Day 3 in the Loire Valley

 [31 March]

Today was spent tidying up a few getting-to-know-the-city loose ends. After a fitful night's sleep for both of us we were greeted by a lovely morning and enjoyed coffee and a light breakfast at home.

Once we roused ourselves we headed off to the city's Tourist Office. Located across from the main train station and just a few blocks down our street, it was a short walk. We picked up some brochures of course and chatted with one of the agents who answered a couple of key questions (mainly regarding the Tours City Pass and the public transportation tickets).

the Tourist Office

From the TI office we strolled down Boulevard Heurteloup to rue Nationale where we turned north in the direction of the river. Making our way past the oh-so-many shops, large and small (including Galleries Lafayette and Monoprix Home) and following along the city's one-and-only tram line, we turned off at rue des Les Halles in search of the city's main indoor market.

we passed up this boulangerie in hopes for bread at Les Halles

And of course for the best pulled pork in the city you would go to Lazy Suzy.

A few minutes later we found our second objective for the day, Les Halles, the main indoor market. Unfortunately, most of the vendors were closed (it being Monday), but we did find a very nice woman running a large produce stand and picked up some potatoes and broccoli for dinner tonight. We also stopped at a fromagerie where we got a small wedge of Brillat Savarin and Tomme de Navarre as well as a local goat cheese, the latter being very creamy and delicious.

We also scored a loaf of pain intégrale (a healthy, hearty whole wheat loaf) a couple of croissants and two brioche feuillitée at the one open boulangerie. As we were strolling here and there it became abundantly clear to us that many shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays.

We made our way back home, dropped off our groceries, relaxed for just a few minutes before heading back out. 

First up was a stop to see the inside of the cathedral. But when we approached the place de Cathédrale, it was half full of people waiting for something, and that something was a funeral service. While everyone else was waiting we popped inside for a few minutes-- just long enough to see the wonderful tomb of the two young children of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany before leaving. And also to realize how very cold it was inside. 

Making way back through the crowds we found a bench on the place where we could watch the process of a family saying their final goodbye to a loved one. And there were a lot of people saying their goodbyes.

From the cathedral we made our way back to rue Colbert and Carrefour express to pick up a few groceries. Grocery picking up becomes a state of mind here, at least for us, and we don't regret it for a minute.

Please note the carton of 20 eggs for about 4 bucks. And in Grand Rapids they're paying nearly $11 dollars for 24!

As we turned down our street a parade of probably 75-100 youngsters with teachers all dressed in a variety of costumes some rather outlandish but cute, passed us on the way back to the school (at the end of our street).

After leaving our groceries it was back out and over to the river for a short walk over the Saint-Symphorien (pont de fil) pedestrian bridge that crosses the Loire river to the Paul Bert Quartier.

looking downstream

our street in the middle of the block of buildings

the sign notes 863 cycles across the bridge today and over 101,000 this year

It was then home and a home cooked meal for us!

Tomorrow: exploring farther afield in Tours using a day pass on the public transit. That's the plan and right now we're sticking with it.

Day 2 in the Loire Valley

 [30 March]

Note: go here to see the listing for our apartment.

The seasonally beautiful weather continues here in Tours, highs in the 60s, lows in the high 30s at night. Perfect for being out and about and sleeping when the time comes. 

Our Sunday morning began lazily; bodies trying to catch up to the time change while attempting to make up for the time it took to get to France. And Daylight Savings began here this morning as well!

After rousing ourselves with comforting showers and plenty of coffee -- our apartment has a coffee maker that makes it far too easy to sit and drink coffee at the touch of a button -- we headed out to explore and hopefully pick up some additional items (food and household goods) for our stay. 

We discovered that grocery shops, including the large Les Halles market, are open only in the morning on Sundays, at least here in Tours. Most retail shops are also closed.  Eateries offer a midday meal and usually close by 3 pm. Some reopen for the evening meal, some don't. Since we had dilly-dallied our way through the morning, we were out of luck in the shopping department.

Still, it was nice to be out and exploring the city. We walked down our street to rue Emile Zola and then over to one of the main streets, rue Nationale, where there is a large Monoprix grocery store as well as a Galleries Lafayette. It also happens to be on the main tram route, a service we may use at some point during our stay here.  

Along the way we saw a clothing store that immediately caught our eye. Why "Michigan"? Who knows! We'll have to stop in one day when they're open and find out.

We continued on rue Nationale heading back in the direction of the river and rue Colbert, stopping to admire the very aged character of the church of Saint-Julien.

Returning home grocery-less and having missed any opportunity for a late lunch we cooled our heels at home until suppertime. The plan was to return to rue Colbert about 7:00 pm and grab a pizza to go at L'Ile aux Pizzas, a place that first caught our eye the day before. 

We returned to the pizza parlor, placed our order and, while we waited, strolled over to Saint Gatien Cathedral, which was closed for the day. We hope to return on Monday to visit it and perhaps Saint Julien as well.

We left the Place de Cathedral, picked up our pizza and headed back home for dinner.

this is a pizza oven!

As odd as this may sound we ordered a calzone pizza with ham and eggs. It was delicious. 

Tomorrow we're off to the TI office, Les Halles, Monoprix (maybe), the Cathedral, and who knows what else?

Arrival in Tours

[29 March afternoon]

Our host, Jean-Philippe met us at the front gate. We had just pulled up in our taxi from the train station, and he walked over and introduced himself. A friendly fellow, he showed us pretty much everything we needed to know about the apartment: from getting into the front gate to how things worked once we were inside. Thorough and helpful, he provided a wealth of local information as well. (See the listing right here.)

front gate

courtyard (front gate in the back)

our front door

After our host said au revoir we left our bags unpacked and headed out, mainly in search of the nearest grocery store. Jean-Philippe had given us superb recommendations and directions toward that end -- but it was such a gorgeous day and we were so close to the river that we had to see it for ourselves.

Just a couple hundred feet from our apartment is the Loire with a street level overlook lined by a walking path. Looking down to the river it's easy to spy another path that follows alongside it.

looking upriver

and downriver

We then headed in the direction of the center of town, really just a short walk, and found ourselves faced with two fascinating memorials overlooking the river.

The first one was to Thomas Jefferson. Placed here in 2009 during the 220th anniversary of the French Revolution, it offers a brief biography of Jefferson's time as US ambassador to France but also describes his role in the founding of the America Republic. The plaque is marked un pont pour la Liberté.

The second, and certainly most stunning, was a memorial to the 640,00 members of the Allied Expeditionary Force's Supply of Service during the First World War.  Erected and maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission, this lovely fountain is four figures representing the four divisions of the Supply of Service: Administration, Procurement, Construction, and Distribution. It is topped by the figure of a Native American releasing an eagle. Fascinating.

Turning away from the river we walked a couple of short blocks to rue Colbert and our grocery stop for the day. Since this is one of the oldest parts of the city we passed some striking architecture. 

lovely small park

Carrefour grocery express

We picked up a few items to get us through the next day or two and, as we strolled down rue Colbert, passed quite a few restaurants and small shops just a few blocks from our apartment. Time for a short nap and then head out for dinner.

We got up when the alarm went off at 6:00 pm. After rousing ourselves we enjoyed a glass of Chinon before heading out to rue Colbert to choose an eatery.

We stopped at O Sidon and, after glancing at the posted menu of Lebanese dishes, we decided to give it a try. A lovely woman greeted us, and, although we didn't have reservations, she quickly and happily found a table for us. Tired and hungry (for GOOD food) we thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The Lebanese rosé wine was delicious and our grillades composed of brochettes of various meats accompanied by hummus, salad and rice, were très délicieux! 

We finished the dinner off sharing two different digestifs, whose names unfortunately I forgot to get. Our server did mention that both of them are very popular in Lebanon. One was a sauterne-like wine but much darker in color while the other was anisette-based. Both lovely.

It was a very short walk back home and to bed, a place we had not occupied for what seemed like forever!

Departures and Arrivals

[28-29 March]

Susan finished packing up Friday morning. Our planned departure from Grand Rapids promised to be a leisurely one. Our neighbor Don T. would pick us up at about 11:30 for a 2:20 flight to Detroit. We would then connect at 7:24 pm for our KLM flight to Paris. 

Well, Don picked us up right on time, dropped us off with no problem and we checked in just fine. After breezing through security the two of us headed for our gate with two hours to spare. 

Unfortunately those two hours turned into eight long, boring hours of waiting for our plane to arrive from Detroit.

Apparently there was a mechanical problem discovered in Detroit right before takeoff and the plane  returned to the gate. At first we were told it was a weather-related issue but that turned out to be false. Eventually the gate staff informed us the issue was mechanical and they were working to fix it. The posted time of our departure kept moving forward: 2:20 became 2:50 which became 3:50 which became 4:00 and then 4:15. 

Now we were becoming very concerned that we would miss our 7:24 pm (1924) flight to Paris and indeed our concerns were realized.

Finally, the Delta agents informed us we would leave Grand Rapids at 8:32 (2032).Time to regroup!

We learned that there was a flight on Air France leaving Detroit for Paris at 2210 but had doubts about getting to DTW in time for that flight. We were reassured by the gate agent in GR that "we won't put you on a flight if we think you'll miss the connection" so we rebooked for that flight. Well OK then.

Buuuut . . . .  on another note, this would seriously reduce our connection time to make our train from Paris to Tours, and there would be no guarantees we would sit together. But it was the best we could do so we took it.

So we sat and waited. Eventually hunger and a need for a glass of wine got the better of us, so we grabbed plate of hummus and two glasses of wine at the closed bar on the concourse. The price would eventually prove more expensive than our first dinner in Tours!

no plane!

We left Grand Rapids on time (this time).  Since most of the other passengers on our earlier flight had been rebooked on other flights out of GR, there were only five of us on the flight and they let us sit in first class!  It was a short hop into Detroit and we made good time getting to our gate just as they began boarding for Paris.

Susie and I were seated apart but both in exit rows which was nice. Once we were airborne Susan learned, much to her relief, that the aisle seat on her right was empty. She asked one of the staff if I could join and they said oui! She came back to get me and we were able to sit together for the flight. Sounds trivial to some but frankly since last New Year's Eve I like being even closer to my wife than I was before.

plenty of leg room

The flight to Paris was uneventful, little turbulence and the food of mediocre quality. Nothing out of the ordinary. Oh, the one thing about the flight that was very cool was the camera located on the bottom of the fuselage: one got to see takeoff and landing as if you were a ball turret gunner on a WWII bomber.

view on the monitor screen of the bottom fuselage camera

We arrived in Paris a few minutes early. Although we walked about 5 miles from the gate to passport control we breezed through. Our bags were already waiting for us at the claim area and we were off in search of a taxi into the city. 

Traffic was heavy but our driver adept at getting us to the train station quickly. Frankly, we were expecting to miss our train, for which we already had reservations since it was a TGV. But we got  to the platform with a few minutes to spare. Locating our assigned coach seemed to take forever but we were soon aboard and settled into our seats for the 1 hour-plus ride to Tours.

stress-free travel

As we got closer to Tours we learned via text message from SNCF (the French national railway) that we would not be getting off at the main Tours station but at the one in the suburbs. There been a fire on the railway tracks near Tours which was disrupting rail traffic. Once off the train -- along with every one else - we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do now. I informed our host we were running late but hoped to get a taxi shortly.

But it was the "getting" part that was proving tricky. There was a taxi stand outside the station (St. Pierre des Corps) but, unlike in the big cities where taxis are lined up waiting for customers, we had to call a local number to get one. There was a bit of chaos over the disembarking of so many passengers, and we couldn't seem to get through to the taxi number. So I asked a taxi driver who had come to pick up someone else if he could send someone over. And he did.

When we got to out apartment our host was waiting for us. After shaking hands all round he led us into the courtyard and then into our apartment.

Up next: Our first day in Tours!

home for the next 11 days

Off to France

For those of you who like to keep track of such things, we are heading back to France the end of this month. It's been a very strange time of late, Bern's passing on, my almost joining her, that sort of thing. Not to mention the unpleasantly bizarre state of our world.

What to do?

Go to France is our watchword. And so we are. For almost seven weeks.

We leave Grand Rapids 28 March and arrive in Paris the following day. From there we make our way by train to Tours in the Loire Valley where we not only spend 11 days enjoying a place we've never visited but we get to do it with friends Richard and Pauline. Life doesn't get much better than that, eh?

From Tours we train to Lyon (Rhone Valley) for 10 days then to Lake Annecy (French Alps) for three nights before heading off to Colmar (Alsace) for another 10 nights and ending in Paris for a final 10 days. All by train of course.

Our last night in France will be spent at the airport since we have an early flight on 13 May.

My plan here, such as it is, will be to journal every day -- photos and narrative of our food, wine, and sundry adventures.

Stay tuned!