We arrived in Paris early morning from SF after a 12 hrs flight. Weather was nice and cool, just like SF.
We stayed at the 2 star Hotel du Marais in Paris -yes, we are El Cheapo when we travel as a group.
The rooms were very small -actually most europeans hotels rooms are small, unless if you stay in one of
those 5 stars Michelin places, where low budget bikers like us can't afford ... well not yet.
A few of us, I know, still buy lotto every week -poor's people dream, at least we have hope.
In the early after unloading all of the bikes in the hotel we went out for a stroll to a local place and ate lunch, lots of salad, goat cheese and plates of pates and terrines with bread.
Took a nap in the afternoon and later in the night we had dinner near the George Pompidou Center.
While everyone else was tired and went back to sleep, me and my buddy Calvin went out for a night stroll all the way to Notre Dame experiencing the night life of Paris.
My second time thru the city of lights sure seemed a lot different from the last time I was here.
The next morning we headed to the Musee d'Orsay. 50 francs to get in, but well worth it. The works of Cezane, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Goh, Seurat, Toulouse-Lutrec, Matisse, Picasso and many of the work of contemporary artist can be found here.
We ate lunch on the sidewalk at the Cafe de la Comedie and from there we went to the Louvre for the rest of the afternoon.
35 francs to get in. I always liked smaller d'Orsay better than the Louvre -I guess I relate and like the type of art work that they have there better.
After the Louvre, we walked towards the Opera Plaza and the Chapel of the Madeleine. After getting separated from the rest of the gang, Cecilia G (we had two Cecilias on the trip) and I went for a walk to the Champ Elysees passing the Arc the Triumph on a beautiful parisian afternoon. Ahh, C'est la Vie!
The following day early morning we headed to Versailles. We passed the Apple Computer office (my current employer at this time) in Les Ulis.
After Versailles we stopped for a late lunch at Le Cheval Rouge in Rambouillet. Home cooking french cuisine.
I had the Tete Veau, wow, how delicious! Magnifique, tres bien!. Some of the best french cuisine can be found outside Paris,
in the suburbs away from the tourist area.
If you're going to Chartres, stop at Cheval Rouge - With our lovely leader Cecilia in St. Gervais.
We arrived in Chitenay at the Auberge du Centre after getting lost for a while looking for the place.
The following morning we rode our bikes from Chitenay to Cheverny along a very nice country road.
French roads are some of the best I have seen for bicycles riders. The Tour de France is held along some of these roads every year.
The Chateau du Cheverny was interesting, there were lots of neat little things and details to see, the leather paddings on the wall, the hound dogs and much more.
For lunch we bought bread, different types of pates, ham, cheese at the local store and had a picnic in the forest of Chambord on the way to the Chateau of Chambord.
May, just outside of the Chateau du Chambord - Picnic in the forest.
The Chateau of Chambord was a big disappointment -it looks like a magnificent place from a distance on the outside, but once inside it is a different story.
Everything inside the chateau as far as the furniture and the display was fake or a bad imitation.
They sure fell short of trying to portray the grandeur and splendor of a once great place in that era.
The next day we biked from Chitenay to the town of Blois. The Chateau du Blois was also a big disappointment.
We bought some picnic food, bread, cheese, pates, the usual and rode our bikes to Chaumont, following the path of the Loire river.
The ride was beautiful and scenic -nice french country side. We had our picnic lunch just outside the back of the chateau.
Chaumont was nice, a little smaller but with more character than the other chateaus that we had encountered.
We rode back to Chitenay and to my surprise we also celebrated my birthday at dinner time with strawberry flan cake for dessert.
I wasn't expecting this, I guess one of the girls remembered. Mercy!
We packed in the morning after a couple of nights stays in Chitenay and headed to Chenonceau. The Chateau de Chenonceau was pretty.
We walked around the gardens -named after Catherine de Medici. In the afternoon we rode our bikes to Amboise where we passed a park with a chinese pagoda, kind of unusual, since it did not go with the terroir, and headed into town.
It was a nice ride thru the french country roads.
At Auberge du Centre in the town of Chitenay - The whole gang in Saumur.
It was raining light when we woke up in the morning. After breakfast we headed down to the town of Loches, about 25 km from Chenonceaux.
Nothing interesting about the Chateau de Loches , except for the dungeon holes where they kept prisoners during the medieval times.
After another picnic lunch that included fermented juice drinks along the highway road we headed to Tours, a big town about an hour away.
Interesting town, with lots of shops.
We left Chenounceau the next morning on the way to Azay-Le-Rideau. Wow, what an interesting castle, surrounded by water all around it, just like in the story books.
In the afternoon we headed to our own Chateau, Le Gerfaut where we stayed for a couple of days -this was our nicest pad in the whole trip.
Yes, it was a real chateau. All of the rooms were different and named after colors, with antiques furniture and a magnificent view of the surroundings.
We lived like royalty at Chateau Le Gerfaut - May and Peter at Azay-Le-Rideau.
In the afternoon me, Peter and Cecilia G. rode to Villandry. We had a nice dinner of chicken a la Kiev with wild mushrooms.
Interestingly enough, a Marquis was the owner of the chateau -he had noble blood, thus the title of Marquis (the only other one I had known before him was the Marquis de Sade).
He had picked the wild mushrooms on the outskirt of the chateau earlier in the day for our dinner meal. As any good guest, I had him try the funghi first before I did.
No one died, we survived, and there was no need for liver transplants.
This morning a bunch of our fellow cyclists woke up really early in the morning to see and view the air balloons that were going up near the chateau as the Marquis had suggested the night before. Not me, I'm not an early riser. I woke up at 8:45 am had my breakfast and rode with the other guys to Langelais -it was a chili morning. We headed for Azay-Le-Rideau and had lunch at a local pizzeria. In the afternoon we headed back to the chateau where some of us rested and played cards. At night we celebrated the 72nd birthday of the Marquis. His whole family, who lived somewhere else came in with the families and kids and threw him a surprise party. We had lots of good desserts and wine. Later at night we played cards and for some reason we had to adjust our watches and roll back the clocks one hour for daylight savings time. Yes even in France daylight saving time is observed -It was great we had one more hour of sleep. Vive La France!.
... to be continued.
