Chateau de Blois
Blois
Quiet City
25 fevrier 2010 (Day 178)
I didn’t sleep very well even though the bed was really comfortable. I kept on waking up so once the town would start waking up I headed out. I think I went into about every bakery in Blois looking for a good looking almond croissant. I finally settled for a little pain au chocolat aux amandes (with almonds). I was disappointed with it so I found another bakery and got a croissant aux amandes. I was yet again disappointed. It was much better in Marseille with Whitney! I went to a bakery and got a great multigrain baguette for lunch and found a grocery store to pick up some produce.
After I had my breakfast I just walked throughout Blois. I crossed a giant bridge and went to the other side and saw some churches. I pretty much would find a tall cool looking building and then walk to it. Most of the churches were closed this morning though, which was disappointing that I couldn’t go in. I walked to a mosque, saw the city buildings, and a bunch of other things before the girls even left the hotel. They may have been wiser staying inside because it was raining! When I met up with Hannah and Jessica I was soaking. We walked around the castle. We would have gone inside but it was 8 euros per person (aka not worth it). The girls saw some things they liked in a tapestry store so we went inside and Hannah bought a silver butterfly broach for sixty euros and some sewing scissors on a chain for her mom. Jessica got a fancy ceramic spoon for her mom. And me, I don’t spend that much money on stuff. :] We went to the tourist office. Curse them. We went to verify times to go to Chambord, only the coolest castle ever and the reason we were going on this trip. She told us the wrong time and there is only one bus a day and we missed it. The worst part is we were there. We just sat in the train station and ate our lunches because it was pouring rain and there isn’t much to see in Blois. While waiting we made a reservation at this amazing looking restaurant and then went looking for our bus. And we missed it because she told us the wrong time. We had all had enough by this point so we went and changed our tickets so that we could go home to Nantes.
We huddled around a space heater and tried to dry our backpacks and socks while waiting for the train. I was really excited because I realized that I could get Elder Bourgeois a Paris Brest from Tours for which he would sell his first child. I had it all planned out and I was totally ready to go because I had fifteen minutes in between our scheduled departure and arrival. I called Elder B. to make sure that he wasn’t allergic to pralines because they didn’t have the Paris Brest aux Fraises (with strawberries) that are his favorite in the whole wide world. I figured it was okay if I missed Chambord because Elder B. would be super happy and it would be an adventure to run and get a pastry (especially since the Tours religieuse was pretty gross). We got on the train and while the girls slept I anticipated my adventure, I still hadn’t gotten a hold of Elder B. but I figured he’d still like it. Then the train stopped. Right on the tracks, I have no idea why, but we were stopped for a while. We ended up getting into Tours ten minutes late. While arriving Elder B. finally called me back and then I had to explain the sad story about how I was going to get him his favorite pastry (he loves Tours and he served there for eight months) but then my train came in late. We literally walked off our first train and got on the next. I was pretty bummed so I stared out the window for a lot of the ride. There are so many beautiful manors and random castles throughout France! Wyoming would be a lot more interesting to drive through if it was like that. We made it to Nantes and we were all pretty tired.
I went looking for a fleece jacket because only wearing one coat for our adventure was a terrible idea because I froze. I looked in a couple of stores and ended up deciding against getting a fleece jacket because it would be pretty warm for spring. I did find really cheap sleeping bags (ten euros!). I didn’t buy one though. I just headed home and went for a short run later on.
