Wednesday, July 30, 2008

6/8/08 Sunday ~ Travel Journal

Entry:
11am

We checked out of the hotel but left our bags. We took our bikes back to the bike shop and grabbed something to eat at a bakery. Jere had a chocolate eclair - not realizing that the WHOLE center was chocolate with a thin crust around it! After eating, we went to our last chateau - Chateau de Blois. We saved it for last because we weren't sure if we were going ot get to it yesterday. Obviously we didn't! Chateau Blois had the staircase I studied in my architecture history class. The Chambord Cheateau had a double helix staircase, but this one is in the courtyard. There were two others in enclosed towers. Blois was not as large as Chambord but amazing still. All of the architecture and time put into these chateaus is incredible. Barrel vault ceilings and carvings in the stone - simply breathtaking.

Hotel du Bellay was nice. I cost only 38EU! It has been around since the 17th century - (1600's) There was a sprial staircase leading to the second floor and higher with a smooth wood handrail sprialing up too. We loved that.

3pm
We're on the train headed to Paris. Paris is the best point to take a fast train to our next destination. I think we're going to Avignon. We should be there tonight and stay in our first camping.

4:36pm
We just arrived and walked across the Charles de Gaulle bridge to the Gare de Lyon station here in Paris. Our train leaves at 6:46pm. We are headed to Avignon (south France)

6:46pm
We're headed to Avignon!

12:07am (Monday)
The end of Sunday has come. We are sitting in our tent at the camping in Avignon. This is our first taste of camping on this month long trip. Hopefully we'll get into a better swing of things as we do this more. As we got off the train we realized we were outside of the town. No way to walk. We considered a taxi but decided to check the bus situation. Voila! The bus would take us to "Avignon Centre". We got off there and walked the rest of the way there only to find that they had closed. We were walking at 11pm at night - remember. Anyways, we turned back and are staying at camping Bagatelle
We spoke with the security who checked us in and got through the language barrier with difficulty, but fun. :)

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