Got up around 5AM and left the hotel at 6AM. We took the Metro to the meeting place. We got there 45 minutes ahead of schedule. It took a while to find the exact rendezvous point. We walked around the block to kill time and found a café that had just opened. We went in and ordered coffee and hot chocolate. The tour office was opened by the time we went back. We checked in and waited for the tour to start. We were escorted to the bus, which was a block away. We board and started our journey. It took three hour to reach our first destination, Chateau de Chambord. It was about 11:30AM, we got off the bus and proceeded to the castle. It was foggy and misty. The road to the castle was muddy. We had to walk around to the back to enter the facility. The tour took us around the main floor and part of the second. The castle was chilly, but the staff started lighting fire in some of the fireplaces. Tracy and I went on the top deck for pictures of the scenery. We left the castle and went hunting for something warm to drink. We went to the shops near the entrance of the property. We found a shop that sold coffee and hot chocolate. We walk further down and found a shop that specialized in homemade cookies. They had samples out for the 20 or so varieties they sold. They were so good I purchased two boxes. We left for our second castle but stopped for lunch first. We had a wonderful turkey meal with the best green beans I have had in awhile. However, the appetizer was fish, Tracy said it was pretty good. The desert was some apple thing that was very good. There was a woman on our bus that was using a walker, we sat by her at lunch and discovered that she had level 4 breast cancer. She was in very good spirits. Our second castle stop was at Château de Cheverny, we arrived at 1:45PM. This is a chateau not a castle thou the French word chateau means castle. Took plenty of pictures inside and a few of the grounds. Tracy took pictures of the hunting dogs. We spent some time in the souvenir shop. We arrived at the last stop around 5PM, Chenonceau Castle. It was a long walk to the castle and it started raining so I didn’t get many pictures outside. I was surprised that we were able to take pictures inside the castles. Not like Austria or Germany where no pictures were allowed. When we arrived back in Paris, it was raining. We took the Metro back to the hotel. We went walking through the neighborhood looking for a place to buy food and drinks for Christmas day thinking that nothing will be opened. We went to several shops and grocery stores and picked up a lot of stuff. We ended up having dinner at a brasserie called The Gymnasium. The place was empty so we grabbed a table with four seats. The server waited us to sit at a table for two, which at the time we did not understand. We said we would move if it was an issue but he let us stay. We ordered steak, Tracy said she had not had steak in 20 years or so. The steak was mediocre at best. Too bad it was not better for her first steak in so long. Back at the hotel, we had a good time today.
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