Biking to Chambord

Yesterday was amazing. Rose and I set out around 11am, first stopping by the market to buy some fresh clementines. Crossed the old bridge--Pont Jacques Gabriel--and stopped again to pick up drinks and yes, Pringles. OK. Finally on our way, we find the bike path, which ran through everything from housing districts of Blois to fields to little villages, and finally, the domaine of the chateau.

We stopped to rest on a log in The Middle of Nowhere, and I get a text message from Steve:
"How's the bike ride going? Hope you missed this rain." Uh oh. Reply: "What rain?" And no more than five minutes later, you here it coming down the field, that unmistakable rustling of leaves when water's hitting them, and Rose and I jump off the log and start pedalling as fast as our tired limbs can take us. Text reply: "Oh. That rain."

But it lightens up by the time we reach the chateau grounds, and we take the bike path approach...the grounds are immense and deserve a whole other day just to themselves. Finally, we sight the chateau, and reach a parking lot. No bike parking in sight, so we just hitch them to a post and resign ourselves to walking, when a parking monitor approaches us, tells us that there is bike parking right next to the chateau!! SWEET. We stop, eat some lunch on a bench, and then pedal on up...felt like we were driving home. Park the bikes literally 20 feet from the entrance.

The double stairwells have to be the coolest thing ever. They are these spiralling stairs that have two entrances to two different sets of stairs that run together, I guess so twice as many people can get upstairs at once?? Lots of tapestries and portraits of royalty, many fancy bedrooms. A hunting exhibit.

After a good hour and a half of wandering, we went back out to the town area, got chocolate/banana crepes and I went for hot cocoa. Exhorbitantly-priced but so worth it at that point.

On the way back, we took the road signs for Blois instead of the bike signs, which we determined led us on the scenic route. At this point, the only thing I wanted to see was my bed. Got home, collapsed. Later, we did make an effort to go find a pool table in town, but the one pub I knew of that had pool seemed to be throwing a private party. Rose and I walked by once, and I saw 4-5 of my students, which is kinda weird I have to say, so we kept going. Passed by again, saw MORE of them. Finally, we sat on a step waiting for Kristin, and more of my students kept walking by...some waved...and I was like, OK whatever's going on there, I can't go. Don't think we could get in anyway, there were two guys standing out front with their arms crossed, bouncerlike.

So we trudged our way back home, without pool. Bed was a welcome sight, in any case.