Tours

After Paris we headed south west and ended up spending a few days in Tours. Tours is a nice town in the heart of the Loire valley and we stayed in the old town very close to the Loire river. The old town is full of restaurants and bars with the main square surrounded by old terrace houses which look as they are almost leaning on one another. These houses have now of course been converted to eateries and shops.

For a smallish town Tours is quite cosmopolitan with a big variety of restaurants. We even saw a Sri Lankan restaurant there. Tours is also where we decided to have a meal at a traditional French restaurant. The waiters did not speak any English and with our very limited French ordering was a stressful affair. We knew basics like fish, pork, cheese, chicken, beef etc.. so we guessed and ordered a three course meal. The entrees started well enough - Pramo had a potato and sardine salad and I had crusty bread with tuna pate thingy. Then came the main course. Mine was a roast chicken leg with potatoes and salad with an orange glaze which tasted quite good. Pramo who ordered something pork was given a plate with a boiled pork knuckle accompanied by boiled (killed) vegetables. The pork knuckle was pink and looked gross. The look on Pramo's face was classic - he was hoping it was a bad dream. He struggled his way through the main course hurrying along to get it over and done with. Then it was time for dessert. I ordered a creme caramel which was pretty nice and Pramo had ordered a selection of cheeses. France having 256 different types of cheese we were looking forward to trying some of them. His dessert consisted of two pieces of cheese and a leaf of lettuce. One of the cheese pieces smelled like someone's foot and the other was Camembert. So our adventures into French food ended that night as you might have guessed. The next day we had Japanese followed by pizza the night after that.

The Loire valley is famous for chataeux and wine so we did a tour of the area that took us to some of the famous chataeux (Amboise and Chenonceau) as well as wine tasting. Chenonceau castle was impressive as its built on the Cher river connecting the two banks almost like a bridge. We found the huge house impressive with its richly decorated rooms, perhaps the most interesting part was the tremendous kitchen with every conceivable cooking apparatus that was used back in the day displayed for visitors to marvel at. The path leading up to the house is framed by giant plane trees providing much appreciated shade and a welcoming feel. To the left of the path there was a huge maze much to the delight of kids of all ages including myself. Next to the house on the left bank there were beautiful formal gardens layed out with care much like those in the palace of Versailles. On our way back to our tour van we went through the farm house and vegetable gardens to the edge of the property. The vegetable garden had every conceivable vegetable growing in neat rows and beds hedged by small apple trees trimmed to act like a fence. We were very tempted to pick the apples but decided against it :)

Next we visited Amboise castle and saw the grave of Leonardo Da Vinci. On our way back to the town we stopped by a winery for a quick tour and some wine tasting. The winery much like others in the region were using a limestone cave to store the wine which provides the correct level of humidity and temperature for storage. We liked the wines we tried and so ended up buying a couple of bottles.

The next day we spent walking around town and sat by the side of the Loire river having lunch and enjoying the wine we bought the previous day. The afternoon passed quickly over a bottle of wine and it was one of the most relaxing afternoons I've had in a while. That night we bought pizza for dinner and went to eat by the river again. The side of the river we were on was paved along the bank and many people enjoyed walking & picnicing along the bank. Up the river there was an outdoor cafe/bar on the river bank with a band playing to a packed crowd. We went along and sat around enjoying the great band for a long time. The band could be described as folky-funk. They played traditional French folk songs with a violin and accordion to a funk base line. People of all ages stopped by the cafe/bar to listen to the band. It was a most pleasant way to spend our last night in Tours.