Day 16 - the rest of Blois

By Sunday we were pretty much Musee'd and Chateau'd out, so we just planned a quiet day exploring the rest of Blois.

And Blois helped us with our quiet day by closing pretty much everything.

We walked over the bridge to the other side of the Loire and found a small park to watch the river run sluggishly by. There's not much depth to the Loire at Blois.

We walked up to the cathedral but, being a Sunday morning, it appeared to be in some use. We took photos of the outside then went back to the Chateau to watch the dragons again.

Nearby was the Museum of Natural History, but it was undergoing renovation and only had one room open. Still, we found out there were European beavers, so that's something.

We were pretty worn out by that stage, but were made one last effort to climb back up to the cathedral, to see the inside.

The trip was worth it, as we found some lovely gardens behind it.

Back down the hill again to find somewhere open for dinner, and one last weary trek back to the hotel for our last sleep in Blois.

Day 14 - the Chateaus of Blois & Chambon

Blois used to house the Royal Palace before it was moved to Paris. And It was from Blois that we got the fleur-de-lys as a symbol of French royalty. Needless to say, the Chateau de Blois was full of the damn things.

Chateau de Blois

The Throne - covered in the damn things

Inside the Chateau

In the afternoon we took a bus out to one of the grandest and largest Chateaus of them all, the Chateau de Chambord:

 To scale

 The Chateau de Chambord is rumoured to be designed by Leonardo da Vinci - it is based on a modular design and has a double spiral staircase at its centre which bears an uncanny resemblance to the DNA do.uble helix.

Okay, the interior of the staircase looks more like 2001

 And the upstairs roof area reminded me of Gormenghast

 Chambord Is what I would call an unhaunted house. It's to big for any kind of homeliness or comfort. Only sections of it have been in use at any given time, it's more an act of conspicuous consumption than a domicile.

Day 13a - The Dragons of Blois

They deserve their own post:

We must have watched them about four times now.

Day 13 - Blois

The wifi in our hotel is a bit flakey. So I'm hoping to do a bigger update later.

Blois is fairly small compared to Nantes and both its attractions to us are right next to each other. And there's nowhere to eat near the hotel (which is just next to the station.) In a way it reminds me of the historical French equivalent of Glen Innes.

The point to staying here is that it's central to the Chateaus of the Loire valley. We plan on day trips to Tours and Orleans (so it's handy that we're just across from the station.)

I'll digress here just to point out how amazing the French train system has been, especially for those with minimal French. I was able to book our train tickets on the net, but collect them at the station from a automated ticket machine, just by using the same credit card. C'est magnifique!

We immediately availed ourselves of the first major attraction in Bloyes - the Robert-Houdin Maison de la Magir. Robert-Houdin was the father of modern stage magic,and a personal hero of mine and the museum devoted to his memory is absolutely delightful.

For a start it has - ah, but I'll save that for when I can embed a YouTube video. Instead, as I'm composing this on my iPhone I'll attach a couple of photos at the end.

The museum has it's own live magic show (which was delightful), a room devoted to optical illusions, an exhibition of puppetry, a floor devoted to Robert-Houdin himself (who had a fully automated house a century before Bill Gates) and finally - the Hallucinoscope, which is hard to describe, but entails walking through a darkened exhibit wearing mirrors under your eyes that reflect the ceiling - do it created the illusion of walking underwater.

Another wonderful, one of a kind experience from France!