I'm back!! Sorrie for the irregularity of my posts.. really been a busy busy past few weeks... spent day and nite going through all my Dec trip fotos.. numbering and renaming each of them, finding out information of where we went to (cos I've forgotten the names of the attractions oredi!), then choosing some and deleting others.. then selecting the best to upload! Well but at least now the fotos are up oredi! Most of them at least.. cos still got abit left I havent had time to do. My trips too have been coming at a fast and furious pace to the point that I can't even upload my fotos in time before the nxt trip comes along. During my time of absence, I've actually invaded and conquered Belgium and Central France! In fact, I just came back yesterday afternoon from France!
The trip to France was really exciting.. I went through all you can ask for in an adventure. Now i'm sorta glad I decided to go on my own since no one wanted to take leave to go during weekdays. This time I decided to travel light to avoid the misery of lugging heavy bags around and getting into arguments with Customs people on whether my bag was allowable size anot.. I only used my small working backpack, and it was only half full after I packed it. I brought very little change of clothes, so much of the weight was actually in the travel information I've printed out and my trusty Lonely Planet guide. And food of cos.. I kept up with my usual practice of bringing lots of food with me to "dong" the whole of the 1st day!
So I set off from home at 5am in the morning, taking the 5.30 train to London, then another bus to Stansted Airport. After I checked in, I found out that my flight was delayed for an hr! So much for on-time arrivals Ryanair. In fact, while waiting in the lounge I heard so many announcements about flight delays that I seriously suspect how they still have 90% of their flights on time! Anyways I arrived at Tours in France at 1.50pm instead of 1pm.. well at least the pilot did his best and shaved 10min off the flight time.
After taking a 5euro bus (expensive hor.. it was only a 15min ride!) to the city centre, I started on my itinery. I must say I really did my homework well this time.. planned each of the stops and researched on how to get there, and even read up on the history of the places. And the map of Tours was accurate to every small street so dat helped alot! In any case it was a really small city.. well I thk u'd probably call it a town. It's supposed to be pronounced as Tuu-rh according to Wikitravel.. but throughout my 3 days there I heard various pronunciations.. even from the locals! Tour... Tuuu... Tuuu-er... Tuuusss... Tuuu-errs... blah watever... aniwei I found out that this was apparently one of the important places in French history, small as it is. The French govt actually relocated there 2 times in history.. and many many Kings lived there at one point or another.. in one of the many magnificent Chateaus (castles lah..).. even Leonardo da Vinci lived there a number of years lor.. this was where he worked and lived out his final years.. and his tomb and remains are there! Summore dey say dis is the place where the French language was born, and where people speak the purest French, and its a Unesco listed world heritage site! Totally amazing.. the claims to fame that this small region in France has! And to think that I was only going on this trip by good fortune!
I was booking another trip to Portugal.. then Ryanair had this promotion say buy 1 flight get a 2nd one free.. but all the dates I tried for this "free" flight were unavailable.. den I did something incredible, determined to get my free flight.. I went to try every single day from Jan to end Feb, and many different destinations. In the end somehow I managed to find a return flight for end Jan which fitted my schedule nicely, though it means much less rest time in between trips for me! It was really good fortune lor.. summore Tours was my top choice of all destinations!
Already 1hr behind time, I was hit by more bad news at the tourism office. I was supposed to book an excursion to the chateaus outside Tours.. but they told me I was the only one interested, so dey cant start a tour for me! Kaoz dis time of the year really no tourists there lor.. throughout my 3 days there I think I hardly saw any at all!! I tried various ways to get onto a tour, finally managing to convince the operator to let me join a saturday one, then drop me off at the airport aft dat haha.. den i can save on the bus to the airport mah! In the end after going to the bus station to ask lots of questions and trying my best to understand the bus guide, which was totally covered in French, I decided to skip the tour and foray out on my own on the public buses even though I din understand their bus guides, and both Lonely Planet and the tourism office advised against that! I was pretty worried as well, since they said I'm most likely to end up spending more and getting lost.. but I did my sums and found out that I would not only be saving more, I'll have the freedom of exploring the places at my own pace and not be restricted by the tour timings!
Aniwei the tour was on my 2nd day, and I'll come back to that later. I spent the rest of the 1st day just following the route I'd planned out.. covering all the attractions in little Tours.. touring Tours haha! The town was dotted with many houses from the 15th-16th centuries.. from medieval to Renaissance... u could really see a mixture and fusion, and that made it look really special. The people there were really nice as well.. I keep hearing stories that the French are very snobbish people who looked down on u.. but I dun feel that leh.. back from my trip to Paris I thought they were really nice and warm and friendly le... dis trip further reinforced my good impression of the French. Even though most of them know next to no English at all.. they still tried their best to understand my questions, and try to make me understand their explanations.. if I was in Germany.. I ask 1 qn too many and pple will start showing u attitude and black face liao lor.. but here people were really patient.. from the staff at the Tourism office, to the fierce looking man at the train station who told me he knows no English.. in English, to the lady at the bus station, to various people I asked for directions along the way.. they really made my experience a nicer one lor.. Even the shop owners.. in most other countries shopkeepers will greet u halfheartedly.. and stop smiling when dey realised u're not gonna buy anything from em.. here shopowners gave u a warm "Bonsoir" whereever u went, and a just as warm "Au revoir" when u step out.. never failing to smile.. even the people on the streets.. u look at em.. dey dun frown at u.. dey smile at u one lor! And I never once ran into groups of teenagers eager to hurl some insults at u like I often see in UK.. the young people here seemed just as nice and well-mannered.. I'm truly convinced that the French (well at least those in simple little Tours) are well cultured, and we've loads to learn from em manz.. especially the angmohs kids here in uk!
Walking around on my own was really quite a different experience.. no waiting for others.. no hurrying to meet others' pace.. I got to go around at my own pace and decide where I wanna go and how I wanna get there and wat I wanna eat and everything else.. a new-found freedom! But one bad thing was that there was no one to help me look after my stuff when I went to toilet, and no one to help me take pictures!! Well at least I brought my little tripod.. and ended up setting em up to take pictures of myself with the timer quite often.. me and my little 3-legged buddy haha..
By the time I finished my round of Tours and got to the hostel, it was oredi dark.. The sun sets later there thou (cos Europe is 1hr ahead of uk mah).. din turn dark til 6pm. By then I had seen some really nice old buildings and structures, the most impressive being the St Gatien's Cathedral (yup another church haha) and some brick and stone houses at the Maison de Tristan, marking an elegant fusion of the architechture from different eras. Then there were the 15th century shophouses at the central Place Plumereau.. which were really quite pretty! Wat was sadly lacking thou.. was some bustling atmosphere. Like i said.. there were next to 0 tourists at this time of the year.. and the young population of uni students seemed to have vanished too.. leaving the central square empty and quiet in the evening.. mebbe it was sch hols ba.. or mebbe the rain had kept them indoors.. Aniwei without a buzz about the place, the empty shops started to look depressing, and the persistent rain made it worse. It basically started raining soon after I started my walkabout, and din stop for the whole day and nite le!
Checking into the hostel brought another nice surprise. For the rate I was paying, I was expecting to get a dorm bed or something.. instead I got a corner double room all to myself.. with my own wash basin and own balcony summore! Woohoo shiok.. hotel standard for hostel price! Summore the people at the hostel were extremely nice and helpful again.. entertaining my endless questions and my stubbornness in wanting to see the most for the least! After getting over the excitement of the big bedroom, I grabbed some food.. apparently the stuff I brot was enuff to last me more dan a day!
Then I went on my post-sunset walkard.. walked all the way back to where I started, just so I could cover the entire route to see what the place looks like at nite. It was still raining now, so it was quite uncomfortable.. especially when my jeans were all wet and temps were fast approaching freezing! But Tours by night was just as beautiful as it was in the day.. the cathedrals warmly lit.. totally mesmerising. If only there was more activity at the central square though.. the rain was getting too heavy and the temperature too cold to bear soon.. and since I was still full from the food I brought, I decided I was in no mood to go into one of the empty restaurants and have a solo restaurant meal.. the only thing I could take away was kebab or baguettes, nothing really special.. so I trudged back to the hostel, jeans heavier than ever, to plan out the next day.
I had put up an advertisement in the hostel earlier looking for partners to form a tour group for the excursion.. but as the hostel person said.. there were almost no tourists there.. and as expected I din get any reply.. Taking the ad down.. I was decided on skipping the tour and doing a DIY!
Okie 2nd part of my blog haha... bathe finish le.. past midnite.. sitting on my bed sipping at my vanilla tea.. shiok manz.. but tmr gonna be tired like hell again le
Aniwei the breakfast at the hostel was top class lor! Got french butter cake, magdelenes (ji dan gao), a few diff types of cereal.. and their baguettes were really nice! As usual I koped quite abit for my lunch, and by 8am I was out on the freezing streets le! I was actually quite amazed I could wake up myself at 6.15 in the morning.. I think my training in Slough must have paid off ba since 6.15 in France is 5.15 UK time.. my normal wakeup time!
Luckily the rain had stopped overnight, but it was still super cold. I thought Tours would be better dan Slough, but it was actually worse! I heard it was snowing the day before I reached, and on my 2nd day there there was frost everywhere too. I went to the bus station, and after alot of French-English mis-conversation, I found out the timings for the buses I needed to take! By sheer chance there was only 1 bus that day to this place called Chenonceaux, and it was in 15min! I hopped onto the bus, paid the 1.50euro, and I was in front of the beautiful castle in no time! This was another fairy tale castle manz.. and thou it's of a completely different style, I think it's worthy of comparison to Neuschwanstein! It sat not on a mountainside, but by a riverside. Flanked by 2 beautiful gardens built by the wives of 2 French Kings, the chateau was built on the bank of the river Loire, the longest in France, with its gallery stretching out over the water to the other bank. It's said that during the after the 1st world war, the area north of the castle was occupied by the Germans, and the south bank of the Loire river was under Vichy rule. Then people who were fed up with the Germans used to use the gallery as a means of escape, running thru the door of the gallery back into French-ruled territory! Everything in the chateau had a royal feel to it.. even though these castles were privately owned, there was a requirement for a room to be reserved and decorated in preparation for any royal visits. And Chenonceaux was one often patronised by the royals. In fact it was given from one King to his Queen, snatched from the Queen by the future Queen... complicated history.. but its really interesting reading about it as I walked through each room. Each of the rooms had a fireplace, left from the Renaissance period, and many of them were actually lit, with a huge fire crackling away.. giving the place an extra magical feel.. and additional warmth! Out of the castle, I took a roam about the 2 beautiful gardens flanking the buiding.. the queens oso childish.. one built a garden.. the next one muz build another which is nicer and bigger! Well but us tourists are the winners in the end, so thanx to them! Pictures of the gardens and the chateau over the water were simply amazing, and I spent so much time with my fren the little tripod trying to capture the perfect picture with myself inside haha!
On leaving the Chateau, I walked in a hurry to the bus stop, not wanting to miss the only bus back cos I simply couldnt understand the bus guide! Luckily my understanding of the timetable was correct, and the bus came as scheduled. I dropped off at dis Pagoda-like structure.. eager to discover wat a Chinese-styled tower was doing in the French outback! Alas, I found out late that the place was closed for the winter! Standing outside the gate taking photos of the pagoda (they call it le Pagode) almost 1km away not shiok, so I decided to trek along the fence to try to get closer to the structure. To my surprise I found part of the fence collapsed far away from the roadside! Seeing no one around for miles and sensing my opportunity, I scaled over the fence and into the compound! Now I was abit gan jeong oredi.. seriously trespassing liao lor.. if kena caught or chased by some big bad dogs jialat liao lor! but dats wat adventures are about mah! The ground made it even more of an adventure.. tall tall shrubs which I scampered through was followed by a big patch of raked and irrigated farmland.. totally muddy and slushy! I waded thru part of the swamp, then realised the tower was stil so far away, so decided not to take anymore risk le.. the view of the pagoda was oredi quite terrific though it was stil quite far away. And chey it din look like Chinese pagoda lor.. haha anything that's wider at the bottom and narrower at the top is a pagoda meh! I clambered my way back towards the fence, relieved that no one has seen me.
The next task then was to navigate my way into the town of Amboise without a map or road signs! Wat a challenge it was manz.. the map I had was only for the town centre, and the roadsigns only led from the town to the pagode and not the other way, so it was nearly impossble to track down each previous sign towards the town! The bus driver had pointed me in the general direction, and I had the urge to hitch a ride, though I remained too paiseh to do it in the end haha.. The town was 3 km away... and tracking for 3km without directions was really nerve-wrecking ah.. my boots and my jeans all the way up to above my ankles were covered in mud, and when I stepped into the lobby of a hotel to ask for directions, the manager wasn't too impressed at all! But he was still nice enough to force a smile and gave me some directions.. dats y I really like the French people.. so well-mannered!
My wandering took me past a graveyard, some tombstone makers, a funeral parlour, and a hospital! Finally got some understandable directions in un-understandable language from the hospital reception, and after more than an hour I was finally in the town of Amboise! Which wasn't too bad really, considering the odds I was up against. So so relieved manz.. but by then I was also soaking wet oredi, cos it'd started to rain again! And it wasn't just any UK-drizzle kind of rain ah.. it's the kinda downpour u get in S'pore, only it didn't stop for 3hr+, and the temp was close to 0deg!! I was super freezing away lor, but I pressed on in the rain, refusing to seek shelter anywhere cos I din want to waste my time! Haha well dis is one good thing about travelling alone ba.. I get to do such crazy things I nva would had I gone with someone else, and looking back now.. it's really something which made the trip memorable!
Aniweis by this time, though I had my waterproof jacket on, my jeans suffered a much worse fate.. totally soaked through and through, and my teeth were oredi chattering spontaneously! I decided to skip the chateau and head for the famous lodge where Da Vinci lived out his final years! In the rain the walk to the le Clos Luce seemed especially long, and when I got there and into the manor, it wasn't any better cos my clothes were all wet oredi! But just being at the place where such a great person in history had worked, lived and died got me excited that I managed to get over the wet and the cold. In the 15th century manor were rooms the master used, his bedroom, study, reception room, even an entrance to a secret tunnel which some say links the house to the chateau, and which the King used to visit da Vinci secretly! The basement was dedicated to explaning some of da Vinci's greatest inventions and exhibiting models of them. Reading about them and looking at the models, I realised just wat a genius this guy was! Painter, engineer, architect, inventor... really my idol manz! His inventions (well at least the theory behind how they worked) apparently included the helicopter,, the parachute, the armoured tank, the double winch, even the gearbox in cars! So many inventions which we're still using today, and he thought of the ideas such a long long time ago!
Outside the manor was a big big park with some life-sized models of his inventions scattered. In good weather it would have been such a nice park to walk in... tranquil, peaceful.. almost no other tourists.. I could almost visualise Da Vinci himself walking on the same path centuries ago, being inspired by nature manz! But the rain was stil pouring down, and the park map I had in my hand quickly turned into a soggy lump.. I went thru all the exhibits as fast as I could, and just as I walked towards the exit.. the rain stopped!! Grrr why muz wait til I finish le den stop!!
Well but at least the 15min walk back to Amboise was much more bearable. In fact, the route was quite and eye-opener too ah! The road was lined with houses built into the sides of rocky hills.. cave dwellings they're.. but totally not stone age at all, cos people living there have the plasma tvs and satellite dishes and other high-tech gadgets! Looking at the hillside.. I could see no more than a gate, a front door, and some windows.. really hard to imagine that within those big chunks of rock are actually inhabitable houses!
Back at Amboise, I finally got round to the chateau. Nowhere as grand or magnificent as Chenonceaux, cos dis one was styled more as a defensive fortress rather than a leisure villa. I din go into this castle thou cos I thot wats inside wld be similar to wat I saw at Chenonceaux.. the one thing I probably missed out on was Da Vinci's grave, and the chapel where his remains are said to lie. Anyways, I walked to the waterfront, still freezing cold, but absolutely revelling in the finally-dry weather conditions, and the view of the castle was simply superb from the bridge.. the castle and the small ancient houses terraced on the rocky hillside.. it was quite a sight to behold.. now I noe where those postcard pics are taken from! Stopped an elderly couple and asked 'em to help me take a picture in watever sign language I could conjure up, and as usual, they were really nice, friendly and warm!
The last bus back to Tours was at 6.20pm, but I was totally confused by the timetable cos this last bus starts from a different terminal and stops at diff bus stops! So for a frantic 15minutes I was running around the streets, trying to find the correct bus stop. When I finally found it, I dinno which direction I should be taking towards. I trusted my instinct, and luckily it was correct, and the last bus to Tours suddenly appeared in front of me, to my tremendous relief!
In less dan an hour, I was back in Tours, excitedly searching for a square where there was supposed to be a once-a-month food carnival! It was supposed to be held on the 1st Friday of the month, and it just h appened to be that day! When I reached thou, I was quite disappointed to find many of the stalls oredi closing or closed at 7pm! Haiz I think it must have been the rain and the cold and the lack of pedestrian traffic on the streets! There were stalls selling fruit cakes, cheeses and wine, but not the local food rilette I'd read about. I did buy a ham and cheese crepe from an interesting stallowner, who was singing nonstop as he made the crepes! Totally enjoying himself.. and his singing wasn't bad too wor! And his crepe was really superb.. lots of cheese, lots of ham.. heavenly! After finishing the delicious French pancake, I was so tempted to get a second one, but restrained myself cos I still had food at the hostel haha! There wasn't much to see or experience at that time, even thou it was a Friday evening.. quite disappointed to see most of the shops half empty again, so I went back to the hostel to catch some rest.
The 3rd morning was all about markets! Tours also calls itself the city of 30 markets, simply because there are various markets held daily at the town's many squares. My first stop was a flea market, which wasn't really interesting cos it was nothing much different from the ones we see at Rochor and Holland V on weekends. And it was too early so most of the stalls were stil being set up. But people basically drove their mini-vans right into the square, opened the back and pulled out some tables and many boxes, and there was the flea market le! So convenient haha.. and it's all legal and supported by the government!
Moving on from the flea market, I headed towards an outdoor market, which is similar to the wet markets of Singapore.. fruits, vegetables, meat.. All laid out on the makeshift stalls.. So this is how the locals do their grocery shopping! I learnt from a friendly local (yup another one, and finally one who speaks good english!) that this market opens twice a week, and it's basically a wet market which moves between different squares on different days! The fruits look so fresh, and there was even freshly bottled fruit juice, but I couldn't bring them onto the plane, so I couldn't buy any.
The last market I went to was also by far the largest. The flower market occupied a long long stretch of the central boulevard in Tours. First time I was seeing so many stalls selling flowers at a single place.. so was pretty amazed.. and their flowers were really pretty too.. I wonder how they get this flowers to grow under such harsh winter conditions! At the flower market, I heard a familiar voice, and turned to find the crepe uncle at this market as well.. still flipping his crepes, still singing away haha! From the flower market, I moved to another green zone, one of the many parks in Tours, the Jardin des Prebendes d'Oe. Had to walk quite a distance to get there, but it was really worthwhile, cos it was so peaceful, so tranquil inside, and the combination of trees, shrubs, pebbled paths, ponds, swans, squawking ducks, statues, beautiful skies and a little sunshine made the place look so beautiful.
However, time was running out fast, and I spent my last hour in Tours ravaging a supermarket for as much French biscuits as my small backpack could fit (and it really wasn't alot), then went to get some postcards and magnets (I collect these from all the places I go to!), before heading to look for my bus to the airport. I did my research the previous nite, and found that a public bus would bring me somewhere close to the airport for 1.20eu, so I could avoid taking the 5eu Ryanair bus! The bus dropped me at an industrial area though, with lots of warehouses and no airport in sight! I asked around but no one seemed to know where the airport was too! Luckily my map of Tours was trusty as ever, even outside the city centre. I managed to locate the road I was on, and navigated my way to the airport within 20min, even before the Ryanair bus arrived!!
This time my flight was on time, and Ryanair seemed extremely proud of that fact.. In fact, the flight arrived in London 30min ahead of time, and for a good few minutes the whole cabin was resonating with congratulatory music, announcements of Ryanair's achievement of 90% on-time arrivals, and most comically.. even canned applause! *Slaps forehead* Really buay tahan lor so ego.. den when their numerous flight kena delayed dun see em apologising as loud as dis!
Well that was that.. end of an adventure.. the trip back to plain old boring Slough was the plain old boring trip.. and now I'm just recovering from fatigue, while still chalking up more exhaustion with my 12hr workday and 4hr bedtime. Working overtime to get this blog entry and my fotos out, hopefully u guys will like em. Yup I noe its extremely long again haha.. but well I long time write once.. each time of cos muz write till I faint mah!
