Loire Valley Grandeur

Chenounceaue

Our last stop on our tour of France is the town of Cheverny.  We like to finish a trip with something special.  This former chateau now luxury hotel in the Loire Valley is what brought us here.  As we enter the property, we are greeted with a half mile long drive through the woods.  The hotel is a mixture of a chateau and of wooden cottages with porches so a mixture of old-world fancy and modern luxury cottages. Our room turns out to be in the chateau.  The reception set the tone for our stay with a relaxing drink and comfortable place to sit while they parked the car and deliver our bags to the room.  The check-in person took us on a tour of the first floor with its very high ceiling.  We were introduced to the game room, music room, boot room, gym and a spa.  We will not use the boot room since it is so dry and we skip the spa.  We like our room, but it is dark - little light and a dark colored wall. 

Burgundy

There city administration office is beautifully lit at night

Wine and Mustard

We got into Beanue aka Burgundy aka Bourgogne hot and tired and close to dinner time. We decide to just eat dinner at the hotel because we have not seen much of a town yet.  Unpack, clean up a little and go down.  It left a lot to be desired and happily our meals improved from there.  After dinner we walk around a little and see some town which is actually about a 5-minute walk away.

Strasbourg and the Alsace region

Can you guess what country we are in now?  Strasbourg sounds German and it looks like Germany, but it is part of France with the Rhine River separating us from Germany. It has bounced back and forth between the two countries several times creating a mixed culture, but more on that later.   

Paris in a Heat Wave

 

 We arrive in Paris late Sunday morning a little hot and sweaty since the AC was not working correctly in our train car.  Our hotel is located on an island in the Seine River next to the one with Notre Dame thus we are pretty close to it and consider attending mass, but our hotel receptionist recommends against it.  We have 3 or 4 hours till our walking food tour.  I find a short self walking tour of our island and we follow it.  Basically walk down the middle street and then circle the island.  Like I said it is little.  We take our time and enjoy the views including one where we see a dog walker with several dogs letting them enjoy the cool waters of the river.  They are at a boat ramp area so the dogs can just walk into the water.  One is having a great time it is a golden retriever and he is swimming all over the place.  We can even see his legs moving in the water.  We move on some more and see a couple of people out in private nice boats enjoying a Sunday afternoon on the river.  We are staying at a small hotel that is a building off the main street.  Seems that jeu de paume was a game that a was a precursor to tennis and our hotel was a place to play that game thus our hotel's name Hotel du jeu de Paume.