Day 4 - To the Loire Valley

I woke up feeling so amazing. This began what turned out to be the best week of sleep EVER for Isla which made for a very happy mommy. We managed to alter her bedtime on our trip so that she more or less went down for the night when we did. That way, we were able to stay out later AND, even better, I got longer stretches of sleep. Anyway, she slept through the entire night from midnight to 9 AM. We checked out of our hotel and grabbed a ham and cheese croissant and a chocolate crossiant (pain chocolat) and then sat down for our daily cafe au lait outside on Rue Cler. What a life!

We made another long, hot trek back to Les Invalides where we were to pick up our rental car. It probably was about 90 degrees and I was loving it. We got to the Hertz branch just before they took their 2 hour lunch break. Phew! After lots of instructions, we were handed the car keys and told to go walk and pick up the car in a parking garage a few blocks away. It was an odd system because we found the parking garage basically deserted with absolutely no one to direct us (we'd intentionally chosen an in-city branch to avoid extra fees charged when you pick up at airports and train stations). But we found a car parked in the spot with the number we'd been assigned and the key fit so we took it! It took us a long time to figure out how to open the hatchback but we got it eventually.

Can I just say that I am SO glad they charge extra to add a 2nd driver when renting a car? There is NO WAY I would have driven in Paris and I was glad to have an excuse not to be able to because, let me tell you, their driving is insane! The drive so close together and don't seem to follow any sort of traffic rules. Meanwhile, scooters apparently have the right of way and just speed around and between you, expecting you to move over for them (they beep at you if you don't get out of their way). As we drove, we listened to the sound of the Parisian sirens that were going off constantly, just like in the Bourne Identity movies. :) There was a lot of traffic leaving the city which actually worked in our favor because it slowed the locals down a bit and allowed us to merge more easily when we realized we were in a turn-only lane but wanted to go straight. Before our trip, I'd printed off point-to-point Google maps to get us from one hotel to the next. Each one had at least 30 steps and so they were a bit intimidating. They worked for the most part but we found the directions in Paris to be a bit vague. But thankfully we ended up going the right way and didn't even have to turn around once!

Our destination was the city of Amboise, right in the heart of the Loire Valley, in the region of castles and chateaus. We stopped for a picnic of tomato and mozzarella cheese baguette at one of the rest stops along the autoroute. Then we hit our first of many, many toll booths. We'd been warned by our guidebook to anticipate about $900 per person to drive for 3 weeks in France (including the rental, gas and hefty tolls). I thought that was a crazy figure and assumed we could do better. And although I think we succeeded at doing that, we were still alarmed by the cost of taking the toll roads (the side roads would have added hours upon hours to our drives). Anyway, after sweating bullets as the line built up behind us as our credit cards were rejected, we finally fed the machine the only cash we had, a 50 euro bill (even though it said it didn't take currency that large). It worked! We received a huge pile of coins in change but we were able to pass through.

We drove through beautiful countryside and arrived at our super cute lodging, Hostellerie du Chateau de l'Isle, about a 10 minute drive outside of Amboise. The entrance to our room was the first door you see on the left wing.

Isla was happy to be out of her carseat and able to explore the room.

Our drive had taken longer than anticipated and it was about 5 PM so we headed into Amboise to explore and find some dinner. We wandered the streets of the small town and then selected Chez Bruno, a Rick Steves cafe recommendation. Graham ordered turkey with spaghetti and cream sauce (which Isla got to try) and a glass of cab/gamay blend. I had a salad that supposedly came with "bacon" (turned out to be ham), andouille sausage and rillette (a French whipped pork specialty). I don't know if I have ever tasted anything so nasty in my life. The sausage smelled like poo and probably tasted similarly too if I could say with confidence that I knew what poo tasted like. It makes me feel sick even thinking about it now. At least the sparkling brut blanc I drank was good. It was still really hot out and I'd mistakenly chosen to eat outside because I thought that was what Graham wanted. There was no breeze to be had, we were sweaty, the sun was in my eyes, there were little knats swarming around us, Isla wanted food NOW and my food tasted like poo-not a good meal! Thankfully, this was an isolated experience. We tried to forget about our yucky meal and took a walk across the Cher River to see the full view of the Chateau d'Amboise. The lighting was perfect so it looked like it was glowing!

Isla was pretty pleased to be out of her stroller and able to flab those limbs.

The driver and his lovely blue Peugot. It's crazy because everyone drives hatchbacks and this car was pretty much the biggest on the road (I don't think I saw any mini vans and there certainly were no suburbans). I would totally get one of these as my "Mom" car over here if they had them.  

The sunset over the Cher.