Things always seem better the next day! That said, it would have helped if we had had a good nights sleep, it hadn’t have been in the high 20’s and the bin men hadn’t been as noisy as at home! However, I was up first and walked for just a few minutes to an excellent ‘boulangerie’ for fresh croissants and a loaf of bread. It was really nice to be able to eat in our very own little courtyard outside the cottage.
The temperature continued to rise to a steady 34 degrees as we walked into the town of Blois. Our first stop was the Tourist Information where Colin was able to glean some very useful information that may just enable him to find where he stayed over 66 years earlier who on a school trip to the Loire Valley. After this help we decided to try our first ‘cafe noisette’ - espresso with a little milk - which was very good.
We continued across the bridge and I was really surprised at not only how wide but also shallow the river Loire is. For lunch we had some of the best crêpes I have had - mine with salted caramel, Colin’s with sugar and lemon and they were so good, we had to have another to check they were as good as the first.
To escape the heat of the day we visited Church Saint-Nicolas to see the stunning blue stained glass. Back towards our accommodation by climbing the Escalier Denis Papin - a flight of steps dedicated to Denis Papin who invented the pressure cooker in the 17th century - who knew?! We walked the long way back and managed to find the school that the woman in the Tourist information had suggested could be the one that Colin stayed at on his school trip. We found it but I’m not sure it meet the criteria. There is one last chance as it takes up a large area but I couldn’t face the walk to the other road so we will have to drive it on another day.
When we got back it was so good to go for a swim in the salt water pool of the owners before getting ready to drive out to a restaurant - L’Embrcadie - that we had managed to book earlier online. We managed another first of ordering Magret duck which as superb. The view over the river was beautiful although the number of spiders and insects were not - I await the bites to develop tomorrow!
