France holiday day 4 - Blois
Another almost sleepless night thanks to thunderstorms waking us at 4am and continuing for a couple of hours. Got up about 9 and went to the reception hoping to catch the breadman but what the lady didn't tell us yesterday was that we had to pre-order.
After the normal amount of camping faffing around and cycle prepare we actually set off the short journey to Blois along the Loire and over a very old bridge. We headed towards the Chateau de Blois straight into the Saturday bussle of the local market. We locked the bikes just below the entrance and bought the 3 x entry for the daytime chateau, the magic show over the road at the museum of magic and the luminere performance at 10:30pm.
Inside the chateau was rich in history with Joan of Arc involved, old French kings and especially from Henri the 3rd, a right royal villain with his minions who murdered a local duke and refused to talk to anyone who wasn't his minions.
The other side of the courtyard was the Maison de la Magie (Magic Museum) which had 6 animatronic salamander heads roaring and snapping their jaws every 30 minutes like a giant clockwork toy. Inside was a collection of illusions and optical tricks which had some hilarious results on camera. It was owned by a local clockmaker Houdin who's name was used by The Houdini and had some connection. If you've seen Hugo you'll get an idea of some of the artifacts. At 2:45pm was our booked performance for the magic show. No need for translation as the tricks spoke for themselves very well. All the classic routines were performed with some leaving you to ponder how they really did it. Overall, a very enjoyable experience topped off with a delicious lunch before heading back to the campsite.
Having cleaned ourselves up from the Loire river side trail riding we returned back to Blois town for an Italian restaurant. Food was good though they messed up the mains for Kerry (didn't matter as she went for a dessert instead). Managed to time the meal with enough time to take a place for the projected light show inside the Blois Chateau. Although we were warned the audio was only in French we were expecting something a little less boring. Having been spoiled by a free show in Epernay, this was a very simple projected imagery of the history of the chateau. There wasn't any flash use of computer generated graphics to compliment the architecture just the odd smoke machine and the some decoration of walls.
The ride home was a little scary having to rely on our head torches and rear reflectors. Took twice as long as we had to walk the road part jumping on to the verge to avoid the cars.
After the normal amount of camping faffing around and cycle prepare we actually set off the short journey to Blois along the Loire and over a very old bridge. We headed towards the Chateau de Blois straight into the Saturday bussle of the local market. We locked the bikes just below the entrance and bought the 3 x entry for the daytime chateau, the magic show over the road at the museum of magic and the luminere performance at 10:30pm.
Inside the chateau was rich in history with Joan of Arc involved, old French kings and especially from Henri the 3rd, a right royal villain with his minions who murdered a local duke and refused to talk to anyone who wasn't his minions.
The other side of the courtyard was the Maison de la Magie (Magic Museum) which had 6 animatronic salamander heads roaring and snapping their jaws every 30 minutes like a giant clockwork toy. Inside was a collection of illusions and optical tricks which had some hilarious results on camera. It was owned by a local clockmaker Houdin who's name was used by The Houdini and had some connection. If you've seen Hugo you'll get an idea of some of the artifacts. At 2:45pm was our booked performance for the magic show. No need for translation as the tricks spoke for themselves very well. All the classic routines were performed with some leaving you to ponder how they really did it. Overall, a very enjoyable experience topped off with a delicious lunch before heading back to the campsite.
Having cleaned ourselves up from the Loire river side trail riding we returned back to Blois town for an Italian restaurant. Food was good though they messed up the mains for Kerry (didn't matter as she went for a dessert instead). Managed to time the meal with enough time to take a place for the projected light show inside the Blois Chateau. Although we were warned the audio was only in French we were expecting something a little less boring. Having been spoiled by a free show in Epernay, this was a very simple projected imagery of the history of the chateau. There wasn't any flash use of computer generated graphics to compliment the architecture just the odd smoke machine and the some decoration of walls.
The ride home was a little scary having to rely on our head torches and rear reflectors. Took twice as long as we had to walk the road part jumping on to the verge to avoid the cars.
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