Paris to the Loire Valley

It was an early start despite the fact that neither of us slept well at all. The plan was to take the two trains and a bus to Orly airport where we would pick up our Citroen Eurolease car for 50 days. Lew as usual took an extra half an hour to get out of bed which I was annoyed about as we were still yet to pack. Once he does wake up he tells me that he's changed his mind about our plans and thinks we should just take the €40 ($65 NZD)Uber instead of the hassle of switching two trains and a bus despite it only €22 ($36) I know it's a big difference in price but man would have been a nightmare if we had taken public transport. So the Uber took us right though all the stops we had been through on the bike tour all the way until we got on the main ring road around Paris to Orly airport. It was a chilly and very foggy morning and wouldn't have been great for flying anways. Lew had to put the address into his own google maps and give it to the driver even though we couldn't work out how to switch it into French for him without swapping his entire phone. This is because it wasn't just the airport terminal we had to go to but a car rental place our the back of the airport. Arriving just after 10am a man who spoke little English explained the paperwork to us - insurance stuff we were meant to hold onto at all times. I was so nervous all morning as I remember signing the contract back in Auckland and after we had sent it off i read that it said my signature had to match my passport. Iv been struggling to replicate that signature for awhile now since Iv been nursing it's become more of a scraw as opposed to the more particular curvasive writing it used to be. Iv had all sorts of troubles with it getting my UK visa and at the bank. I actually get sweaty palms whenever someone asks me to sign for something. But we managed to get through and I quickly put my passport away so there couldn't be a direct comparison. He took us out to the car and we were both super pleased it wasn't yellow! It was a black 2017 Citroen C3 with only 2kms on it. I don't think either of us had ever driven such a new car. The man showed us the basics mainly miming things like the windscreen wipers and how to put the windows down. It all seems pretty simple other than the fact that it was a manuel right hand drive. After just fitting our one large bag into the boot we had been told it is a good idea to lock them in. We had brought a couple of steel cable locks back in Auckland and locked each end of the bag to the interior of the car. It's more of a deterrent than anything and we will only do this when we have the bag with us travelling from A to B.  My parents called me and we had a brief chat before both Lew and I practiced driving the car around the carpark. Once we had decided which way we were going - down to Orleans as we couldn't check in till 4pm anyways we hit the road. Luckily for me Lew took the first shift as he learnt to drive in the states where they drive on the right anyway. Plus he can drive the manuel Subaru Impreza I had back home, I won't say he drove it amazing as I was concerned about the smell of clutch every time he got out. But he was by far the better option. I had driven in the states once before when I had to take Lew and John back from Eric's bachelor party which involved a lot of beer, hence the need for a sober driver. There needed to be a lot of back seat driving which for a change was welcomed. At least this time my name is actually on the car insurance as it wasn't the time above making me far more nervous. 

Getting out of Paris was definetly scary as it was busy and we were trying to drive on the highways. Lew had read up on the local road rules last night so I hoped he knew what he was doing. It's been mentioned before I'm sure but I am a horrible navigator. So I am incredibly lucky that in this day and age you can hook your phone up to google maps and it does it for you. I think it's also lucky for lewis as no doubt if I was trying to navigate on a paper map we would often end up in the wrong place and there would be frequent heated words. However, I'm sure there will still be moment like this! The roads began opening up and we started seeing paddocks. It's hard to know the speed limits sometimes as it's not always on a sign. They might just have a 70 with a cross through it meaning that's the end of the 70km/hr zone but no replacement speed. We just judged it by the locals, you knew you were going too slow when you had a truck right up your arse. The thing Lew found the hardest was lining the car up on the road whilst being on the right side instead of the left. He love tapped a curb at one point and we pulled over to check for any damage- there wasn't! We did contemplate removing the plastic hub caps after that to prevent any damaged, especially when I drive!

By midday we were starting to get very hungry and came across a large supermarket or a hypermarket they actually call them since they are bigger and better. Basically like a supermarket and Kmart join into one. I kid you not we spent about 2 hours in this place trying to buy food for lunch, dinner tonight and snacks. It took a lot of google translate to work out what things were and Lew struggled to find the most basic things such as milk! They dont seem to have fridges full of fresh milk here. Instead it is the UHT milk that can stay on the shelves. After spending a lot of time going up and down the isles I managed to translate "Where is the milk please?" on my phone and show it to one of the shop girls. She started counting in French and I mimed the numbers on my fingers and she was able to show us it was 4 isles away. The only cold milk was some stuff from Brittany (we had to translate that just incase we were buying cream). All together it cost us €93 ($152 NZD) which we decided was maybe only slightly more expensive than it would be back in NZ. I guess its a good thing but they dont give you plastic bags for your groceries so we were forced to find a couple of reusable ones and also a chiller bag. I had been searching for these in London but couldn't find them in the supermarkets. We snacked on the bread rolls outside the car since we didnt want to get the car dirty just yet. We also ate the madarins we brought but I didnt get many thinking they could possibly have seeds in them. Best news of the day (other than the car not being yellow!) was that they didnt and I went back inside to buy an entire bag full despite the costing €3.50 ($5.79 NZD) per kg. We also got some more cash out as we imagined these small towns run mainly off cash and not cards.

Continuing along the road we had chosen to avoid the toll roads which meant we were ducking in and out of small towns. They were so beautiful in their own way with plain stone building on each side of the road, some in much need of maintenance. We didn't want to be those people comparing their home town to everything but we did feel as though we were driving through some rural parts of NZ such as Arrowtown. Lew had routed the journey to go through the famous Chateau de Chambord which we had planned to stop off at but now had so many groceries in the back seat that we couldnt hide it all. Plus our car has red number plates which is what other tourists or diplomats have in this country so we would stick out like a sore thumb. Basically begging people to steal out stuff. As we were driving in we happened to look left and the Chateau was peeping out from behind the tree. WOW probably the most stunning building we have seen so far. We drove around it noticing that they charge you for parking so we couldn't get any closer, figuring we would come back tomorrow we started the last leg of the day down to Amboise in the Loire Valley. So far Lew has been doing all the driving and I was searching for a Airbnb in the Pyrenees for us to stay in next week before we get to Barcelona. 

It took us an hour to get to Amboise which was a picturesque town on the side of the Loire River full of stone houses with flowers and autumn leaves. We were staying just outside of Amboise in a place called Nazelles-Négron but it is basically just a drive across the bridge. It was slightly hard to find the Airbnb we were staying in as it was up a wee path in the side of a cave. We parked up and Lew went to look for it since the streets are so narrow it was the easiest option. Finding it we then brought the car in a little closer and Lew parallel parked the Citroen into what looked like a decent gap but proved to be a little difficult. Mainly because the car has hill assist and there was a moment when he dropped so far back I thought for sure he had hit the pole behind. I was trying to push him forwards to stop this happening - I dont think I was really making much difference since the car does weight about 1,000kgs 😂. We unloaded everything out of the car and made our way up the rugged stone path. Lew reminded me this is why we brought the Osprey bags with sturdy wheels so we could still wheel the thing up this path. Out host Alexis greeted us and showed us into the room. The cave had been clearly excavated out to put a couple of rooms in but it had the most beautiful wee kitchen, a comfortable looking bed and a huge bathroom. We were very pleased we could cook dinner tonight as well and also do some washing as the supply of clothes has certainly dropped and the laundry bag has got considerably large!

We unpacked quickly and decided to head into Amboise as it was still 23 degrees with the sun on its way down.  Lew decided to let me give driving a go but I made sure he got out of the tight little park before starting. It's so strange as you go to grab the seatbelt on the side it's usually on but it's not there. My left hand also felt a bit redundant since I usually change gears with that hand instead of my right. There were a few close calls with some curbs but over all it didn't feel toooo unnatural. Although when I panic I smack my left hand into the door looking for the gear stick that's not there. We parked in the city and walked down the small bricked streets with shops and restaurants on either side. There was a wine shed in a cave and we figured we probably need to start indulging in some wine since we are in Frances wine country. Walking around we didn't really know what we were after, im always a Reisling fan but usually only when the parents are supplying it as I'd rather save my pennies. We heard the unfamiliar sound of a kiwi accent and the people turned around ready to head out of the shop with their wine. The women and I recognised each other but I couldn't remember how I knew her. She ended up being my dads cousin Diane and her husband who had been also driving a Eurolease car around. They didn't seem to have an issues with the red number plates and this was their second time having one of these cars. They also reassured us that when you drop the car back they don't mind that you have scuffed the rims and the car is dirty. That means we won't have to take the rims off! Yay! But in saying that we will be trying very hard not to damage them. After taking a photo for my parents we headed our seperate ways (see photo below!).

We wanted to get to the top of the Chateau D'Amboise in the middle of the square and found some steep stairs to walk up. It just took us up a hill with a beautiful view over the city with the Loire River in the background. After google mapping where we were we realised that Leonardo Da Vinci's Chateau du Clos Luce was four minutes walk away. Despite being closed we were able to walk in and admire the outside gardens only to find a map and realise that they went for miles. Lew is especially interested in this Chateau as it contains models of his inventions. Planning to come back in the next day or so we walked back through town to the car. It was about 7pm at this stage and we were ready to cook dinner. I parked the car in a much easier spot that I just had to drive into, although I still managed to run over this strange half circle thing on the ground. We think it is to stop people hitting the wall so I must have been a tad close. We took turns cooking the potatoes, sausages, garlic bread and salad for dinner whilst the other person had a candle lit bath with a glass of wine! It was such a nice change not having to go out and to also feel full after a meal. Often we left a restaurant in Paris still hungry but feeling we couldn't really afford anymore food. It was about 9.30pm when we finished dinner and we sorted through the accomodation I had highlighted during the car ride. We chose a place in Revel for a few days time which was a good location for one night. We then made a list of all the places we still need to book accomodation for, it was rather frightening and I wished we had done more back home. But the reality was we were so busy catching up with friends and family and tidying up all our mess from our Auckland flat that we didn't have time. We also wanted to leave it somewhat unplanned incase we were told of any other area we should go to instead. That's it for the night, ready to see some Chateaus tomorrow! 

<-- Lew cooking dinner in the cave!