Day 6 in the Loire Valley

 [3 April]

What began as a lazy morning turned into a fairly serious food day. 

We started with a light breakfast of toast with semi-fresh local bread (still from Les Halles) and lovely butter from Brittany. After a relaxing morning of catching up on blogging (for me) and laundry (for Susan) we headed out to explore the city a little more. 

We strolled over to the central shopping street, the properly pedestrianized rue Nationale, which is also along the tram line, and discovered this wonderful chocolate shop at the corner of rue de la Scellerie and rue Nationale.

the style and artwork is striking

We left the chocolate shop vowing to return after we did a bit of window shopping and browsing at Galleries Lafayette, one of the big department store chains in France. 

On the way back home we stopped at the Boulangerie a la Scellerie, a recommendation from Christina I. I would also like to point out that it was Christina who put the bug in our proverbial ears about Tours and what a wonderful place it was to spend some quality time. And so we are. Thanks Christina!

Don't the gray dough fool you, this was delicious -- the sandwich was chicken with cheese, tomato, egg and lettuce washed down with a white (!) Chinon. We learned later that they use black curry in the flour. Very unusual indeed!

We then treated ourselves to a brace of lovely pastries from La Chocolatier: a slice of flan for Susan and a éclair au chocolat for me. Both were superb.

look at that filling!

We spent the afternoon relaxing at home until it was time to meet our friends Richard and Pauline. They had just driven in from the UK after a morning crossing of the channel to Calais and are staying at the Nemea Appart Hotel across from the main train station. We stopped at the TI office along the way to ask about shuttle services for next week from the main station to St. Pierre des Corps. Unfortunately we seemed to know more about the free shuttle offered by the railway company than they did so we moved on to the hotel.

As we walked into the lobby we spied Pauline sitting patiently as Richard was off parking the car. He soon popped in and after hugs and handshakes all round we let them get settled in their room while we waited in the lobby.

The four of us then walked back to our apartment where we toasted being together again with a round of Cremant de Loire and spent the next hour or so catching up. We had made reservations at O Sidon for dinner and as that hour approached we all headed out around the corner and a very short block away on rue Colbert to the restaurant. The evening went by way too quickly as we chatted on about the vagaries of life.

After our delicious meal we parted ways at the corner of rue Colbert and rue des Amandiers as Richard and Pauline headed back to their hotel.

The plan, so far, is to meet up at the TI at 10:00 am Friday morning to buy our châteaux tickets and hit the road!

Tomorrow: Chateaux west of Tours.