Roadtrip from Blois to Le Mans

Chateau de Blois
 
We packed up and left around 0800, telling the hotel that we were very disappointed that their aircon wasn’t working properly.
 
Since we had missed Chateau the Blois last night, we drove into town to have a quick look.  Parking was still free at this time, with charges starting at 0900 and then taking a break from 1200-1400.
 
It was a short uphill walk on an alley along the high walls of the castle, which then led to an open square with the façade of the castle on one side.  There was a lot more of the castle behind that but that was enough for us.
 
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Chateau de Chambord

We drove backtracked a little to get to Chateau Chambord a little after its opening hour of 0900.

Chambord was built in the 1500s by King Francis I, taking about 28 years to complete.

Once through the main gate of the castle, I realised it wasn’t as big as it had looked from the outside.  There was a bit of ground between the gate/wall and the actual castle.

Going inside the ground floor, there were four quadrants each of which had a larger hall plus some small ones.  Something that stood out was that rooms built in the cylindrical towers were rectangular rather than round.

There were two more floors of similar layout.  The rooms on the first two floors decorated and furnished in what I think were authentic décor.  The top floor wasn’t properly decorated but used for temporary exhibits.

The centrepiece of the interior was a double-spiral staircase. This theme was carried through to the towers that flanked each corner of the castle, which had spiral stairs as well.

We finished on the rooftop to see the myriad of towers that crowned the building.  That’s when I realised that the building wasn’t perfectly symmetrical, eg. some towers on either side were different, and opposite wings of the building had different number of windows.

After about 1h40, we felt like we had seen all there is we want to see.  We carried on to our next destination, stopping in a boulangerie and patisserie so we could eat in the car.

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Tours

Parking in Tours was free during the 1200-1400 lunch hours and we grabbed a spot near the St Gatien Cathedral.  The façade was “wow”, more so than the many others we had seen.  The interior was again more stunning than the others too, in particular the stained-glass windows behind the altar.

We took a walk along the pedestrian street nearby before returning to the car to discuss the plan for the remainder of the day.

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Re-planning

Our list had included Fontevraud Abbey and Chateau de Saumur but we have had enough of churches, abbeys and castles.

We were also running a little behind with our time-keeping and if we did all those, Kim would probably lose out on visiting the Museum of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It seemed fair and right to prioritise the Le Mans option.

Museum of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Kim had wanted to visit the Museum of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  We got there around 1530 after some hassles locating the entrance to the car park which was opposite the museum.

Few weeks back, I looked up our old photos and found that on our visit 18 years ago, he had entered the museum (rather than had just seen the circuit from the outside).

He had no recollection of going in or the collection of cars on display.  But I had the few photos from his visit into the museum.  Such is life when we get to our age.

This time, on his brief 25 min visit, he took plenty of photos.  The collection seemed very different from his previous visit so I think it was worthwhile for him, while I sat in the lobby.

 

Relieved of the car

Kim parked and waited while I checked into the B&B Hotel Le Mans Centre with our luggage.

Even though our car was due for return at 0830 tomorrow, we were done with it and we drove to the station around 1700 to return it.

At the station, there were no signs for Europcar but fortunately I had the street address, and it turned out to be on the opposite side of the tracks.

To make matters worse, there was no sign there for where returns should go so we parked in a paid carpark in front, fortunately with 30 mins grace period free, so we could go in to get proper directions.

The return went smoothly, and we were relieved of the car about 30 mins before their 1800 closing.

We were relieved in more than one way as they hadn’t picked up the scratch to the mag wheel and the bumper on the new car.  The former was our fault but the latter was probably there already but we hadn’t noticed.

We grabbed a simple meal of a hot tandoori naan wrap and a burger before returning to the hotel briefly.

Le Mans old town

We had noticed some nice old buildings on the drive to the hotel and went out in search of them on foot.  This led to Le Mans old city area which was absolutely lovely.

I had no idea that Le Mans had such a charming old city as one equates the city’s name to just the racetrack.  St Julian’s Cathedral had an amazing backside of flying buttresses but we had no energy to climb down to the lower level of the square to get a good view.

Later that evening, I realised that we had visited St Julian’s before 18 years ago, probably just from the outside as I had a good photo of its flying buttresses, probably snapped from the roadside.  It’s starting to annoy me how I can’t remember my past travel experiences.

We sat down for a beer on foldable deck chairs before returning to the hotel.  We realised that the aircon cuts out at this hotel.  The first receptionist was able to reset it but later in the night, the other receptionist couldn’t.

Tonight, it wasn’t necessary to have the aircon, as it was cool enough with the window open.  But we had paid a bit extra to switch to this hotel, as the forecast had not been for the temperature to drop.