Dijon to Chenonceaux
For breakfast, we headed to the local boulangerie. Tried their pain d'épices (gingerbread) which was kind of hard but very gingery. We walked around the streets as we ate. There were people setting up stalls around the city streets selling everything - used books, vegetables, handbags, etc.
Walked around to see the unusual architecture: patterned roofs, houses made of stone and wood on Rue Verriere, and the wall of the Notre Dame that's covered in 3 rows of gargoyles.
Before lunchtime, we headed back to the train station to the car rental office. Since we had not reserved a car through the internet, we couldn't get the internet prices. Therefore, ended up paying a whole lot more than what we saw on the internet. booo. And we couldn't rent a GPS unit because we were dropping the car off at a different location. PLUS, on top of this, we discovered that we forgot our map of France (with the route to Chenonceaux highlighted) back in Switzerland. oops!
Needless to say, we did end up getting lost which set us back by about 2-3 hours. We missed a turn onto a "major road" and ended up going to a town (Auxerre) where we got lost for about an hour, looking for a particular road that didn't exist in town. It also took us a while to find the tourism office - I had to run around town asking people where it was located. When we finally found it, the lady helped us look at our directions and told us we had to backtrack because we had overshot the turn. We made it to Chenonceaux close to dinner time, around 7pm. Good thing we started the drive early!
Outside of our detour, the drive was pleasant. Got to see the French countryside with its herds of white cows and cynlindrical bales of hay. There are no major highways in France, just roads that run through small villages. Most of the roads had small signs perched upon a pole on the side of the road. We also went through lots of roundabouts, which was great when we weren't sure where to turn. :p
We got a cute room in our B&B, Le Clos Mony. It was decorated mainly in a lilac - it even had a white and lilac chandelier! We hustled out to get dinner since we were starving from the drive. There are only 6 choices in town so we went down the main road, reading the menus. The one we decided on had only dining in the garden...and it was full! We were told "no more service". We opted for our second choice which was also outdoor dining. This restaurant was so busy that the waitstaff were literally running back and forth from the kitchen. While we were eating, people were being turned away and told to come back at 9pm for dinner. It took us 2.5 hours to finish dinner because service was pretty slow - they were both understaffed and swamped with tourists. When we left, some people were just getting seated. (We got there just in time to be seated - phew!)
Walked around to see the unusual architecture: patterned roofs, houses made of stone and wood on Rue Verriere, and the wall of the Notre Dame that's covered in 3 rows of gargoyles.
Before lunchtime, we headed back to the train station to the car rental office. Since we had not reserved a car through the internet, we couldn't get the internet prices. Therefore, ended up paying a whole lot more than what we saw on the internet. booo. And we couldn't rent a GPS unit because we were dropping the car off at a different location. PLUS, on top of this, we discovered that we forgot our map of France (with the route to Chenonceaux highlighted) back in Switzerland. oops!
Needless to say, we did end up getting lost which set us back by about 2-3 hours. We missed a turn onto a "major road" and ended up going to a town (Auxerre) where we got lost for about an hour, looking for a particular road that didn't exist in town. It also took us a while to find the tourism office - I had to run around town asking people where it was located. When we finally found it, the lady helped us look at our directions and told us we had to backtrack because we had overshot the turn. We made it to Chenonceaux close to dinner time, around 7pm. Good thing we started the drive early!
Outside of our detour, the drive was pleasant. Got to see the French countryside with its herds of white cows and cynlindrical bales of hay. There are no major highways in France, just roads that run through small villages. Most of the roads had small signs perched upon a pole on the side of the road. We also went through lots of roundabouts, which was great when we weren't sure where to turn. :p
We got a cute room in our B&B, Le Clos Mony. It was decorated mainly in a lilac - it even had a white and lilac chandelier! We hustled out to get dinner since we were starving from the drive. There are only 6 choices in town so we went down the main road, reading the menus. The one we decided on had only dining in the garden...and it was full! We were told "no more service". We opted for our second choice which was also outdoor dining. This restaurant was so busy that the waitstaff were literally running back and forth from the kitchen. While we were eating, people were being turned away and told to come back at 9pm for dinner. It took us 2.5 hours to finish dinner because service was pretty slow - they were both understaffed and swamped with tourists. When we left, some people were just getting seated. (We got there just in time to be seated - phew!)
posted by pc at
10:40 PM
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