Playing the tourist
Wednesday, Natalie and I headed off to Chenonceaux for a day of sight-seeing. We brought our bikes, not sure of how far the chateau would be from the train station. Don't ya know, we pull into the station, and there's the chateau. We did pedal the few feet to the bike posts, though.
It needs to be said: Chenonceaux is amazing. There were fires going in some of the rooms, made it feel homey and welcoming. Christmas trees were still up. I want to get a book on the history of this particular chateau...it was apparently built by Henri II for his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. His wife, Catherine de Medici, couldn't have been pleased. It makes it so much more interesting to visit a place when you have an idea of the people that made it (in)famous. Like visiting the Tower of London and thinking of all the prisoners and executions...wouldn't be the same if you didn't have an idea of those stories.
We lolled around in a cafe, drinking cocoa and eating quiche, knitting, waiting for the waitress to finally kick us out so they could close. We then rode our bikes the 1.5 minutes back to the train station and waited around until the train came.
Back in Blois, Natalie made a killer curry salad for dinner, and we then watched "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not"--one of those puzzling films that gives you such a feeling of satisfaction when all is resolved and you have the glory of understanding it. Afterwards, Alan came over and we had a rousing game of three-person euchre.
Today--Thursday--Natalie and I had planned to go to Montrichard to see this underground city/mushroom farm. But a goooood thing I checked online for their hours, because turns out they're closed in winter. So we opted for a trip to Amboise instead. Another chateau, but still worth it. Leonardo da Vinci is buried there, AND the chapel where he's enterred is frequented by a very friendly cat. Greeted pretty much every visitor as he or she walked in.
The chateau itself is nice, although only 1/5 of it remains...the rest was destroyed here and there. The gardens were also interesting, even in December. They had these perfect bushes, ice-cream scoops of foliage.
Went into the town in search of hot drinks, ended up with some mulled wine across the street from the chateau. It's amazing how relaxing the past week has been. Our most stressful moments involved queries like, "Should I knit or read? Knit or read???" We had a slight spike in stress today, making a run for it to catch our train at the station...of course, the train was late by five minutes, so we had time to sit and catch our breath.
Back home, we potzed. O potzing. Then we went out to dinner with Alan and his family to this amaaaazing restaurant. I could be stuffed for days, I think. Had a salmon-egg/avocado mousse starter; first plate, quail breast and quail eggs with a CHOCOLATE sauce. Genius! Main plate, pork filet mignon. Cheese plate...omg cheese plate. And finally, dessert: I had Tarte Tatin, that gets capital letters because it's officially a food of the gods. It had accompaniments of vanilla ice cream with bits of "tonka" in it, surrounded by "apothecary milk"...don't know exactly what either of those were, except GOOD. Rolled out of the restaurant, back to the house, and have now been lucky to move enough to type all this.
Tomorrow, energy willing, will be a day to scout out the market and see what's new at Emmaus. Also gotta pack and straighten in preparation for London on Sunday!
It needs to be said: Chenonceaux is amazing. There were fires going in some of the rooms, made it feel homey and welcoming. Christmas trees were still up. I want to get a book on the history of this particular chateau...it was apparently built by Henri II for his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. His wife, Catherine de Medici, couldn't have been pleased. It makes it so much more interesting to visit a place when you have an idea of the people that made it (in)famous. Like visiting the Tower of London and thinking of all the prisoners and executions...wouldn't be the same if you didn't have an idea of those stories.
We lolled around in a cafe, drinking cocoa and eating quiche, knitting, waiting for the waitress to finally kick us out so they could close. We then rode our bikes the 1.5 minutes back to the train station and waited around until the train came.
Back in Blois, Natalie made a killer curry salad for dinner, and we then watched "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not"--one of those puzzling films that gives you such a feeling of satisfaction when all is resolved and you have the glory of understanding it. Afterwards, Alan came over and we had a rousing game of three-person euchre.
Today--Thursday--Natalie and I had planned to go to Montrichard to see this underground city/mushroom farm. But a goooood thing I checked online for their hours, because turns out they're closed in winter. So we opted for a trip to Amboise instead. Another chateau, but still worth it. Leonardo da Vinci is buried there, AND the chapel where he's enterred is frequented by a very friendly cat. Greeted pretty much every visitor as he or she walked in.
The chateau itself is nice, although only 1/5 of it remains...the rest was destroyed here and there. The gardens were also interesting, even in December. They had these perfect bushes, ice-cream scoops of foliage.
Went into the town in search of hot drinks, ended up with some mulled wine across the street from the chateau. It's amazing how relaxing the past week has been. Our most stressful moments involved queries like, "Should I knit or read? Knit or read???" We had a slight spike in stress today, making a run for it to catch our train at the station...of course, the train was late by five minutes, so we had time to sit and catch our breath.
Back home, we potzed. O potzing. Then we went out to dinner with Alan and his family to this amaaaazing restaurant. I could be stuffed for days, I think. Had a salmon-egg/avocado mousse starter; first plate, quail breast and quail eggs with a CHOCOLATE sauce. Genius! Main plate, pork filet mignon. Cheese plate...omg cheese plate. And finally, dessert: I had Tarte Tatin, that gets capital letters because it's officially a food of the gods. It had accompaniments of vanilla ice cream with bits of "tonka" in it, surrounded by "apothecary milk"...don't know exactly what either of those were, except GOOD. Rolled out of the restaurant, back to the house, and have now been lucky to move enough to type all this.
Tomorrow, energy willing, will be a day to scout out the market and see what's new at Emmaus. Also gotta pack and straighten in preparation for London on Sunday!
posted by madameb1789 | 11:46 PM
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