Journey Through France, Part 2

Hey all,

after Chateaudun in the morning we pushed on to Chateau Chambord in the afternoon – deeply impressive – I can't really see any way you could capture just how impressive and magical it is as you approach it from the distance unless you perhaps took film from a chopper.  Sitting down and having a sandwich on the way in and then just walking towards it was slightly surreal – I felt like I had slipped into a fantasy novel. We spent a long time there.  A bit overwhelming – really is a massive power statement.  The history of it was interesting too – it kept getting “discovered” in the forest by someone and then given to some noble who would renovate it a bit then more or less abandon it again: it is freezing in winter and impossible to heat, and built in the middle of a (now drained) swamp so infested with mozzies in summer.  Extraordinary to think of a class of people so wealthy they somehow manage to “lose” a building like this and just kind of forget about it because of mosquitoes.  Anyway, well worth going to if you are ever anywhere near it.

We then drove all the way to Chateauroux where we again got in late and more or less collapsed into bed in a room which was only a couple of centimetres wider than the bed itself.

The reason we pushed so hard to get there was because we wanted to see  Chateau de Chenonceau the next day and I got Chateauroux and Chenonceau confused – it turned out the  Chateau de Chenonceau was basically all the way back from where we had come the previous day...  We decided to go back in order to see it – we are young(ish), we have a car which we can drive(ish), so what is the worst that could happen (we thought)?  It is not like we will be driving through the Blizzard From Hell or anything...

It was worth going to see though.  Just beautiful – and encouraging to think that the sickeningly rich can at least occasionally have the kind of who-gives-a-damn whimsy it takes to go, “Hell, why don't we build our house in the river?”  As eccentric and impressive as it was it felt kind of warm, intimate – like a real home that people had once lived in and loved, as opposed to Chambord which was was difficult to imagine being inhabited by anyone that you could relate to as an actual human.    Even had well put together kitchens to give you a sense of actually living there.

We then pushed on to Cahors, on a three lane 130kmh freeway in the middle of the night which would have been bad enough given the fact that I still needed the occasional reminder as to where the right hand side of the car was in relation to things like semi-trailers, but became frankly terrifying because it started snowing, and then really started snowing heavily, and if it had been in a country full or people who are not psychopaths then the entire freeway would have slowed down to something like 60k's an hour tops, which I would have been comfortable with, but would have ended up with us being run over by a truck if tried here.

Both very relieved to get into Cahors and I was frankly happy to get out of the car – the ABS got pushed past its limit on the ice in the car-park of the hotel (a F1 hotel, a chain so classy they don't get any stars at all – they are off the scale).   Collapsed into bed convinced we were going to be stuck there for a week as the entire country ground to another OMG ITS THE ICE AGE panic again.

Photos.  1.  Chambord from a distance – it just looks kind of messy.  This is not at all the impression it gives you when physically walking up to it.  Once again my photo skills less than fantastic.  2.  One corner of the courtyard with a stairwell.  3.  K's favourite spot inside.  4.  Outside – still just looks messy, not magical.  Tragically these were the best photos I took of it :(  5.   Chateauroux.  [K pointed out this is a mistake and should actually be Chenonceau - I remain dyslexic about these two places]. Much easier to capture the magic of this one.   6.  And again.  7.  Inside the hall.  8.  Two contrasting trees K liked so I took a photo of.

Cheers, B.