We were supposed to get up around 8 and be ready for the chateau opening at 9 am, however I woke up at 8.30 and Paul was just lolling there awake, not getting up, again. I wanted to shower and shave so I got the morning going. We walked around to a boulongerie and for a change neither of us had baguette. I got a small quiche and a pain au raison and Paul got a yucky croissant covered in almonds, which we ate in the grounds of the chateau.
The chateau entry was quite reasonable, 8 Euro, and it is valid all day, so we think we'll go out for lunch after we have done the main tour. (And yes Patrick, that is our third chateau in four days!) The entry also comes with an audio guide which is nice, there are 30 commentaries to listen too and it is meant to take about 90 minutes. We took two and a half hours! I won't bother trying to describe the chateau itself, it is too big. The main tour takes in several of the king/queen/emperor/empress rooms, the rooms around them, a couple of small museums and the chapel. The building is very plush and lavishly decorated. The rooms are filled with furniture and art work including many tapestries. Most of the furniture dates from Napoleon or later. The art work mainly goes back through the kings of France to as early as Francois the First and the buildings are a hodge podge of construction from all eras going back to the 13th century. The tour includes the throne room, the last one of its kind in France, the room and the table on which Napoleon signed his abdication in 1814, and all of the private chambers of the various rulers of France.
Lunch! After some consideration Paul had decided we would have lunch in our hotel simply because they had the best wine menu we had seen! Since this is the end of tour dinner we got a very nice 2000 Burgundy. The wine was actually a little bit young still but it had started to brown nicely and was very tasty, good length. The waitress actually decanted it for us, in front of us of course. For the meal Paul got a three course and I got a four course because I didn't like the entrees Paul's menu. I had a Salad Gourmande, last duck gizzards for the trip, and Paul got a serving of six snails, each one in a small pot. For the main I had veal with vegies in a lovely sauce and Paul had a revolting Tripe sausage which of course he loved. The extra course was of course cheese and they brought the platter around, I picked two soft Bries and a goat cheese for Paul. They gave me far too much even though I asked for a petite tranche. Oh well. Between us we polished it all off. Paul had a dessert of Fromage blanc and I had a Charlotte, a strawberry mouse dessert. Fully bloated the only thing left was to try a digestive, something we don't normally do. However they had an excellent selection of Armagnac here so I couldn't help myself, so I got a 1965, for some reason Paul abstained and just had coffee.
Now the plan after that was to go straight back to the chateau but I needed a slight rest after all that so we went up to the room and apparently I fell asleep immediately :) So instead of a two hour lunch and then the chateau we had about four hours off including a nap. In the end we had to rush back so that we could get in again, some of the sections close quite early. I wanted to walk back through the sections we had been in, this time without guide or having to take photo's, so we did a quick loop around, in about 20 minutes. Very pleasant and it helps to solidify the memories :)
We had wanted to visit a couple of other areas but they are by booking a tour only and it turns out that they were all over before we were even half way through lunch! So we went to the Chinese Museum, which turns out to mean Asian Museum, and then we went for a long walk/sit/walk/sit in the gardens. The gardens are nice but cannot compare to places like Chenonceau. There are of course lakes and ponds as well but they are not as large as they were in former times and again I don't think that they compare. However we had a very nice walk around and it was nice and cool in the shade. We then went back to the hotel for another rest and in no time at all it was Paul who was passed out and snoring, again.
Paul finally woke up around 8.30 pm and for our latest dinner this trip we went to a brasserie that he picked yesterday. We had considered this for lunch but it didn't have much of a wine menu so we thought it was better for a light dinner. Ha Ha Ha, a light dinner. We both had an aperitif, a Kir for me and a beer for Paul. I thought we were only having a main but then Paul got an entree of Whelks, a type of sea shell, so of course I had to have one too, six oysters. Nice. Then we both had Charcroute for our mains, definitely not a light meal. Then, after all that, we had dessert as well! A nice Coupe each, Rhubarb for Paul and Sorbets for me. After that we wandered back to the room, watched some TV and again had to close the windows because of the smoke below.
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