Hopping on our Horses

This last week the boys have been off from school.  Ed did a bit of research and discovered a group in the Loire Valley that rents out bikes, makes hotel and restaurant reservations and gives you detailed directions for a multi-day bike trip.  We thought that an active vacation would make a nice change of pace and signed ourselves up. 

As the trip got closer we noticed that the long-term weather forecast was less than stellar.  That sent us on a week-long search for rain clothes.  After our eventual success, we were now equipped with rain coats, rain pants and a whole host of plastic bags (for which the French seem to have an enormous love – every purchase, no matter how large or small, is tidily packaged into a plastic sack, and multiple items will sometimes even warrant multiple sacks). 

As you well know, our family has no great feelings for long road trips.  We broke down and bought a portable DVD player to help us get through the travels, and carted several loads of books and movies from the library to make it through the 8 hours predicted for the voyage there.  With Ed’s Ipad loaded up with directions and maps, and our handy-dandy atlas on my lap we started out. 

After losing the directions Ed had so expertly loaded onto his Ipad, I navigated our way to Blois via the Atlas.  The city pops up across the Loire river, with its grand chateau and cathedrals, and was a very exciting first visual to our trip.  We found the hotel, after maneuvering a number of Boston-like one-way streets, and unloaded our bags into the two rooms.  We had arrived just in time for our first dinner, which turned out to be a full French-style meal.  The kids were thrilled to note all of the models based on the Tintin stories decorating the dining room. 

Noah, our self-declared vegetarian in the family, and I were allowed to choose an entrée (starter dish) with the meat taken out and then offered a dish of cooked vegetables.  The rest of the family chose varying forms of meat.  Julian selected the first of his many salmon dishes, Ed the first of his “alternative” meats, and Micah the first of many steaks and/or burgers.  Noah refused any and all desserts throughout the trip, Ed chose the cheese platter, and the other boys and I ordered fruit desserts.  Unfortunately for me, as soon as Noah finished his plat principal he announced that he needed to poo.  This was the first of many mid-dinner bodily interruptions, after which he decided that it was time for bed.  At least I have one child who knows to listen to his body’s inner rhythms!  So, skipping my Tarte Tatin, we went up to bed. 

Waking up the next morning, we looked at the posted weather forecast.  Scattered showers, each day.  Well, at least we had our rain gear.  After a breakfast full of croissants, baguettes, coffees, chocolates chauds, and other sundry breakfast treats, we went out behind the hotel to see that there were only three bicycles, rather than the four we had requested.  The tour group had been encouraging us to put Noah in the trailer, Micah on the suiveur-velo, and Julian on a regular bicycle, while we had hoped for the suiveur-velo for Noah, two bicycles for the older boys, and the trailer just-in-case, but mostly for our backpacks.  The luggage was, luckily, portaged from hotel to hotel for us by the bike company. 

After a bit of waiting for the new bicycle, we picked up some baguettes for lunch and parked the car in long-term parking.  Organizing all the gear into the bags, drying off all of the seats and bars and handles from the previous night’s rain, we prepared to go.  We walked the bike down off of the main hill in town and found an alley-way in which Micah could practice using the enormous bike they delivered.  A fair amount of frustration ensued.  From Micah about the very high seat and the hand-brakes.  From Julian about having to wait even longer to start.  From Noah about having to balance on the suiveur-velo.  Finally biking through the alley-ways, we got back to the same bridge over the Loire River.  Let’s just say that the view was lost this time around.  Micah decided to run his bike over the (very long) bridge, while Julian hollered at him from behind as he tried to pedal over the bridge. 

On the other side we let Ed be the biking “expert” to give Micah some “tips” while Julian and I forged our way ahead as navigators.  We biked along the riverbank and passed a playground that WAY surpassed any we’ve seen thus far in France.  However there was no way we were going to stop this early in the voyage as it was already almost eleven and we had thirty kilometers to go before reaching our lodgings for the night. 

Pedaling at a snail’s pace, we quickly realized that the directions were excellent.  The adults had a sort of water-proof lectern attached to the handle-bars, so we mounted our directions inside and read along as we pedaled.  I had taken a few moments at the beginning of the trip to try to figure out the little time/distance/speed meter they gave us.  I could navigate most of the system, except for the part where the kilometers started at thirteen instead of zero.  So, all of my kilometer markings were thirteen kilometers off. 

There was a bit of spitting rain as we pedaled along, but not enough to stop or even bring out the rain gear.  However, as we made our way into the farmlands around Blois we turned back to see an enormous, very dark, very ominous-looking cloud following us.  And sure enough, as we neared the 10-kilometer mark, the skies opened up.  Our first instinct was to pull out all the rain-gear.  With water-proof pants and rain-coats on, we hopped on and crossed a small bridge.  It was very quickly clear that this was no quick-passing cloud.  Luckily, we were at the edge of a small town, just before 13:00.  We covered up the bikes with plastic bags and popped into the boulangerie right before it closed.  With sandwiches in hand, the woman directed us to a covered awning where we could picnic and pass out the rain-storm.  And sure enough, half an hour later we were ready to go. 

The rest of the trip sort of blurs together.  We biked another long bit and ended up at the Chateau of Chambord, an enormous fairy-tale castle with endless turrets and rooms galore.  As it was already mid-afternoon, we decided to forgo the tour of the interior and just wandered the grounds.  It is amazing how the muscles used for walking feel so different after a day of biking!  After a snack of what was meant to be our lunch before the rainstorm required us to stop at the boulangerie, we hopped back on our horses and headed off to Bracieux for the night.  30 kilometers in total, we arrived at the hotel, just about ready to go to bed. 

However, it turned out that we were slated for another big French meal.  This one, however, was not in the hotel restaurant but in the town of Bracieux, a kilometer walk away!  Micah was quite uncomfortable, as his bike was the least well fitting.  He went the full 1000 meters in a saddle-sore cowboy hobble, wide-legged as if he was still on his horse!  On the way we passed a pharmacy, where Ed talked around Micah’s problem in the hopes of acquiring some sort of soothing cream or lotion.  And off to the restaurant where Noah and I had another large salad with a plat principal of cooked vegetables, Julian another plate of salmon, Ed had rabbit, and Micah had another steak with fries.  Again, Noah needed to excuse himself mid-meal, and again he decided the meal was done after his plat principal, so Ed and Noah left early while the other boys and I had dessert. 

The next morning we awoke to another yummy croissant and baguette breakfast and prepared to go. I had packed the suitcases reserving one for the biking part of the trip and the other for the sightseeing portion.  However, each night and morning was a tizzy of organizing to get out/put back the needed pajamas, changes for the next day and any needed toiletries, books, foods that we would need.  After each leg of the voyage I got better at replacing our luggage and by the last night I could unpack/repack without too much thought.  But that first morning took a bit a time to wrap my brain around the needed items. 

After a short tantrum, we set out and biked a short 3 kilometers and stopped at our first chateau for the day, Villaneuves.  This one turned out to be a bit disappointing, except for the large bag of stale baguettes the gate-guard gave us to feed the carp in the moat.  The chateau was run-down, and the interior was not open to the public at this time of year.  There was a nominally interesting, and a bit creepy, museum of wedding items, including over 300 wedding globes, a category of which I had never before encountered.  Back onto the bikes, we headed off to Cheverny.

The countryside was idyllic.  Working farmlands, in contrast to the previous day’s woodlands, small farmhouses and outbuildings in contrast to the previous day’s larger villes, the countryside easily filled up our souls.  After a total of 12 kilometers for the day, we arrived in the town of Cheverny.  Our hotel was closed for the luncheon hour, so we biked a bit further into the Chateau of Cheverny and had a picnic lunch. 

The grounds of Cheverny were filled with things to do.  We started with the Tintin museum.  Tintin is a reporter character in a 1940s/1950s comic book, and the home of one of the other characters, Captain Haddock, is based on the Chateau of Cheverny.  The museum housed items from the stories, as well as film footage of some of the cartoons and the boys were riveted.  . 

Popping out of the museum, we saw a worker pushing a large wheelbarrow towards an enclosure filled with hunting hounds.  On closer look, the wheelbarrow was filled with chicken carcasses to be fed to the dogs.  The scent was, um, overpowering.  The worker dumped the chickens onto the ground, covered them with some sort of kibble and then left to go clean another section of the enclosure.  But the poor dogs were still trapped above, smelling their, um, delicious chickens and forced to watch and wait.  Half an hour later the first twenty dogs were released to eat, and five minutes later the rest of the pack was set loose.  It was quite the sight to see the carcasses dissembled and the dogs devouring their meal come hell or highwater, climbing one upon the other in the small space.  The boys’ biggest memory of the event was one dog peeing blood on another.  Yet there was signage all around proclaiming the humane housing facilities and the high levels of health and safety for the animals.  Suffice it to say that I have never in my life experienced anything like it. 

After a wander around the grounds we took a tour through the actual chateau.  Cheverny, as have many of the chateaus we have toured, has a quiz for children to help them access and understand the antiquities which they see.  Julian and Micah went through, room by room and learned about the interesting details of this particular chateau, who lived there, who visited, the various and sundry forms of hunting and fighting gear, etc.  At the end of the tour the kids get a token treat as a reward.  Noah had a good time as well, running around down the garden paths while his brothers explored the chateau. 

The hotel finally opened up and we checked into our room.  With two hours to go until dinner, we vegged out in the dormitory-style room.  When dinner opened we were there, with slightly lesser hopes for our dinner based on the appearances of the hotel itself.  But boy, were we wrong.  This meal was by far the nicest of the three, and the cheese course was just stunning.  Twenty or so cheeses to choose from, lots of expert advice as to what to choose with what, what order to consume the cheeses, etc.  The meals were stellar and there was even a couple not staying at the hotel who had come for a tasting menu.  It looked stunning. 

Waking up the next morning we packed up and got going for one last ride.  The optional chateau ended up being closed during the mornings, and we weren’t going to wait four more hours.  So we basically biked for most of the day, with a stop at a boulangerie/patisserie with lines out the door.  And when we ate our sandwiches and after-meal choco-treats we could see why.  It was quite surreal, too, as the store was on a fairly industrial strip just off the highway.  We ate on an abandoned bridge that resembled a Roman aqueduct. 

Arriving back in Blois, we retraced our tears and tantrums, stopping to actually play at the awesome (read, best in France) playground.  And that was that.  75 kilometers later, and with no-longer-aching muscles, we all felt pretty proud of our accomplishments and pretty happy with the state of our worlds.  Go D-S Family, go!

We took the next three days to get back to Aix-en-Provence, touring one last chateau, stopping by the Lascaux Caves (one of the foremost examples of early cave art) and staying overnight and then touring Carcasonne, a medieval walled city with lots of crevices for exploration and charging the imagination. 

And, one week later, we returned to Aix-en-Provence, ready for life again.  That is, after our friend’s Halloween fete!