New Video with Authentic Bike Footage from the Loire Valley!

I was able to pull together the best bits to make a new video of my Loire trip, People!

This one doesn't have lots of detail on Chenonceau, but you can see that here at my Chenonceau video.

Did I mention that DiscoverFrance.com did an amazing job? Altogether, this deluxe trip was a very good deal. We only got lost a couple of times, but the Garmin they lent us fixed that, although in certain lights, it was almost impossible to see the screen.

The food at each hotel was some of the best I've ever eaten, and I've eaten me some pretty fancy damn food, folks! More on the food later.

But the route was really amazing. It took us through lovely countryside and often brought us into town along places just lost in time. I had no idea so much medieval stuff was still left in France. But if you don't bike this area, you will miss out on much of its charm. The first time I visited here was on a bus tour, and it was great to see these places at all, don't get me wrong, but you have no idea just how much beautiful old stuff they have everywhere here. Little mills and towns along the winding rivers. It's so quiet and pretty, and you never know when you're going to come upon some thing amazing. You could probably keep going here year after year and not run out of new castles and villages and churches to see.

Bourgueil and Chinon, local Loire reds - very good - at Le Prieure, Chenehutte

Veal at Le Prieure

Souffle with sorbet at Le Prieure

Town of Langeais viewed from Langeais castle turret

A glass of Sancerre at Langeais castle

The local wines are unusual, and delicious. The local fresh vegetables and cheeses are so much fun to try. I am a firm convert to the wonders of the Loire, and to France as a destination! I'll be coming back and exploring much more!

Please enjoy the video!

And don't forget to comment below and let me know what you think, or ask questions!

Loire Valley: Amboise and Le Choiseul

One of the reasons I love to travel is that new places offer a sense of wonder, a moment of openness, a sense of exhilaration. Exquisite landscapes, spots that seem to transport one back centuries, delicious food—this latest trip to France included many.

So now, how to share them with you? How to give you just a taste of what Paris and the Loire were like for us? After our trip to France I have over 1600 images and hundreds of GoPro video clips to sort through, so I've started breaking things up by day, and I thought the first day of the Discover France (discoverfrance.com) Deluxe Loire tour would be a nice place to start.

Amboise Chateau

Amboise is a town along the Loire topped by a chateau with Gothic and Renaissance elements. What you see today is actually only about a quarter of the size of the chateau at its height. Due to the bloody aftermath of a Huguenot conspiracy that left the chateau festooned with corpses, the place fell into disrepair during the age of the Louis XIV, the Sun King. But in its heyday, the Renaissance king Francois I, a contemporary of the English king Henry VIII, grew up here. In the early years of his reign he made many improvements, turning it into a showplace.

Portrait of King Francois I, who made the Loire very fashionable for chateau building

Amboise, with the ramp up to the Chateau at left

Francois brought Leonardo daVinci to his court and set him up with an atelier in Clos Lucé, a charming brick and half-timber house that was connected to the Chateau by an underground tunnel. At that time Leonardo was designing cutting edge weaponry and machines, as well as architecture and art. When he moved to Francois's royal court, he brought the Mona Lisa with him, which is how it came to be in the Louvre.

Leonardo's Last Home, Clos Lucé

Turrets and towers of Amboise Chateau

Amboise afforded us many many wow moments. The power of the castle looming over the sweet little village on the river - pictures barely do it justice. To arrive in Amboise we got off the train and walked down to the river, crossing the bridge - all recommendations of Rick Steves, by the way.

View of Amboise from the bridge across the Loire

And if you don't know who he is, go to his website, RickSteves.com, and then when you get the chance, watch his travel show on PBS. The man is a genius, because he has made the charms of traveling to Europe much more accessible to us chiefly monolingual Americans. His guidebooks are an invaluable resource. His tips save you frustration, needless waiting on line, and open up unforgettable experiences.

Pennants flying at Amboise Chateau

Because history passed it by in the 1600s, the town of Amboise retains a medieval charm. On a major corner is the well-known chocolatier and patisserie, Bigot. As you can see here, they play the Leonardo theme to the hilt.

DaVinci-Inspired Chocolates in Amboise at Patisserie Bigot

Frozen Desserts at Patisserie Bigot

Pastries at Bigot

More to eat at Bigot

Beautiful little houses, Amboise

If you are an architecture fan, you won't run out of eye candy in Amboise. So many little adorable houses.

Room at Le Choiseul, Amboise

Le Choiseul, our hotel, managed to be humble and four-star all at once, homey and comfortable with lots of little buildings, a pool, and a pretty garden. Our room was in the Hermitage, and it had its own little patio. And even though it was up against a fairly busy road running along the Loire, it managed to be quiet.

Brasserie in Amboise - order the petillant, the local fizzy wine. It is delicious, has a flavor profile more like prosecco than Champagne, and it's reasonable.

Sunset over Chapel St.-Hubert, where DaVinci may be buried, at Amboise

Leonardo on an Apocryphal Bicycle -
the bicycle sketch in his notebooks is believed to be a fake.

Amuse bouche at Le 36, Le Choiseul

The food at Le 36, the restaurant at Le Choiseul, was exquisite, bordering on molecular gastronomy. Of all the very swanky food we had in the Loire included - yes, included - in our bike tour, this was my favorite. The view from the restaurant was lovely and peaceful, over the river and its island.

I could say much more about just this one place, but I will stop here, as I dream of returning to the Loire.

Cheers, Beauty Fans!

Paris - Loire Trip Update 4/23/13

Chateau d'Artigny, our room is on the second floor

Sitting here in the room at Chateau d'Artigny, which is an impossibly fancy Belle Époque palace built by the famous French perfumer Coty.

Chateau de Chenenceau

View of Loire from Le Choiseul's 36

Chenenceau's Ballroom over the river

I know. I should really STFU, because you hate me. But that's OK, wait 'till you hear about the suffering, because there is plenty. You don't want to know how my butt feels right now. You don't. Yes, the food I'm eating on this trip is some of the best I've ever had. But I'm earning it.

Amboise Chateau

After the first bike day, from Amboise to Chenenceau, a fairy-tale castle (sounds cliche, but just look at the picture, ok?) built over a river and passed from the famous paramour of a French king to his jealous and severe Medici wife, we had covered 50k of gravel, forest, farmland, and terrain that is not, by any stretch of the imagination, not even remotely flat. Discover France lied. They lied. I can hack it. Not sure my butt can take much more, though. Not sure my husband will survive at all. And there are still two mandatory bike days left, one billed as "Moderate," which means, if you're us and not freakin Lance Armstrong, your ass is really about to be grass.

Snails, Hotel Le Choiseul, my new death row dinner

Chateau Amboise

The night before last we had this snail appetizer covered in a creamy foam made with the local goat cheese, layered Napoleon-style with crisps of another kind of cheese or pastry. There was also some basil-infused oil in there. I can't fully describe how exquisite all this was. It had at least five interesting layers of flavor dancing on my tongue. This was at Hotel Le Choiseul's restaurant "36". Go there. It's in Amboise, which is such a lovely little town on the Loire topped with a chateau that began as a Gallo-Roman fortress, became a royal French fortress in the Middle Ages, and then was made supercool and flamboyant by King Francois I, with a bit of help from his pet Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci. Yeah, that guy.

Leonardo's Last Home, Clos Luce

Today we set out from Amboise intending to visit Leonardo's final domicile and workspace at Clos Luce, but alas we discovered they wanted 18 euros 50 each for the entrance, and we are not idiots. Still you can walk in and look at the house. It's very pretty.

So let me outline the suffering for ya. This evening I took a shower and was washing the unmentionable bits, and I realized that my butt wasn't larger because I had been eating too much, although I had, but because it was swollen for being on the bike saddle for hours and hours and hours. The saddles on these bikes are quite hard, not puffy. Very nice quality, fancy brand, but ow. Thank goodness that part of one goes numb after awhile. And then there's the magic cream, the Hoo-Ha Ride Glide that is a bit tingly and lessens the hot spots. Thank goodness for that. My husband joked that he'd like to sit in a bucket of it. If only we'd brought one.

2 Needful Beers in Montlious

Today at lunch, when we'd reached a town that had a little bar, we broke down and had beer at 11:30am just because it would lessen the aches and pains. But what has happened to us? Are we so much softer than when we took that Italian bike tour six years ago? Have we aged that fast? Apparently so.

At the end of the first day, Stoney asked me why we do these kinds of things to ourselves on vacation. We were so tired and in so much pain, and had eaten so much rich food we could hardly speak.

Margaret and Stoney in Ancient Cave, which serves as a bike storage garage at Le Choiseul

But the fact was we had bonded so much over these travails, moment after crazy moment, we had laughed so much at our own foolishness and had marveled at the landscape, the storybook fortresses and chateaus. Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Oh, yes. But the sky, when it's blue, has Peter Max Yellow Submarine clouds floating in it. This part of France is just waking up to spring in that exuberant tender hopeful way that only places that have had long bitter winters can. You can still see winter's mistletoe on the leafless oaks, but on every tree and bush there are soft buds, and the earliest blooming trees are in full pink regalia, and the vineyards are sprinkled with marguerites and mustard flowers. We cheer each other through the tough parts, coach each other up the cruelly steep hills, celebrate the glorious descents, moon over the pretty bike paths through the vineyards and rolling farmland. Each sip of wine has new flavors, each new extravagant hotel is shockingly scenic, and too much for us. And we forge ahead. Proving we can do it, even when it's hard, especially when it's hard.

So my answer to my husband's his question, why?

"Because it's fun."

His reply to that? "I suppose that's right."

Tomorrow is that brutal "moderate" day, though, punctuated with magical castles and rivers and forests and charm, and one terrible hill, right toward the end. It may just kill us, so please, wish us luck.

 

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