Thursday 11/04/21

Today was a big move, leaving Bordeaux and heading back towards Paris to Tours, the main transportation hub for the Loire. I got up early and did the necessary cleaning to leave my AirBnB in as perfect a condition as I could. Unfortunately, while I had left plenty of time to get to the station, the trams were delayed for some reason and it got really tight. Ran to the right track, had to stop and show my Pass Sanitaire, then had to get ticket scanned, but made it on the train with about 4-5 minutes to spare, way too close!! Smooth ride at over 150mph to Tours, total time a little over 2 hours. On arrival at the TGV station of Tours which is in the suburbs, had to catch a quick local train into the city, then hopped a bus to where my AirBnB was, the host had arranged to meet me in front of Notre Dame de la Riche church. That all went well, and she found me a few minutes after I arrived. Tours is substantially chillier than Bordeaux, and just generally has a very different feel to it. My AirBnb is a top floor, 3 flights up narrow staircase thing, but great views, all modernized and spacious. Went to the Tourist information office and got brochures, found out about renting an electric bike for a day, chateau tours etc. Got my transit pass. Should be good to go, but we’ll see what the weather is like tomorrow. Not a crowded time of year, so, unfortunately many of the normally very reasonable mini van tours don’t seem to be running. I’ll do the bike thing if it’s not going to rain and it’s not too cold. Had the classic French dining experience tonight. Finally located a restaurant who’s menu sounded slightly more creative than the others, (almost all French restaurants in any given area have essentially the exact same menu), only to be told after waiting an hour for them to open, that they are complet! As usual only two people were in the whole restaurant, and they could have easily served me dinner and had me gone long before other people showed up, but that is not the French way, tant pis! Went for some Vietnamese food instead and it was probably good to have a break from all the high fat meals that I’ve been having. Tours is the land of fairy tale castles, and they are everywhere. Having visited quite a few, usually the best parts are the gardens and the exterior. Big empty stone rooms, not so much.

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