Driving to Tours

We rose early on our last morning in our Paris apartment. We ate some toasted baguette with honey, accompanied by some nice coffee. We then busied ourselves with cleaning the apartment so we could leave it as we found it. We had bought some small gifts for Sophie Aubury who had vacated her home for us for the week, something that would not be easy to do for complete strangers. She was very relieved to see what kind of people were were when she met us last evening. We did not want to leave a bad impression at this late stage.

After about an hour the apartment was looking at least as clean as we had found it, if not a little better. We finished cleaning and packing, left the key on the kitchen table and locked the front door at 9:40am. We caught the 3 person lift down from floor 5 to the ground floor for the last time in Paris. We walked out onto Rue d’Alger and then along Rue de Rivoli towards the Corousel de Louvre where the Hertz Rentacar office was from which we were renting a car.

The lady behind the Hertz desk was very helpful even if she did have a rich French accent as she spoke her English - many of the French have not mastered English with the Aussie nasal drawl. Priscilla deals with this by speaking slowly and in a slightly Asian accent as though she is speaking to an incompetent. I am not sure that is the best approach, but sometimes it is difficult to be sure. (Funneeee Simon!!)

The lady told me she had never left Europe and she was looking forward to travelling to Japan in August. Then she gave me a free upgrade from a small car to a Volkswagen Toura which is a larger diesel car. I was happy. I paid the extra for complete insurance coverage in case of accident or mishap. Priscilla was quite nervous about me driving on the right after spending many years driving on the left. I assured her that in respect of driving I was ambidextrous but it did little to assuage her concerns.

We packed our bags in the rear of the VW and drove out from underneath the Louvre to find ourselves in the centre of Paris driving down the Rue de Rivoli and then around the Place de la Concorde. I suggested at that moment that we might drive up the Camps Elysees and drive around the Arc de Triomphe roundabout, but Priscilla was not keen. We followed the instructions of the GPS instead and drove

down beside the Sienne, crossed over and drove right beside the Eiffel Tower and then on towards the Loire Valley on a very impressive freeway system.

Our first stop for the the day was the old township of Chartres. The Cathedral Notre Dame in this town is very famous as it is the best preserved Gothic Cathedral in Europe. It was built in 1200. It was nearly bombed by the Americans in WW2 as they were liberating France from the Germans, and it was only saved by one American soldier disobeying an order to bombard the Cathedral in case the bell towers housed German snipers and instead he and one other climbed the hill to the cathedral and then they climbed each tower to ensure the Cathedral was empty. It was empty and the Cathedral was saved. The soldier died the same day about two kms further on in the battle in the next town. I am not sure what to make of that. The French, however, have posthumously given this American soldier

every military award they can come up with because the Cathedral is pretty impressive.

When we arrived at the Cathedral, the Sunday service was just concluding and the attendees were emerging through the front doors and the bishop was shaking their hands (and much kissing of hands) and exuding unwarranted power over his flock.

We walked through the old town of Chartres and marveled at all the old houses and buildings dating from the middle ages - about 1400 or so. The oldest homes are built with wooden beams and then stone, cement or brick infill. Imagine living in a house 600-700 years old.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at a restaurant right opposite the Cathedral. We had pumpkin soup, some baguette, a patisserie, three

macarons, some vegetable chips and coffee. More than enough to go on with. The waitresses did not speak a word of English. Imagine only being able to speak one language. Disappointing.

We walked through the old village, poked our heads in another Cathedral even older than the other one, this one built in 1000AD but not so well preserved, nor as large, then we found our car and followed the GPS further on our journey towards Tours.

Our final stop today was at Orleans. This is the town in which Jean d’Arc lead an army of skeptical French troops against the English in the siege of Orleans and won the battle. much to everyone’s amazement. The battle took place in 1429 and she lead the armies in further victories against the English occupation armies. In 1431 she was tried for treason and condemned to die, mainly because she was in the habit of wearing men’s clothing, which is kind of

understandable when she is leading an army in a charge in full armour on horseback. Nevertheless she was burnt at the stake. They weren’t entirely sure she wasn’t a witch because she claimed to hear voices which she attributed to God and some were not convinced of the veracity of that particular claim. Still, burning at the stake seems a little harsh in today’s context.

After walking through the amazing old town of Orleans, in which there were many buildings older than 1429, making them at least 600 years old, we climbed back into the VW and continued our journey towards Tours.

We noticed on the way that much of the Loire Valley that we could see was planted out in Canola and was a brilliant flowering yellow as far as the eye could see. We were trapped a little by the toll roads. They have some ticket system here that is designed to ensnare

tourists I am sure. We got stuck a couple of times at the end of a section of toll road. Our credit card would not work. Luckily we scrounged up enough cash to pay for it both times it was required. Not quickly enough for the gentleman in the vehicle immediately behind us whose repeated honking of his loud car horn indicated a sense of haste that we were having difficulty accommodating. We managed in the end to find our way through the barrier, but not soon enough to avoid a mouthful of colourful French that thankfully we did not recognise. We waved back helpfully.

We arrived in Tours at 5:15pm. We were met outside our Airbnb house by the owner, a man called Andre who was very particular about the way we should shut his front gate. He showed us around the generous five-roomed apartment which overlooks a nice garden square. After settling in we went for a walk in search of baguettes and patisserie, which is sustaining us on our French adventure. Being Easter Sunday, most of the shops were shut, but we went on a long walk around Tours and found all the exciting old areas of the town. We also walked along the Loire River bank back to our unit. We had baguette, quiche, and chocolate eclairs for dinner. Tres bien.