France 2004 – Day 6-8 : A REAL Internet Cafe

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.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]