Again it was a long day of traveling. Hungry from the lack of dinner the night before, we chose to eat at the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Sadly it didn’t have much variety, some pastries, some yogurt, some cold cuts and that was it.
Checked out the hotel and drove to Blois. It was another difficult drive, on the distance and the conditions within the car. It was about a 4hrs drive with about 2-3stops and we had lunch at one of the Shell station that served cooked food (as we didn’t have much of it for quite a while already). After that all hell broke loose as baby K cried a whole 1hr before finally snoozing off on mommy’s shoulder. It was difficult but there was nothing much that we could do.
Some of the petrol stations required payment before pumping and it was challenging to gauge how much to pump as it wasn’t really my own car. It was after a while that I got the hang of it. I also noticed that there was the petrol SP95-E10 which was a blend that contained 10% ethanol. I wasn’t sure if my car could take it so I had to settled for the slightly more expensive Octane 98 petrol.
The tolls on the road were initially not so clear to me. I always tried to look for signs with cash, that was so that I could pay it with cash on hand. Then there were those with human in them. Thereafter I could only find those with the green arrows that I was pretty sure that had cash receiving machines. Most of the time the tolls could be settled by coins and I had them readily available in a small compartment. But then once in a while, when notes were required, the wallet needed to be available easily. Of course if you ran into one that only received credit card which I did on the first few days, I had to use it. Luckily there wasn’t too much difficulty as the card was accepted and the barrier lifted.
Many road works can change the lanes to single lanes or even using the opposite roads. These decreased the speed of travel but by not much.
Arriving in Blois, we checked in at the Holiday Inn, after trying to figure out where the parking was ( it was a small right turn into the back alley with a password protected barrier). The room was much more comfortable then previous. It was here we realized that our laptop was missing. We must have dropped it in the previous few hotels.
Left the hotel to visit the Chateau Chambord first because it was nearer. After 20mins of driving, we arrived and the Chateau was closed for visit. However, we were more fascinated by the exterior and had no issues taking photos of it. The 6pm sun provided excellent photo views and coupled with the clear blue skies, the photos were really nice. Spent some time walking around the Chanteau but not the gardens around as the compound was really huge. Left after paying carpark for 4euros per entry.
Drove a restaurant near our hotel, called the Le Shelby. Interesting designed about old retro stuff and American cars (therefore Shelby) but served France western cuisine. When we were there, we were the only customers around. Food was served quickly which was good as we had to finish before baby K got cranky. About 40Euros for 2 mains and 2 drinks. Carpark by the road side was free, and easy if space was available.
Back at the hotel, bathed baby K and all fell asleep from the exhaustion of the travel till date.