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May 31, 2004
France 2004 - Day 6-8 : A REAL Internet Cafe : Jared as Artist
By real I mean that it has a 'standard' keyboard and I can type quickly and spell correctly - trust me it makes my brain hurt to type on a European keyboard.
If you aren’t familiar the real differences are - you have to shift to get the numbers - lord knows where the @ symbol is. The 'A' 'M' and 'Z' keys are in the wrong place and that really hurts.
Anyways - I last wrote from Chartes and since there was still some light I drove south for a bit to a town called Sully-sur-Loire to photograph the Chateau de Sully-sur-Loire it was dusk and if all goes well I should have some interesting shots with the moon overhead.
I had dinner at this Italian restaurant that kept talking about an assortment of jams - which sounded good to me - even better when I found out that jam = ham.
Speaking of funny restaurant stories - earlier I was at a place where the waiter spoke English - I still tried and for my French fries I asked "How do you say Mayonnaise in French?" "Mayonnaise IS French" was his reply - whoda thunkit. Well one more word in my vocabulary.
I started to drive to Moulin since there were no rooms in Sully and in my very tired state forgot to check how much gas I had - I really was in the middle of the country and figuring it would be better to not be lost that to be stranded I pulled over and went to sleep in the car in what I later found out was Lassay-sur-Croishe - don't look for it, its not on the map.
I woke up to a slight drizzle and thought of the Sting song - "woke up in my close again this morning - don't know exactly where I am ... Chateaus in the rain" OK OK the verse is really Shadows in the Rain but I thought it was better like this.
I did get to a gas station before I ran out but it only took plastic with a chip but we don't have those - so this very nice man bought me gas and I gave him cash.
Next to the Chateau du Moulin where I was adopted by a group of French couples who just decided to go see the Castles and bought my ticket for me so I could get their group rate - it was very sweet.
Then I went to the Chateau de Fougeres-sur-Bievre but they were closed for lunch - I wonder what Castles eat?
Then to the Donjon in Montrichard - really sucky castle with an AMAZING museum attached.
Then to the Chateau de Montressor which had a Medieval Festival going on and I got to eat a little.
On the road from there I found this building marked La Corroierie du Liget which I later found out was a 15th century fortified house - good enough for my Castle list :)
Also I stopped at the remains of La Chartreuse du Liget which only cost 0.5e to get into but it cost me 1 cause the little girl didn’t give me any change.
At the very outskirts of the Loire is Logis which turned into a 3 for 1 - I saw the Chateau Logis Royal - the Donjon de Loches and the Port Royale de Loches - its a walled city (2km around) with only one entrance.
I drove further and saw - by chance- the Chaetau de Preuilly as I stopped to photographs some Lilly pads in the water.
Drove a bit further and saw the Chateay Baronnial de Angles-sur-l'Anglin which was on my list - I wasn't able to go inside but I was able to climb around the rocky hillside that surrounds it.
I kept driving and drove though Chaunigny which -though I was tempted- I didn’t stop in - the Medieval Crepery that I twice ate at was still there but there was no parking so I kept driving - plus Id been noshing all day.
I found a self service hotel outside Niort - I love these things - I checked in and out and never saw a person just a machine. I managed to steal not a towel but a sheet from the hotel so I have something to wrap up in if I sleep in the car again.
It was drizzling this morning - its about noon now - and I photographed the Donjon in Niort - next to it was a little indoor food market - yummy.
I tried to go shopping but everything seems closed I think it might be some sort of holiday weekend cause the Banks were closed on Friday (they are always closed on Monday).
I drove up to La Rochelle (where I am now) and another 3fer-The Tour Saint Nicolas the Tour de la Chaine and the Tour de la Lanterne. Not easy to shoot in the rain and I figured I would duck in here and type for a few.
My next stop isn't photographic - it’s to Rochfort :) YUM
Then the long drive to Bordeaux. I’m pretty much headed south and my next big stop is the Pyrenees.
See what a difference a real keyboard makes.
Posted by jeb2 at May 31, 2004 08:53 AM
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