Minimum effort, please

The boss relaxing.  Should she sleep 19 hours today or cut back to 18?

Loire valley, river, chateaus, City of Chartres, France, September, 2014

On September 1, 2014 I arrived in Paris in warm, sunny weather, crossed from CDG to Gare Nord to Montparnasse station, then took a train to Orleans. The Loire valley famously has about 65 chateaus or castles spread over a couple of hundred miles of relentlessly beautiful river and countryside.

Fortunately, there are both major motorways and toll freeways for traffic in a hurry, which leaves drivers wanting to view the river and surroundings peacefully motoring along the river from Orleans to Nantes.  I did rent bikes at several points along the way and was actually was cycling along the river on the day I turned 71 years.

I often say to people that a river is a river and a mountain is a mountain, so don't travel just to see one.  Wrong.  The Loire is poetic and one can easily become fond of it.  It is not deep, often is fast, and shows better in the lazy countryside than confined between walls in the towns and villages.  It is a river of many birds.  Herons and egrets are the most visible along with a good assortment of ducks, but unseen in the heavy forests along it, there are many songbirds even in September.  I think the most vocal were probably finches and there were a lot of them.

The route taken was Orleans, Blois, Amboise, Tours, Saumur, Angers Nantes, Rennes, St. Malo, Mont St. Michel, Dinard, Brest, Quimper, Carnac (Atlantic coast), Quiberon (coast), Lorient, Vannes, Nantes, Blois, Orleans, Chartres, Paris.

Weather, fine hotels (or poor hotels), and plenty of money make or break one's view of any voyage.   I met people who were obviously travelling on narrow budgets, and some did crazy things like skip two (or all) of the great chateaus to save the $12. entrance fee.  One older couple drove the entire Loire valley without entering a single chateau.  That is crazy.

For those reading this who consider travelling to Paris, I will mention that I saw on Google, a 12 hour day trip from Paris for about $200. which takes one to the three greatest chateaus and back to Paris the same day.  I think that is a great day trip for a reasonable price.

I will begin with Chartres as I failed to put it at the end where it belongs.  In my numerous trips to France and Paris since my first visit in 1964, I never bothered to take the time to go to the town and cathedral of Chartres.  I was pretty shocked at the dreadful condition of both the exterior and interior of the cathedral.  I guess it is not so bad considering that it faced total destruction twice, and survived.

During the Revolution, the Commune was determined to destroy it, but citizens of Chartres rose up and prevented it.  Again in WWII, a U.S. army colonel was ordered to blow it up completely as it was believed to be harbouring Germans soldiers and arms.  The colonel disagreed and contrary to his orders, took a single private and together they went behind enemy lines to the cathedral and found that it contained neither men nor arms and those two men saved it form destruction.  Sadly not long after, the colonel was killed in combat near Chartres.

Restoration is underway on and in the cathedral, but I would say it is more than a decade long project. It is owned by the Government of France and probably will have a permanent annual budget for restorations.

I found the asymmetrical towers displeasing,  The eye is so accustomed to beautifully balanced cathedral towers that it is odd to see such a overwhelming building deviating from the pattern. The story is that the towers were the same until lightning hit the left conical one and destroyed it.  The next architect and builder made the decision to replace it with a different style.

Inside it is in terrible disrepair except for the few sections that have been restored.  Hundreds of years of candle smoke have blacked the interior and all the statues.  Many, many heads, arms and even halves of some decorative statues have fallen off - mostly inside - but also outside.  One guide told me that they are all in a museum waiting to be replaced at some time.

I met a defender of the faith there ready to answer all questions.  I told him I had been mightily impressed with the great churches on my trip in Orleans, Nantes, Blois, Tours, etc. etc.  I said the stained glass windows, the interiors, the pipe organs, the ceremonies and so many other things were really wonderful.  However, I said, is it not strange that there is no window, no statue, no memorial, no altar, no mass, no ceremony at all for the innocent tens of thousands of tortured victims burned at the stake by the Catholic church during the inquisition?

 He was speechless and stammered and gasped several times while I allowed him lots of time to do so.  Then I asked him, what is the reason for this?  Again he was speechless, and I told him there could only be one answer;  the Catholic church still considered them guilty of nonsense heresy and feels murdering them was justified.  He initially agreed and then in a huff said no, not possible, but could offer no other explanation or reason.  The great churches represent some of the best and the worst of men and religions in France.


Orleans was saturated in every way with some convention, so I paid a lot for a hotel and found most rental car companies out of inventory.
Avis - clearly the poorest choice of car renters - still had either a huge Buick SUV or a tiny Ford.  I could not imagine feeding the SUV, so opted for the 5 speed Ford.

It did not seem to bother the Avis manager and neophyte employee that the front right tire was the spare tire and it was almost flat.  They said Never mind, it's fine and were about to add some air and let me go.  I said the reason the tire was nearly flat was because it was leaking and I did not want the car.  They were astonished - just because the tire is going flat?  I finally accepted a similar car.
                                                                   ______________
I flew over business class to have more legroom and arrive in better-then-usual condition. Instead for the first time in flying for 57 years, I was sick for three days from the airline food.  I also had a woman behind me coughing constantly the worst possible sort of cough - which began to affect me after 4 hours of it.  Finally, in the fresh air, and with a car, I began to repair and recover and from then on, enjoyed the trip.

In Chartres I happened to stay at the best hotel in town and it had printed silk and linen wallpaper (which was padded for some reason I could not imagine) and of course, matching curtains, not to even mention the finest bed I have ever found in a hotel.

The (nearly endless) halls were the same.  They may seem somewhat garish, but after being in the Chateaus, it all seemed normal enough.  It was a great hotel in every way.  I had actually negotiated a tough price with them and then decided to stay another day.  They agreed, but had to move me to another great room - which was twice as big - as the same price.

Chambord chateau - Queen of the Loire valley

Chambord was built as a hunting lodge by Francois I when construction began in 1519 and continued on for decades.  It was constructed in a fraction of 12,992 acres of heavily forested land in the estate  It is so large and complex that it seems impossible to capture it adequately with any camera.  I have borrowed a google airshot to show the immensity of it and the grounds immediately near it.

I had never such an exciting roof.  The forests of towers and chimneys are mainly the result of about 300 fireplaces and 426 rooms.  At times, the chateaux was abandoned for decades, and during the revolution it was stripped bare and even the wooden floors were torn up and sold as lumber, while carved doors were used as firewood during the sales of contents.  Since 1930, Chambord has been owned by the French government and restoration is an non-stop effort.

There are about three kinds of chateaus along the Loire river: ones like Chambord are in good repair and filled with period furniture, tapestries and art.  Others are bare or somewhat bare.  Then there are the ruins (La pile on signs)  Chambord would be far less interesting without the placement of the furnishings.  It is especially nice to see huge tapestries that seem only moderately interesting in non-chateau settings come alive and look spectacular in their intended settings.

A funny aspect is that I met a Canadian woman who was taking a Rick Steeves tour (the Lawrence Welk of travel) starting at Chartres, allegedly along the Loire and on to Provence, ending in Nice.  I looked at the RS site when I returned home, and it is remarkable that on google search, his Loire tours entirely dominate all others.  He has a blurb about the two most interesting Chateaus on the Loire.

Yet when I looked at his tour schedules, he takes his clientele to only two serious chateaus, one of which is beautiful before leaving the Loire entirely - without ever taking them to Chambord or Cheverny which are the key ones and which he so highly praises in his promo. However, he has so many tours, he may offers those chateaus one I overlooked.  If you took a 12 hour day tour from Paris for about $200., you would see the three finest chateaus and have a nice drive along the river.

Cheverny and Let loose the hounds !

This great sight is about 15 km from Chambord, set in the same heavily forested landscape/  The Viscount who inherited it through many generations from the original Henri Huralt ancestor who built it in 1634.  The viscount and his family live on the third floor and the lower two floors are massively furnished and decorated with period pieces.

The grounds include about a dozen giant sequoias and several Cedars of Lebanon (massive trees). plus a large stable of horses, a kitchen garden, and two kennels of hunting dogs numbering 50 in each one. They are used for hunting today and it is done in the traditional manner; horses, hounds and kill the boar or deer only with a spear handled by one of the riders.

I came out of the mansion about 4:15 p.m. and hear the yelping of a large number of dogs.  I walked through the park to see what the noise could be.  The 50 hounds there have a large outdoor and also indoor kennel.  They are fed once at day at 5 p.m.  Some time previous to that, the keeper lets the dogs up on to the roof of their kennel.  They then watch him down on the ground making a line on the tiles of 50 raw chickens cut in half, which he then also covers in kibble - photo 5.

The dogs jump and howl in anticipation. Some find it too strenuous and just lay down and close their eyes.  At exactly 5, he opens a gate to allow them into the yard.  He is carrying a whip to keep them under control, and they of course, know the routine.  Before he will allow them to eat, he orders them to line in in rows in front of the small building.  Like small school children, they pack themselves in against the wall - now they are only 10' from the food and really ready. He then tells them to sit and shut up - which they do.

At some point he gives a signal and the chaos that ensues is just incredible.  In the photo below the one with eyes closed, you can see a dog with its face distended from the force of his leap and run, and another rising through the air.  In about four minutes it is all over and the chickens are devoured.  The dogs are left to lick up the kibble on the tiles and it is strangely quiet now.  It is one of the wildest scenes I have ever seen, and more thrilling because it was so unexpected.

We would call the dogs Beagles, but they are English foxhounds mixed with some French breed, and are quite tall and large dogs.  If you look closely, each dog has a "V" shaved on its right side to indicate they belong to the Vicomte.

Chateau Chenonceaux & the madness of Cinq Mars feudal castle

You have seen images of this chateaux in almost every brochure on France.  It dates from about 1547 and sits comfortably astride the river Cher.  The steepled section to the right of the photo is the living quarters. The long section over the river is actually referred to as the Gallery, where great parties and dinners took place.  The covered bed to the side of the giant fireplace was used by a real queen - who as all of them at that time, was a v. short person according to the length of the bed.

But the remarkable story of this chateaux is that this river was the dividing line between Nazi occupied France and Free France.  The old caretaker had the keys to open the closed castle, but the Nazis never knew that.  As a result, he used to sneak many Jews across (from the right side of the photo to the forest on the left), through the lower gallery to safety.

It is a beautiful place and the drive there is equally wonderful.

Above is the Feudal castle of Cinq Mars (usual trans. would be March 5th).  The guides to chateaux and even road signs indicate some that are mere ruins as La Pile. I knew that but wanted to see why a castle would be so named.  I drove up to a tiny parking lot on a heavily forested steep hill.  I went to the huge wooden doors, which were locked.  I shook them a little, tried the handle and decided they were closed.  At my car, about to start the engine, there was a knock on the window and there appeared a Gnome in a bright red -albeit faded -  shirt with a fine set of factory-made teeth.

Thrice he spake to me You didn't ring the bell, you didn't ring the bell, you didn't ring the bell. To which I replied, Oh, I didn't ring the bell?? !!  And of course there WAS a bell above eye level .  He hauled me in and was a v. nice and intelligent man.  He introduced me to his wife - although they only ever referred to each other with a grimace and him or her, pointing appropriately.

He suddenly had more guests to deal with and told me she spoke good English and would guide me. She was probably my age, wiry with fly away, well-out-of-control, gray hair, and really bright and well informed.  She said that she had an aeronautical engr. degree (had to have been from the Wright bros.), as did He, but she followed her's up with a M.A. in sociology (Say what ???), but in truth, now they were both ardent arborists - and I might add, dang good ones too.

She gave me a 20 minute detailed history of the castle.  The original owner hit hardship - remember this was in the XI C. - and went broke owning it.  As far as I can understand that is what happened to every owner for the next thousand years including the current aeronautical arborists.

I loved this description on the internet:  ...with its towers, moat and fortifications, it remained unspoilt until the XVth. The Marquis de Cinq-mars, favourite of Louis XIII was kilt (sic) at the age of 22 because he plotted against Richelieu.

I am v. fond of trees and she showed me their three sequoia trees, two of which seed's came from California in about 1840 and one from China (but must have originated on the U.S, west coast).

And finally, Cinq mars has nothing to do with March 5th, but is believed to be a mash up of some old French language religious terms.

The cave homes and Saumur, France 2014

In both Spain and France the number of people who reside permanently in caves is in the hundreds of thousands.  On the way to Saumur, I saw miles of cave homes in the sandstone cliffs that once were the banks of the Loire.

The one behind the gates in the top photo is a four star hotel. The manager at the gates has just shown newly arrived guests their room.  None of these caves are occupied by unfortunate cave men and women who cannot find other houses.  They are all quite expensive and well kept places (for people crazy enough to want to live in caves).

The chateau de Saumur has one of the most imposing locations of all.  It is basically a museum now.  Because Saumur is the horse riding capital of France, many articles there relate to riding and equines.  The Cadres noir de Saumur riding school was founded in 1768 and is the Vatican of How to Stay on a Horse Elegantly, you might say.

I saw a silo for the storage of wheat preserved in the middle of the city from the 14th C., and it was in remarkable condition.  A traveller ends up in a kind of contest to see what is oldest structure that is not a ruin.  There are a lot to consider in this region of France.

Inland, south Bretagne and the highlands, France 2014

It is a little frustrating to constantly write about how beautiful some places are without being able to show it.  Large scale landscapes are rarely possible for an amateur with a 35 mm camera.  But the top photo gives you come idea of the heavy and dark green forests, interrupted by great fields of fine corn and wheat,and excellent pastures, not to mention cows of every nationality (it seems).  I saw one cow of a copper colour and markings like the lady shown above (Google world maps gone bad) whcih was a style I have never seen elsewhere.

You could say Bretagne looks like a prosperous Ireland, or Scotland or parts of England, which is not very surprising considering the the general region.  I did think I might see some human here or there in some sort of dress indicating regionality (and I was not thinking or India nor Iran, just to be clear), but there was none.  Likewise for all the journalistic crowing about food blah, blah, blah, it was either irritatingly similar or insanely expensive.

The inland region referred to locally as mountains ought to be called highlands by saner people, but it is beautiful and peaceful farm country with not a lot to do or see for the.  I ended up talking to a number of cows who were polite about it but clearly thought me daft.

did ja wan something or jes lookin  ??

Brest, Quiberon, Quimper, Nantes, beaches of the coast, France, September 2014

Brest:  The four photos above are part of a single view.  The fortress at the top is monumental - just compare a car at the foot of it to the building. Going along the coast you can acquire a great feeling of the importance of the sea and ports in the great wars of the 16-19th centuries.  The fort and that tower look out over the huge modern port of Brest.  Towering over it is a monument from the U.S.honoring naval forces in the war.

Curiously, as I drove along the coast, I would see in the waving grass along the roads, concrete pill boxes still there from the German occupation of the coast.

Brest is not a stop on the tourist's list, but I like the history of it and enjoyed the city.

The coast south of Brest is both rough and pretty.  There are miles of beautiful, white sand beaches.  But I went into Quimper (pronounce Kemper), which is famous for its pottery, which seems to me to be nearly irrelevant today.

Quimper has quite a lot of half-timbered medieval buildings, the essential great cathedral, and quite a nice art gallery.  I am showing the photo of the river canal mainly because I was struck that nearly every city and town in western France is blessed with a clear and lovely stream, river or canal, of which they take wonderful care.  I think Toronto would do well to move one of its two rivers into town from both edges of the city - although we would never take the care of a river as the French do.

 I tried the beach. At Carnac.  It was so Cape Cod!  I took a four star hotel.  I told them their price was too high and they brought it down by 50%.  It was nice, although in truth they have pasted a modern front over an old fashioned bunch of rooms.  But they had nice new balconies, and really fancy modernized bathrooms, which included the only bidets I saw on this and the last trip through France.  They were really nice to me and the restaurant and bar on the front were home to (not many) very rich and sniffy people who clearly did not mind shocking prices for everything.

The oaring man (followed by spouse out of the image) is actually at Concarneau - nearby.  I admired their moxies just going out on the open ocean standing on a board with a single oar going nowhere as far as I could tell, using a great deal of energy.  I would love to do that naked but I would certainly have a life jacket nearby.

There is a long, pencil thin isthmus probably 10 miles long,running staright out to sea and ending not too far from three  sparsely inhabited islands.  This makes the peninsula a wonderful and beloved vacation spot.  There are many activities take place out there including digging mussels and other shell fish, and every kind of sea and beach activity.  Cycling is taken as though they are all Tour de France champs, although their rides must be the flattest surfaces on earth and although incontestably fun and fast, not as challenging as they pretend.

There were at least 50 of these kites in the sky just on this beach when I was there.  Most are used to pull along stand-up sailing boards, but the ones shown were just playing from the beachand shallow water.

But, I cannot figure out what to do on a beach at 71 years of age.  I did walk in the sea which was warm and had many people swimming.  Still, there was no chance I could sit there and stare at the waves and keep averting my view from the late mid-aged ladies who paraded by topless illustrating exactly what so obsessed Joan Rivers about parts of  the bodies of women at that age.