint-Germaine and its tributaries.
On our last night in Paris, as we walked through the Louvre and over through the Jardin des Tuileries, we heard a roaring sound. It was thousands of rollerbladers coming down the rue des Pyramides and into the tunnel toward the Seine. The city had closed some streets to traffic for them to use. Incredible.
And that’s what Paris was to us: incredible. Certainly one of the most comfortable cities in the world and our personal favorite. Would I want to live there? No. But I wouldn't say no to another chance to visit.
(Since 1999, we have made three more trips to Paris and I have been two more times alone for business.)
This trip proved to be just a warm up for our next trip to France, nine months later . . .