Winding down and relaxing

Tuesday 24th June

We are obviously getting tired and the heat is not helping. Today we decided on a quiet day - a trip in to Blois for a further look around. Blois is a nice calm city - relatively light traffic and easy to drive around the city with little stress. Having Dora makes it easy to find what we want. We've got this parking thing sorted - free parking between 12 and 2,  so our 3 hours only cost €1.20. 

We first visited the eglise Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. This chapel was built in the 1660s by the jesuits. It was deconsecrated during the french revolution, and became a church again in 1826. 

These trees were in the original gardens of the Chateau
- they were huge.

Eglise Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Blois.

We decided to walk down to the escalier Denis Papin - it looked to be a long walk but was only a couple of minutes. Denis Papin was an inventor from Blois who invented the steam engine. The staircase has 120 steps with 4 landings, and connects the upper and lower towns. It is actually an art display with the artwork re done seasonally. For the 2025 summer season, the Denis-Papin staircase is adorned with lemon trees, echoing the painting 'The Lemon' by Edouard Manet. A little bit of googling showed me some of the other images from previous seasons. Pretty stunning. 

After this, a cool drink and a crepe, then a wander around the streets in the old town, and finally made our way back to base for a late lunch and rest out of the heat.

Dog of the day.

A few street scenes in Blois.

Les trois clefs - the three keys.
These keys are said to unlock the doors to love, health and wealth. 

You just can't get away from these old timbered houses, with their wonky lines.
Yet hundreds of years later, they are still standing and lived in. 

Wednesday 25th June

With the temperature predicted to be 35 today we had a day at home. We probably really needed the downtime anyway. 

Headed out to a nearby relais for lunch. We'd driven past it a few times so decided to check it out. Nope! Bit on the pricey side so we decided to try the cafe in the centre of the village. We had a choice of 2 eating places - one did crepes and gauffres,  the other did a menu. Well, what a find. The menu was buffet of salads and cold meats for entree, buffet of hot foods for main, buffet of cheeses, buffet of desserts - all you can eat! We took our time and tried many of the dishes. Followed it all with an expresso coffee. 

The afternoon schedule - nanna nap to work off lunch.

Late in the afternoon we started to hear a lot of rumbling and grumbling. We had one doozy of a storm that took the power out for a couple of hours (thankfully we had just cooked dinner). Only thing to do - bed early.