Chambord, Concert, and O’TAcos!

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Happy Bastille Day! I guess we missed some fine fireworks last night. The group picture of the seven of our group that stuck it out and watched made me totally jealous. Oh, well – I wouldn’t have gotten anything written and that would have disappointed me. Keith noticed our friend, Kevin, was representing for Bastille day.

We stepped onto a NEW BUS this morning. Cyril, our bus driver, gets a day off, so we have a substitute bus driver who comes with his own bus. It is bigger – empty seats!! more room in the seats!!, plus the air conditioning worked great. We only had to drive about half an hour from Blois (pronounced Bl-wah…sort of) to Chambord castle, but we wallowed in the luxury. That was appropriate because Chambord castle is a bit luxurious – if you consider 440 rooms and 83 staircases luxury. (I do)

We’ve been in pretty many castles and this one was really different in its vastness. Vaaastnesssss. In addition to 440 rooms, the rooms are HUGE. There are only three main floors, but the height of the building is equal to an 8 story building. The ceilings are SO HIGH. It had real issues with warmth – or lack thereof. There is a double helix staircase(you can go up and I can go down and we will never see each other) in the center and it just sucked any warm up and out. King Frederick I built it and spent very little time here, because, you know, lots of castles to live in.

Our guide was slowly walking us through the big rooms on the first and second floor. We have QuietVox earpieces, so we can hear her without having to be near here. There were several of us who were wandering around all of the rooms nearby while listening to her tell the history and interesting bits. I think the group did 10 rooms and we did 60 or more. It seemed very possible to get lost, so if I lost signal with her voice, I immediately turned back. There were so many choices of ways to go, that we felt like we were playing hide and seek.

Keith climbed all the way to the top and got some great yard shots, but I am subbing in one from Sally, because in it she has added a helpful notation.

Keith found some awesome shoehorns in the gift shop. If they didn’t cost 50euro and weigh 8 pounds, everyone would be getting one for Christmas.

The band played a concert at 3pm in a movie theater at the local multiplex. Yes. In a movie theater at a regular movie theater. While we were riding over there, I noticed Dan had his music out and was practicing. No wonder he is so good!

We loaded everything in and set up and the band warmed up a bit. We wondered how things would sound and worried that since it was kind of on the outskirts of town (and in a movie theater!) if anyone would come. No one was going to be walking by and say, hey! let’s do a thing! At 2:55, no one had come. NO ONE. I was heartbroken for Dick, our trip planner, because he puts so much time and energy and care into making a terrific trip for us, and he would be so disappointed to have a poor audience (much less NO ONE). Then, suddenly, they started to come. Six people came in! I was so happy. Six was so many more than no one. There was a long pause, then a man pushing a wheelchair lady came in. I was hopeful maybe that wasn’t the end, just a slowdown…and I was right! More people came. I started counting. One, two, five, seven, ten plus the first 6 and the couple…wait, more…and more…I tried to keep up but there was a flood of about 50 more people. YAY! (One of the people was Cyril, on his day off from being our bus driver. Wasn’t that sweet?)

It turns out that a movie theater is not a bad place to have a concert. It sounded really good. It was by far the best I have heard the band play. They finished, with an encore, and the audience clapped and clapped and then sat down. Literally no one left. They all just sat there, waiting for more. We all sat there, waiting for them to leave. Jack said, “au revoir” and everyone laughed. And sat. And looked around. Then they got up and started talking to the band. It turns out really a lot of French people don’t speak English (or don’t want to speak English). Jan, one of our tenor horn players, actually speaks French and did the announcing for the concert. Between her and our tour guide, we got some communication going. It felt so good to have the people so excited about the music. What a great afternoon.

We had a free evening, dinner on our own. On the bus, Keith said he wanted to eat next door at O’Tacos: French Tacos, but it wasn’t open. As I got off the bus, a man walked out of O’Tacos. Turns out they just weren’t open for lunch. Was it because it is Sunday or was it because it’s Bastille Day? Doesn’t matter. We got a crew of 8 to take out food from O’Tacos to take and eat next to our hotel pool. It never occurred to me that we wouldn’t know how to order because there isn’t a menu to just to point at. All of our restaurant meals have been pre fixe for the group. We got in there and it was hilarious how confused we were. Mike took the bull by the horns and just went for it. He walked out with his food while we were trying to figure out how to order from the kiosk that we had gotten to be in English!

French tacos are not tacos. My food was chicken cordon bleu, french fries, bbq sauce, and cheese inside a folded tortilla (kinda) that looked like it was panini pressed with cheese melted on it. It was good. It was big. Everyone ended up with french fries in their “taco” although only some knew that they had ordered it. It was a very successful meal – entirely new, entirely crazy trying to order, entirely fun sitting and laughing and laughing while eating.

There is a place called the House of Magic. If I were going to be here longer or again, I would definitely go. Dragons come out of the windows every 20 minutes or so, so we hiked over to see it, even though it is closed on Bastille day. Stacy, Dan, and Keith went down the same stairs we took last night and I was trailing. I said “I’m going this way”, which was on the other side of a house. I thought my path was going to curve around the house and meet with their path in about 40 feet. Nope. Mine took a sharp right and went down very steeply – without steps. In case you are wondering, no steps fell much harder on your knees than steps.

I was down very quickly and zoomed over to the bottom of the steps to meet them. No them. I went over a block, thinking I missed them. Mmmm. Maybe I was mistaken on where they should come out. I walked up and down the block. I texted. It turns out that they didn’t hear me and were legitimately worried I was taken. I had disappeared so quickly – POOF! They were running back up the hill and all around and I was just down there waiting. Oh, poor people – sorrysorrysorry! The next picture is my “I’m lost” face.

We had to walk a couple blocks and then back up the hill. What the actual hell? C’mon, Blwahh, do better with your hills. The sign said that the dragons only come out during opening hours. Augh. No dragons. We watched a video. We would have liked it.

We hiked home and saw the local castle on our way. We are settling in for a slightly early night now. Off to Paris tomorrow!!