touring tours ,manning le mans, ambushing amboise

After mont st. michel we headed towards Tours. It's located in the Loire valley, almost in the center of france. Lots of wine and chateau's. Since we had never been to france before, I really didn't know what city's to stay in. It all worked out. Due to fate I believe, We we're supposed to stay in these places.



Early morning bus ride back to Rennes. It started raining. Don't I look stoked?

On the bus to Rennes, Dan is doing his best jaunty frenchman.

At the train station in Rennes, due to our busdriver ( who looked like Butterbean) driving 100 miles an hour ( in the rain) we arrived at the station waaaaaaay earlier then we wanted. So we hung out in a cafe and drank tea. Dan made a list of things we needed to do and see, we called ahead and booked a room in Tours.
This is me doing my best Jaunty train. the trains interior was black and grey with pinstripe. that's very jaunty to me.........jaunty.


We had to get off in Le mans, to transer to the Tours train. Beautiful downtown Le Mans folks! Home of the famous 24 hour car race!
Yup..Le Mans folks! ( i kid , i kid.) i'm sure it's a lovely place. we were just there for an hour.

Whatever you do don't order the cristina special. she'll just give you shit. Ha!

Finally Tours! To be honest with you, since we had never been there before, pulling into the station we were so scared! The place looked nasty, industrial and run down. leaving the staion, and walking to the hotel. the city is really quite cute!


I need to give a shout out to my iphone right now. This lil' guy saved our butts. Here im putting in the hotel address, and getting walking directions. thx magical pocket computer!
Our view from our room. The Loire river is a few blocks behind us. We stayed at Hotel Colbert which is located on Rue Colbert and I totally did that on purpose!

So we started out on our tour of Tours.( hee har) It started raining, I bought an umbrella. We ended up wandering around all the way back to the train station. Ended up being....hangry.

Walked back to our street, ended up at our local boulangerie. Super sweet lady worked there. We ordered a slice of broccoli quiche and a little pate en croute ( with the egg in the middle!). She heated them up for us and wrapped them in tin foil. We walked to a irish pub a few doors down, ordered 2 pints and dried off.
We stayed for a few hours since the liverpool-chelsea game was on, and the majority of ex-pats were liverpool fans. They lost. Dan and I ate a kabob with french fries in it. Then we went home.

Woke up early-ish and traveled by train to the town of Amboise. After a short ride we arrived and walked towards the chateau. Nice day right?

It's sorta the thing to do is visit chateau's when your in this part of the country. We went to one, this one. It has leonardo di vinci buried in it. It seemed like if your only going to one, go to the one with an epic dead dude in it.
But first picnic! we sat on a bench in front of the chateau. Laughing cow cheese, a baguette from that sweet lady's boulangerie. Some fruit, a bottle of water and some country pate. Across the street from the chateau is a lot of touristy places to eat. let's just say I think people were jealous of the way we throw down, picnic wise.



These dorks at the chateau, overlooking the Loire river and the town of Amboise.
"so the map says the quaint village is RIGHT here!"

The chapel at the chateau. Di Vinci is in there. ( no codes)

The majority of this chateau was destroyed over the years, so going inside is kinda lame. it's newish ( like 100 years?) and none of the furniture is real or authentic to the castle. There was a fire in the main meeting hall... that was nice. The grounds and view of the river and town is much prettier and I think the real draw is Leo D.V!

Let's get outta here!

Bike rental!! super cheap and we had the bikes for 4 hours.
There's a famous bike trail to a neighboring town, with map in hand we left the town and started pedaling.Then at the 6 mile mark ( 3 of it uphill) I got scared that it might be all uphill on the way back. Abort mission!! I'm on vacation yo!

Where the wineries at?


Headed back to the town of Amboise. Grabbed a beer at a sidewalk cafe. Then we returned the bikes.

At the station waiting for the train back to Tours.

Returned to Tours. Showered and went to dinner at this great place named Au Lapin qui Fume.(the smoking rabbit? the rabbit who smokes?) The place was teeny tiny and amazing!!


Dan and I ate a rabbit terrine with an onion confit,and a rouget escabeche ( Like a ceviche) for the apps, I had rabbit saddle for my main and dan had a pork chop with a peanut sauce. we split a grand marnier pannacotta. oooh baby! and a bottle of local chenin blanc! We sat next to a couple from the east of france who was visting Tours as well, they helped us with the translation of the menu and we told them about Los Angeles and New York. Traded info. nice folks! Everyone was so happy with the food. A great 50 seater. Last night in Tours. Tomorrow Lyon!

Showers

French showers have no shower curtains.
French showers have no doors
French showers take alot of finesse.
French showers require you to sit on the floor of the tub.
French bathrooms should just have a drain in the floor and a squeegee.
I am not good at french showers.

The Dan and Cris show!

Dan: So if fries are chips
Me: uh huh
Dan: and chips are crisps
Me: yup
Dan: and cookies are biscuits
Me: mm hmm
Dan: then what are biscuits called?
Me: they don't have biscuits
Dan: whattya mean?
Me: they have scones, they don't have biscuits!
Dan: then what do they're cats make?


-the end

Headed to the country, gonna eat alot of peaches

On our last night in Paris, we needed to do laundry, get dinner, and go to the Eiffel tower. weeeellllll.... we ended up in a Korean restaurant next to the hotel. ( dan and I eat korean food in L.A. at least once a week) we we're jonesing for it. Then I ended up getting a janky dryer at the laundromat which ate my money and left my clothes wet and cold. and then the laundrymat closed, when we were inside. ( it was automated, lights out!) Then I felt ill, stomach ache. and tired. SO NO EIFFEL TOWER!!! This moment is defining in that our last night in france was going to be in Paris and not some hotel near CDG. (YAY!!) but we had to make reservations off the cuff. ( with an assist by my stepmom leslie! yay leslie!)

The server was a korean guy that spoke korean and french..only. Was super surprised when we ordered the kimchi pancake. we're from los angeles fool! The rest of the dinner was super meh. We did have o.b. beer and a bottle of soju!




So next day we woke up early finished drying clothes, and shopped for train food. Went to my goose rillete place on rue mouffetard, this time for a wedge of duck pate, more of the white anchovies, a baguette from down the street. Some cow cheese from the market ( port salut!) a jar of dijon mustard,3 oranges and two bottles of wine. Train leaves at 12:30 hurry up!



Train from Paris gare montparness to Rennes.


Arrived in Rennes, found out the bus to Mont.St. Michel is in 3 hours. yay! lost our wine buzz. booo.. didn't have exact change for the bathroom (angry) fell asleep in bus station.(Zzzzz)


Finally on the bus! 40 min drive to mount. st. michel, it's an express bus. It was raining in paris when we left by the time we arrived to rennes, it had cleared. beautiful and fresh clean air.

Green grass, and moo moo cows. It's calvados and cheese country!

Mont.st.Michel is an island of sorts in the normandy region of france. At high tide it's surrounded by water, at low tide the water recedes and it's all marshland.
The island contains a small town an abby and what used to be a prison for political prisoners. it is now a tourist trap that looks like disneyland. BUT ITS REALLY COOL!


Thar she blows!

Yup, i think we're here.

It's pretty crazy how flat it is and there's a rock in the middle of it.. dan and I walking to the island. it's a good 20 min. walk

My album cover.

See? Dan was there too. Modeling the latest in north face technology.


It's crazy cool.. getting closer.

We're here! It was pretty late in the day when we got in about 5pm. by the time we reached the mount. all the souvenir shops had closed.. Just some overpriced restaurants. We made it for sunset and the light was killer.

The abby.

The marshland surrounding the mount.


Walking back! it was wiiiiinnnnddddyyyy!!Arrived at the hotel, ate dinner in a rush because the kitchen was closing.
Had a glass of calvados after. I asked the bartender/server if it was customary to put ice in the drink,(no,it's not.. it's a brandy! i had a brain fart ok?!)

he said "ok" then turned his back to get the bottle and said "typical americans"

Me: Then don't it's fine!

Him: no no no! ees ok! I don't judge!!

Me: No! I'll drink it with no ice! you're right that's correct! I was just asking. sheesh!

Went to bed, we had twin beds. I watched bbc with the same news from the week before... we had to wake up early to catch the train from Rennes to Tours.

the keys to notre dame

So we left the cemetery, and headed to another neighborhood to do some souvenir shopping. But then I got Hangry.

Found a Monoprix. it's a supermarket (That sells clothes?) and bought some ready made sandwiches and pasta salad. Drinks and fruit. This is the best way to go. cheap, fast and if you can sit in a sunny park even better. We couldn't find a fork. Had to improvise.



This is dan's sandwhich. I won the food contest ( mine was better).


Well, we had a bit of walking to do. Like 20 blocks. But I had food in me. I can go anywhere now.

The Pompidou. It's a modern art museum with all it's guts on the outside. The air pipes are blue, elevators are red, water pipes are green. Some parisians hated it when it first opened. Kinda like the Eiffel tower. I think parisians are just haters until people are high fiving them and telling them how cool something is. Then they take the credit. But I ain't one to gossip so you didn't hear it from me.
Me not being a hater. Le pompidou ees super cool!

We did our shopping and headed towards Notre Dame. We went the first day but didn't get a chance to go up. (long line, hangry, jet lagged etc...) So since it was our last day in paris, we were going to hit Notre Dame, and finally go up into the Eiffel Tower.


But first,Ice cream break! On the l'le st. louis, the island next to notre dame. It's full of rich people and ice cream shops. (?!?) one of the best shops is Berthillion. 1 scoop of apricot for me, 1 pistachio for dan.


huh? for me?


nom nom nom...
Alright dan, let's do this! Let's go look at old stuff!
The line was a good 2 hours to get up the bell towers. Dan took a picture of this creepy mermaid on the facade of the building. It gave him the heebly jeeblies. zoom in for tonight's nightmare! Dan: "I know that the gargoyles and stuff are supposed to be scary, but don't you think it's weird that they have a scary mermaid?" me: "no."

Did'ya know that for something to be a true gargoyle it has to be a water spout? like for rain drainage. Hence gargoyle and gargling, have the same root meaning. See? it's not just fart jokes on this blog. no siree.
In the stairway up. Notice I am not in the picture. i'm dying and cussing at this point.
The payoff! view from between the towers, facing the plaza in front of N.D.

Your humble narrator, dan long and paris.

Don't forget to click on pictures to see them bigger. The clarity is amazing.

Towards the rear.
Inside the bell tower

Patti LaBelle



Looking up into the bell tower.


From the roof.




Went to the roof. it was windy, but an epic view.

The keys to notre dame.


I'm faster going downstairs.


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