Paris - Tours

Yesterday in Paris we mostly travelled with the metro, because the distance between the places we planned to see was pretty big. The first one was the Opera, then Place Vendome, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame de la Lorette, La Defense, Trocadero + Eiffel Tower, Invalides, Musee D'Armee, Asemblee Nationale, Palais Bourbon, Musee D'Orsay, Conciergerie, Palais de Justice, Institut du Monde Arabe, Gare Austerlitz, Bastille.


We were exhausted after such a day. Last night I planned the route for today, with the castles of the Loire Valley, and I made a reservation in a hotel near Tours. I found a Premiere Classe for 41eur, very good and in our way.
So in the morning we left Paris a bit late (we went shopping in a cheap supermarket in Paris plus it was difficult to pack) and we headed towards Versailles. We only walked outside the castle, we didn't go inside because there was a 1km queue at the entrance, swirling around the front courtyard, so we just took some pictures and left.

Next we went to Chartres, we saw the cathedral, then we went to Orleans to see the cathedral as well. We also wanted to see Ch'dun, but it was already pretty late so we skipped it. From Orleans we went to Ch'bord and I was amazed by this castle. From there we went to Ch'rny, but it was in vain because we didn't see anything. The ticket costed 15euro and we didn't want to pay that much just to see the castle from the outside and to take 3 pictures. It was well hidden so we didn't get to see anything.

The next castle was Bois, because it was in our way towards Ch'boise. Ch'boise was more beautiful, but from the Bois Castle you had a nice view on the centre of the town and you could also see the cathedral a bit more up. Between these two we saw another one on the banks of the river, we also stopped in a parking to take some pictures. These pictures were made using zoom, so I don't know how good the pictures are, because I can't really stand still when I take pictures.

We planned to see 4-5 more, but it didn't work out because it was already late. they are here in the area and we'll visit them tomorrow. Besides, we also have to drive to Lyon ... But tonight I made reservations for the last days of the trip, so tomorrow we'll sleep at Premiere Classe Lyon Est Bron Eurexpo, then at Etap Winterthur in Switzerland and the last night at Jess Hotel Urstein in Salzburg. Unless there will be some surprises, Tuesday evening we'll arrive in Oradea.

Loire Valley

We've started early today. We had a long trip to the remaining castles and then to Lyon, avoiding highways. We've seen one by one: Chateau de Villandry, Chateau Azay-le-Rideau, Chateau de Chinon, Chateau de Rivau, Chateau de Chenonceau and Chateau de Valençay. We didn't enter, didn't have time for it, so we didn't see anything at Chenonceau, it was well hidden.
The road outside the highway was not so bad, a lot of speed limitations (30 - center, 50 - through the locality, 70 - before a curve or intersection, 90 general limitation) but we didn't take them into account so much. We've driven as the road allowed us, paying attention at the radar signs (radar was presignalized with 100m).
Driving on these roads gave us the chance to see the real France, not only what you see driving on the highway (nothing). In conclusion: good roads. A - highway, N - national road, Dwxyz - less numbers after D, the bigger the road - well, a D with 3-4 numbers is like a good road in Romania. The GPS took us on a very narrow road between some very small villages, but even that one was good, without holes in it.

With the GPS we had other adventures. Once, when we had a bigger distance between 2 castles, it said 120km. From what I've seen on bing maps, the distance should've been much smaller, and mostly the drawing was not minimum (not even close to a straight line). As for the time it said 140min, so it wasn't quick neither. On the GPS the setting was "optimum", so I changed it to "shortest" and surprise, 75km and 90min, a big difference. So we went like this, on the shortest, and we were careful not to enter every small road that the GPS would've said, so we arrived in 60min.
On Valençay - Lyon, on optimum I had 371km and on shortest 360 so for 11km it was not worth it. With the time we were not on the same line, GPS said 7h30 and we made 6h15 with 2 pauses, gas refuelling, some shopping at the supermarket and missing the street when entering Lyon, so instead of going near Lyon, with speed, we went through the center, red lights and roundabouts. So 5h i think it should've been correctly.

The best news is that my window is working fine again :) it's like new. i didn't do anything, it saw that I'm not giving it too much importance and it cured itself :) so we had a moral boost perfectly timed before the road to Lyon.

This evening we don't have internet in the room, they say it's because of the renovation works in the hotel that wi-fi is not reaching anymore, so i've posted (the romanian version only) in the morning, before leaving. The route for the next day is Lyon - Geneva - Lausanne - Luzern - Winterthur. Depending on how it will go (we will avoid the highways again), we'll jump some of them or enter through Zurich also.