It has been a couple of days since I have been on the blog because our hotel had WI FI but after I entered the security code of about 20 numbers and letters it wouldn’t work.  I am currently in a Best Western in St. Jean – de-Luz and their WI FI works so, here we go.  We left Chinon and said goodbye to a very lovely girl, Karin, who worked at our hotel: Hotel du France.  Karin was very, very kind and helpful to us.  Thank you Karin!  We headed toward Limoge.

We stopped to have lunch in a tiny village and it was fabulous.  Who would think a tiny village store that sold clothes, groceries, meat and cheese would also fix a fabulous meal?  Lola called her friend John and he took her off to visit and Barbara, Susan and I headed for our next site.   

We stopped to visit Oradour-Sur-Glane which is a village where on June 10, 1944 the Nazis murdered 643 people, 193 were children.  The entire town was destroyed.  It was a haunting thing to see.

After visiting this village we headed toward Mortemart to buy gas and then we began the search for a hotel Rick Steves recommended.  We found it but it was closed.  We found another Bed and Breakfast but it had 28 stairs and the man said he couldn’t carry our big heavy bags and recommended the hotel we had just tried.  We called the number on the hotel door and the lady said she would be right there.  We saw the rooms and got three rooms.  It was called Hotel Le Relais.  We called Lola and told her where we were and she got there in time for dinner.  Dinner was incredible delicious.  In Rick Steves book he said the lady who operated the hotel was very helpful but didn’t speak a lot of English.  When I couldn’t get on the Internet she called her daughter in Atlanta, Georgia to see what was wrong.  Susan told her daughter that nothing was wrong we just couldn’t get on the Internet.  Now, that is helpful.

Today it rained but we are fearless travelers so off we went to see the castles.  We visited Usse Chateau.  Susan and I paid 14 Euros to go inside and see the interior.  You couldn’t take flash photos but I got one of the dining room.  The gardens outside were designed by Le Notre, the famous architect of the Gardens of Versailles.  Susan climbed to the top of the Sleeping Beauty tower.  Then we left and drove to Amboise and had a coffee and pastries.  Te chateau at Amboise was beautiful also.  We saw more chateaus along the road.  Tomorrow we are heading south for Limoges.

Susan has asked me to inform you that there is no need to pack a blow dryer when you go to France.  We have one we bought specifically for Europe and we haven’t had to use it yet.  This is something new.

Today we moved to the Hotel de France, a Best Western Hotel.  It is a much better hotel.  While we waited to check in we drove up to the Fortresse Royale de Chinon which was begun in the 15th century.  Despite the rain we toured the entire fortress and visited the Royal Quarters and towers.  Then Lola and Barbara rode a free lift down to our hotel and I stayed with Susan to drive back down the hill.  This was about the scariest ride I have ever been on as the street kept getting narrower and narrower.  We had to pull in the side mirrors at one point.  Another car was coming up and he had to back up as we inched (and I mean inched) forward.  Another car came and he had to back up too because there was no way we could back up to let him through.  I saw the end of the road and it appeared so narrow I just knew we wouldn’t get through.  I had visions of a crane lifting us out or having to take the car apart but none of these things happened and we finally arrived home safely.  Then we had another fabulous lunch, toured a church, went to a Cave (wine tasting) and then looked in the windows of all the little shops.  It was a good day even though it was a rainy day in Loire Region.