A Spring Break Adventure
My best friend Adrian was pretty culturally aware at his age. His mother and aunt worked at the U.S. Embassy and when his father was alive they lived in China and Somali. When I met him, he had already been living in Paris for five years. Adrian was fluent in Chinese, Somali, French and English. He was fascinated with world history, castles and during our friendship his knowledge and enthusiasm of history rubbed off on me. We were always looking for some adventure wherever we went.
Adrian was also an avid bike rider. He rode his ten speed bike all over Paris, it was his main means of transportation. From the first time I met Adrian he was planning a bicycle trip through the Loire Valley. I was also a biker. Growing up I always had a bicycle but mine were of the motocross style and I left it behind when we moved to Paris. Over time, Adrian convinced me that the bike trip would be an epic trip and I was all in for the adventure. Whenever we had time, we would map out the route from Paris to the Loire Valley. Our plan was to ride through all the villages and visit as many castles along the way. We didn't plan on staying in hotels but would ride all day and camp out at night. Of course our goal was to photograph the past while enjoying the countryside on bike.
The Loire Valley is a region in central France famous for its many castles (chateaux), vineyards, and historic towns. The region is known for its cultural heritage and natural beauty and its Loire Valley stretch is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We mapped out every castle we would visit and learned the history of each one. When the day arrived, Adrian arrived with his bike carefully loaded and packed. On the rear of his bike he had saddle bags, he had water bottles attached to the middle of the bike frame and he was equipped with a special waterproof camera case strapped to his handle bars with a detailed map needed to navigate our route.
Since I didn't have a bike, I rented one for the trip. I had strapped a soft backpack to the rear of the bike which contained my clothes, a tent, sternos for cooking and food supplies. I had my water supply filled in a wine pouch wrapped around handle bars and my camera strung across my chest. I said goodbye to my parents, my sisters were away on a trip to Spain and away we went.
We departed Paris early in the morning attempting to avoid the rush hour. Our goal was to ride approximately 75 miles a day with an average of riding 8 hours. Navigating through Paris was an adventure on its own. We dodged cars, motorcycles, scooters, bikes and pedestrians until we finally made it into the outskirts of the city. Adrian had meticulously mapped out our bike route and was riding at a fast pace, Although I was in excellent shape, I was not used to riding a bike for a long distance at a fast pace so it was actually difficult trying to keep up with him.
Once we got on the country roads, riding was a lot more pleasant and enjoyable, finally I had the opportunity to look at my surroundings and enjoy the fresh country air. At the end of our first day we arrived at the start of the Loire Valley route via Orleans. It was getting dark and we were in a forest area so we quickly found a camp site off the side of the road nestled between trees and bushes. I set up the tent while Adrian prepared dinner, he built a make shift stove using the sterno and heated up ravioli straight out of the can, split a baguette, and topped if off with cheese. This meal concoction, became our main staple throughout the trip. Once we ate and settled in the tent we both immediately fell asleep from pure exhaustion.
When we woke up in the morning, we realized it had started raining sometime during the night. We soon found out that our tent was not waterproof because we were soaking wet and we hadn't even gone out of the tent yet. The hard part was getting out of the tent. My legs were so sore from riding and my crotch and butt were aching in pain from sitting on a little bike seat all day. I could barely walk and we laughed because the trip just began and I was beginning to have second thoughts about going the distance . Breakfast consisted of a leftover baguette and cheese. We mapped out our route for the day and selected which castles we wanted to visit. We put on our windbreakers and a hat thinking it would shield us from the rain. I slowly and carefully mounted my bike in gruesome pain and off we rode.
It was spring break so the weather was chilly and riding through the cold pouring rain was not enjoyable. My biggest mistake of the trip was being unprepared. I had taken only one pair of levi jeans when they got wet, they were so uncomfortable, heavy and cold. The main road through the Loire Valley was a two lane road with many hills.
The first castle we came to was Chateau de Cheverny.
Built in 1604 for Count Hurault de Cheverny at the edge of the Sologne Forest its classical facade built of attractive white stone from the bourre quarries. We parked our bikes along a fence and walked to the entrance. This was the first time I had ever seen a real castle in person and it was a remarkable site. Adrian had studied the history of these castles so he was able to share some knowledge of the history and architectural features. Most of the time we spent a few francs (euros) for a tour guide. If it was a large group of people and we happened to see some closed door, we usually slipped the tour and ventured off on our own. Sometimes we got caught and we always had the same story, that we got left behind and got lost, yes it always worked.
Back on our bikes we headed to the next closest chateau, by bike it was about an hour away. On many occasions while biking to our next destination we would enter a small village and ride around a little bit and stop at a boulangerie, buy a baguette, stop at a fromagerie, buy some cheese and a charcuterie, ro buy some sliced meets, then ride around and find a nice place to enjoy our lunch. Most of the time it was raining so we typically ended up stopping under a bridge.
The next castle on our route was Chateau Blois.
This flamboyant Gothic style influenced by the fantasy and Italian Renaissance and later classical style of the likes of Louis XII, Francoise I and Gaston d' Orleans who shaped this magnificent royal chateau into the image of their era. First built in the early 1100's and completed in the 1300's. Because of its unique architecture, it is believed to be one of the most elaborate and beautiful chateau's of France. In my opinion the most intriguing aspect of chateau Bloise is the Renaissance staircase commissioned by Francoise I and built on the exterior between two wings of the building.
Each Chateau we visited and explored had its own uniqueness and history. Because so many different kings lived here throughout the years, there was much rivalry between the various ruling families and their courts. We did our very best to find all the secret passage ways that led from one room to another that enabled the kings and queens to move about the chateau without being followed or escorted.
A couple of hours before nightfall we usually started looking for a campsite someplace off the beaten path located in the woods where no one on the main road would see us. Although the Loire Valley has an abundance of forest area, it is still a private protected heritage site that does not allow public camping. Of course, we were on a mission to break every rule, after all, that's what made our trip exciting and adventurous. Several times we departed a castle tour late and it was nearly dark so we made camp on the chateau grounds. Those were the best camp sites because at night some of the castle lights were left on and it was an awesome site to be lying in the tent with an amazing view of a medieval chateau.
The adventure continues to Chateau Amboise
The town of Amboise, which lies on the south bank of the Loire below the proud remains of its Chateau. It appears at its most picturesque when it is seen from the bridge across the river. It is the typical picture of a chateau built on a hill, surrounded by a fortified wall overlooking its realm. In 1492 Louis XI commissioned the building of the chateau and further embellished by Charles VIII. It took five continuous years and hundreds of workers labored day and night using candlelight to meet the king's demands. By the time it was finished in 1496, Francois I took residence and added his flair from his visits to Italy. Throughout the years many historic events occurred, it played a major part during the War of Religion and suffered extensive damage during many rebellions and at one time became a prison.
Our most memorable visit was to the Amboise dungeon. During a long narrated tour, the guide briefly mentioned a door that led to the infamous dungeon where political and hardened criminals were sent. Since the guide made no attempt to escort us downstairs, naturally, we pretended to be looking at artifacts and then quietly hid behind a large column until the group passed and disappeared down a corridor. We struggled but we were able to pry open the heavy wooden door that led to the dungeon.
At first there was sunlight that came into the stairwell but the further we descended it got darker and darker. Being the explorers that we were, this is what we came for, we whipped out our handy flashlights and proceeded down the staircase. Each step we took down it got colder and colder until we came to the bottom.
The dungeon was a large and extremely cold and damp room. There was no light so we used our flashlights to look around. There were remnants of an old bench or maybe a table with an old rusted chain and manacles. There were many holes in the wall where I imagine prisoners were handcuffed and tortured. In the corner of the room was a hanging cage the size of a head, it contained a human skull, we didn't know if it was real or fake but either way it spooked us and we ran backed up the stairs faster than a speeding bullet. When we got to the top and opened the door, there was another tour group standing around, we gently slithered our way into the crowd and continued the remainder of the tour with our new friends.
We spent most of the day exploring chateau Amboise and then we rode our bikes down to the village below. We did our usual dinner shopping and walked around looking in the many little stores trying to stay out of the rain.
Many years later I wrote a children's book, Adrian's Adventure in the Loire Valley", little fact, Adrian is my middle name. It was inspired by my visit to chateau Amboise.
Off to chateau Chenonceau
Chenonceau is my favorite chateau of all. Chenonceau stretches across the Cher river in a natural setting of water, greenery, gardens and trees. This chateau was built between 1513 and 1521 and had frequent ownership for 400 years both happy and sad and it's main protagonists were women, be they royal wives, mistresses and queens. Sold as a debt, Francois I purchased it as a hunting lodge. Kings like Henry II gave the chateau to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. When Henry II died, his wife Catherine de' Medici forced Diane out and took over the chateau. She had lavish gatherings For Francois II, Mary Stuart and Charles IX, no expenses were spared at these festivities, which included banquets, dances, fancy dress balls, fireworks and Evan a naval battle on the Cher. Undoubtedly, this Chenonceau's architecture and elegant checkered ballroom over the Cher river was extremely impressive.
Adrian and I were becoming experts in chateau living and the history of these amazing architectural wonders. Our imaginations ran wild, thinking what life would have been both on the inside and outside of the royal life.
The Haunted Castle
On one occasion, we had been riding a far distance in the drizzling rain. It was cold so we decided to make camp early. We ventured on a small side road that led us to an open field with one bid tree. Across the road was an old abandoned mini chateau so we decided to set up camp under the tree hoping that it would shield us during a downpour (since our tent wasn't waterproof).
While Adrian set up the tent, I collected firewood for a small campfire. As the rain subsided but there was lightning in the distance and the fog started rolling in we were trying to get warm from the campfire.
It was quiet except for the crackling of the fire when we both heard a woman screaming in the distance. At the same time we looked at each other and said "did you hear that?" We both thought the scream came from the abandoned chateau so we looked in that direction and to our amazement, we saw a woman in a white flowy dress or nightgown running back and forth from one end to the other end of the house. She would stop at certain windows, look out and scream. We could clearly see her running back and forth as though there were no walls separating the rooms. Immediately, we put the campfire out and ran into the tent and zipped up the tent just enough for us to poke our heads out. Both of us were super scared and we were debating whether or not we should tear down our camp and ride out as fast as we could but we didn't want to go back outside so we decided to hunker in and hope for the best. Neither one of us slept that night in fear the "screaming woman" would appear at our tent. I guess we eventually fell asleep but in the morning we cautiously excited the tent, packed up and rode off as quickly as we could.
On to Chateau de Villandry
Villandry was one of the last great Renaissance chateaux to be built on the Loire. I had unusual features like rectangular pavilions (instead of round towers) as well as the layout of its most. It's mainly known for its gardens, which are among the fascinating in France.
Originally built in the 16th century during the reign of Francois I. It's uniqueness is that it overlooks both the Loire and Cher rivers. It was once inhabited by a Spainard Carvallo, his wife and two children. They beautifully furnished it and added many moorish features unique to that period. Most impressive were the 12 acres of labyrinth gardens that featured canals, fountains, cascades, vine-covered pergolas and a Romanesque church. The funnest thing we did on these grounds was, I started at one end and Adrian started at the other end and we individually walked the labyrinth garden until we met in the middle. It took a good half hour to meet in the center.
On our way to Chateau Azay le Rideau
Back on the road again, it was still raining. By this time I was pretty frustrated and tired. As I mentioned earlier in my story, I was wearing Levi's and a wind breaker. Because it rained almost everyday, my pants never dried and because of the moisture, my inner thighs were raw from the constant rubbing against the bike seat. I was ready for the next stop.
Azay-le-Rideau was one of the gems of the Renaissance. Similar to Chenonceau, but less grandiose it creates an unforgettable impression of elegance. In 1418 when Charles VII was Dauphin he was insulted by one of the guards as he passed by. Instant reprisals followed, the town was seized and burnt and the captain and 350 soldiers were executed. Throughout the years, several financiers owned the property and later, Francois I confiscated the chateau and gave it to one of his companions in arms from the Italian campaigns.
It always amazes me how opulent the interior of these chateaux are decorated. Although most of them are sparse with regards to furniture and artifacts mainly because those items were destroyed during the revolution in 1787 they usually had beautiful painted ceiling frescoes. I'll never forget that this chateau had a billiard room intact with an antique billiard table.
On the road again to Chateau Usse
The chateau stands with its back to a cliff on the edge of the Chinon Forest, its terraced gardens overlooking the river Indre. Its impressive bulk and fortified towers contrast sharply with the white stone. Tradition has it that when Charles Perrault, the famous French writer of fairy tales, was looking for a setting for "Sleeping Beauty", he chose Usse as his model.
Usse is a very old fortress built in the 15 century and became the property of great family from Touraine, the Bueils, who distinguished themselves in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). The fortress housed the families of Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII and had frequent visitors to the likes of Voltaire and Chateaubriand.
The one outstanding feature was a cave. The cave is called a troglodytic, it contained an old oven where pears are peeled whole and left to dry in a bread oven for four days. During this process they dehydrate and then they are beaten flat and put into jars for preservation. The dried pears provide accompaniment to game or meat dishes served with gravy or made to swell by soaking in a good Chinon wine.
In addition, adjacent to the troglodytic cave was a wine cellar. The wine cellar was not part of the tour but of course we found it hidden, built into the side of the cliff. While we were walking around the chateau grounds, we discovered these huge wooden doors. It was an opportunity for us to open the doors and see what was behind them. Beyond the doors was an endless dark room with stacked wine barrels and numerous racks loaded with wine bottles. As we later came to find out, Chateau Usse was a working winery and its wine was very much in demand.
Chateau Usse was very photogenic and as we rode away, the sun was shining down on its majestic beauty and we clearly understood why this chateau was the inspiration for the first tale of "Sleeping Beauty".
Upon leaving Chateau Usse we knew there was only one more chateau left on our map to visit. After we left the grounds of Usse we rode to the nearest village, shopped at a few small shops to buy staples for our lunch and made a final stop at a wine shop and purchased a bottle of Chateau Usse red wine. Once we had our lunch fixings, we stopped by the side of the road, overlooking Chateau Usse and enjoyed our usual baguette, meats and cheese and delicious Usse wine.
The final destination to Chateau Chinon
Chateau Chinon lies at the heart of a well-known wine region, surrounded by the fertile and beautiful Chinon Forest. The medieval town is along the banks beneath the crumbling walls of its gigantic ruined fortress. In 1154 the King of England Henry Plantagenet took possession of the fortress and it became his favorite. Throughout the years, Chinon was in the hands of England and France with many prominent Kings residing in the fortress.
Chinon's name of fame came with the arrival of Joan of Arc in 1429. She came to Chinon to deliver a message from God to the Dauphin Charles VII that he was the rightful heir of France and the true son of the King and would be anointed king of France.
To our dismay, little remains of the current Chinon Fortress except for ruins of a once dominating kingdom. We explored the grounds and nearby lookout points. It was quite impressive but all we could do was imagine what was once there. It was getting late so we decided to get back on the road and start looking for a campsite.
We were already close to two weeks on our bike adventure. we were cold, wet and exhausted and we had calculated that we rode 25 to 30 miles a day, we were ready to go home. We planned on riding all day about 75 miles each day because we didn't expect to visit any more chateaux for the remainder of the trip. We were going to make our usual campsite in the forest when we spotted a small outpost on the side of the road. It looked like a guard house of some kind and it was abandoned. We parked our bikes behind the structure and found a small wooden door and opened it. Inside was a small dark room with no windows. The room was cold, damp and filled with trash.
It started to sprinkle again and we made the decision to make this our home the night. In order for us to sleep here we had to empty out all the piled up trash so before it go dark we started removing all the trash putting it into a big pile. It took us a couple of hours to clean up the place, once all the trash was removed we discovered a fireplace off in the corner. We used branches from nearby shrubbery to sweep the dirt floor. When we finally finished we were pretty proud of ourselves and admired our new digs for the night. Adrian went rummaging for firewood while I started warming up dinner. As night fell, we piled the firewood into the fireplace and were happy that we were dry and warm.
Exhausted from riding all day and then cleaning out the hut we were ready to settle in until a couple of field mice interrupted our cozy home. We chased the little mice all around but they kept hiding under our gear. This went on and on until we finally cornered the rodents and knocked them out with a mighty blow with a tree branch. Finally we could get some rest.
Just as we were getting comfortable and warm, the room started to fill with smoke. At first it was bearable and we figured a little smoke was not going to ruin it for us even though we were constantly coughing and clearing our throats but it slowly started to fill the room. We opened the door and for some reason that just made it worse. We figured that the chimney was probably clogged from years of neglect and the room was completely smoked filled but there was nothing that we could do. We extinguished the fire and ran outside to get fresh air and air out the room. So there we were, standing outside, cold and soaked waiting for the smoke to dissipate. We took turns going inside and flushing the smoke out but that took hours. By the time it was safe for us to go back inside, we were physically and mentally done. The burnt smell was overwhelming but we didn't care, we climbed in our sleeping bags and fell asleep.
The next day, after a restless night we packed up and headed out. To our surprise it was a sunny warm day so we decided we would take a scenic route along the Loire River. About an hour into our ride we came to a docked river barge. The barge appeared to be empty so we got off our bikes and started the check it out. Suddenly, a door on board opened and a man came out. We started talking to the man on the barge and he asked us many questions about our bike ride. We told him we were tired and ready to get back home in Paris. To our dismay he said that is where he is headed and asked us if we wanted a lift. We looked at each other and at the same time we said "oui, oui, oui".
A relaxing and long ride up the Loire and Seine River
We brought our bikes and gear onboard and found a comfortable spot at the front end of the barge. We slowly pulled away from the shore and off we were up the Loire River.
As the barge slowly traversed up the Loire River we sat back, took a deep breath and welcomed the warm sun on our faces. Our trip up the river was almost surreal, we would be in the middle of a forest and then out of the clearing was a majestic chateau. Most of the chateaux sat on a hill overlooking a village below, its realm. Adrian and I didn't talk very much except each time we passed one the chateaux we visited we would say it's name out loud, Chenonceau, Usse, Azay le-Rideau and so on so on. Our boat ride was like a slow motion movie of our bike ride and we were watching it unfold in front of us. In one way I was happy to be going home and on the other hand I was sad to be leaving such a magical place in history.
We sat outside the barge all night long and in the darkness the sky was clear and littered with millions of stars. It was warm, no rain and we eventually fell asleep only to wake up as we were entering the man-made Canal de Briare which connects the Loire to the Seine River. When we arrived on the outskirts of Paris, the barge docked and we got off and thanked the man who gave us a ride back home.
Adrian and I rode through neighborhoods until we eventually entered the city limits. Again we navigated between, speeding cars, motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians. When we got to the Etoile (Arc de Triomph) Adrian went down one Ave and went down another one, we didn't even stop just nodded at one another with a big smile on our faces. Our spring break trip through the Loire Valley was officially over.
Back Home
I arrived back at our apartment on Quai Anatole France sometime during the day. I rang the doorbell and our butler George opened the door and looked at me from head to toe and said, "Mon Dieu, Mr. Steve bienvenue chez Vous" (welcome home). I replied, "Merci George c'est bon d'etre a la maison bien sur" (thank you, it's good to be home for sure). I was excited to greet the family and tell them all about the trip but to my dismay, no one was home. I went to my room took off the levi's that I had been wearing for two weeks and took the hottest bath ever.
When I was all cleaned up and eating lunch the doorbell rang. I told the butler I would get it. When I opened the door, there stood my two sisters, disheveled sun burned and tired. They had returned home from their spring break from somewhere's on the beach in southern Spain. I looked at their pathetic faces and just started laughing, welcome home are you glad to be back, they simultaneously yes and we're going to bed. It ended up they had quite the journey riding the train back to Paris.
