France Day 4
Again woken by the church bells, we left after breakfast. With our next goal being Tours. Because of several road blocks and detours it took us quite a bit longer than anticipated. We did a short detour on our own, to dump the toilet which despite being half empty was a bit smelly. We weren't really sure what to see in Tours but it was on our way anyway.
In Tours we couldn't find a parking spot. The streets were crowded and it had began to rain. So we didn't really feel like spending more time hunting for parking spot. We saw a bit of the city and the town hall while driving through and decided that was enough. Sorry Tours.
Next stop Loches. Again we had trouble to find the official place to park motorhomes but in the end we found a good spot. The rain had stopped a long while ago and it was still hot. But now it was hot and humid. Nontheless we started climbing the hill housing the Royal City of Loches where we visited the Cathedral.
We then set down in a Café where the owner didn't speak any English but she called her daughter who did. Kaddi and I shared an excellent carpaccio and had a coffee.
Nourished this way we walked on to visit the keep. Included in the ticket price was a “Histopad” - an Android based tablet that used indoor navigation to show additional information. When scanning (using the built-in camera) certain seals in the rooms, the tablet switched to a rendering of the same room as it might have looked back in the day. By moving the tablet augmented reality style, you could easily compare the now and then. This was really cool and I wish more places had this (especially Roman ruins could benefit from that kind of treatment).
The tickets for the keep include access to the royal lodge as well, so we visited that next. Unfortunately no hightech guide was available there and most stuff was described in French only. But we were exhausted anyway and returned to the car. After coffee and cake it was time to hit the road again.
We picked a place right in Montrésor, a little medieval town with another castle. The chateau was closed already, but we took a stroll along the lovely banks of the Indre river and the beautiful little lanes of the town.
After Salad for dinner we hit the hay.
