16th Century Châteaus, a more ancient town and even more ancient public transport network?

Sunday September 3

Today we took the train to Blois, arriving at around 2pm. I tried to find out where our hostel was and which bus to take. After about an hour of waiting in queues and attempting with limited success to bridge the language barrier we decided that this nut was too tough to crack and we opted for a taxi. A good thing we did, we would've been waiting till 6 for a bus!

We arrived at the hostel at around three and read the note on the door: "Hostel closed from 10am to 6pm every day". 10am TO 6pm EVERY DAY!!! what ridiculous hours to be closed! I ignored the sign and rang the doorbell. After a few minutes a bothered looking French lady opened the door. "Yes?" she said in a French accent. "Um... I have a booking for two beds". "Okay, but we're closed..." a pause... "but you can put your bags inside." This offer seemed rather unwillingly made and was very readily accepted.

After dumping our bags we inquired about buses into, of which there were none, and then began walking. An hour and a half, and five kilometers later we found ourselves back at the train station at the edge of the town centre. We'd walked through the countryside though and there were some classic ivy-draped French houses, a crowing rooster and views of the Loire river along the way.

We walked into and around the town, void of all but a little life on this Sunday, and sat down for a drink at one of the few cafés which were actually open before heading back to the station to catch the bus to the hostel. There we met Maribí, a Mexican girl and Celine, a French girl with very little English, who we spent the evening with.

Monday September 4

We caught the bus from the hostel at 9.30 today in to the city where we wandered around to find the tourist information centre. We wanted to check out a Château from the area and after chatting with the office and skimming some flyers we decided for Château Chambord, around 16kms to the east. The bus didn't leave until 12.15, so we took another short self-guided tour of the town before having a coffee then heading to the station to catch the bus.

The Château was magnificent (just the kind of word they love to use for this kind of thing) - the kind that rekindles the spark of the childhood imagination. You could just imagine Kings and Queens here, as well as courtiers, armies, battles, victories and defeats. The reality was somewhat more subdues; the Château actually served as a hunting lodge for the King, and was barely even used even for that.

We spent around 5 hours exploring the Château and its grounds before catching the bus back into town. We bought some supplies and then heading back to the hostel to cook up a Cous Cous dinner. Oui, oui.