Blois

The star attraction in Blois is the Royal Chateau, home to five French kings in the Middle Ages. Our visit was centred on the Chateau, but started with an early morning sortie to get the croissants. It was 2 degrees and the sun was just making its presence felt. It was 9 am.

But it did provide excellent photographic light across the river.

The Chateau visit provided an "unmissable" tourist photo opportunity.

Inside was what you would expect for French royalty. Grand facades from different eras built by successive kings..

....grand rooms with armaments..

...opulent bedrooms, this for the queen...

..and this for the King...

...plus lots of art works...

..including the Kings themselves..

...and with Royal emblems even in the glass windows.

After the visit we did a walk around the old part of town, very quiet on its traditional shut down on Monday mornings.

There was a fair representation of 15th century wooden buildings..

..some great views over the city from the Jardins de L'Eveche, the gardens of the Bishops Palace, which included a statue of Jean D'Arc who visited Blois in 1429 prior to the siege of Orleans.

The actual gardens were laid out in the early 18th Century.

Behind was the St Louis Cathedral, built in the late 17th century.

In the newer part of town we passed by an ice skating rink and a war memorial covering wars in Indo China (aka Vietnam), Korea, Chad, Algeria, Morocco, Suez, Djibouti and Afghanistan, highlighting just how widespread France's recent interests had ranged.

It was time for a late lunch and we opted for fully rugged up al fresco dining at 12 degrees at F&B, Food and Brew, not particularly French sounding but OK food and beers.

With the temperature dropping and the light fading, we stocked up on Carrefours goat cheese pizza, wine and chocolate and headed back to our warm abode for the rest of the day.