Just The Way It Goes

I didn’t know much (nothing, to be honest) about Tours before the Flix bus dropped me off there. I figured that since I hadn’t heard much about it there wasn’t much to do. It would be the perfect place to burn the days watching youtube videos on cabin building.

Well, two problems with that. When I reserved the apartment from the back of the bus on my tiny screen, I didn’t see the WiFi icon crossed out. It was quite a let down when I got to the apartment and didn’t see a WiFi signal. Even my REALLY limited grasp of the French language was enough to understand that the words “Pas de WiFi” in the apartment guide wasn’t good. I trudged back to the unheated train station and researched my options from a freezing cold waiting bench. I bought an overpriced SIM card at the station gift shop and plugged it into the old phone I had been using for cell service on this trip. It’s not a great phone but it worked fine enough to have email and limited internet service. Until it didn’t. It lasted a couple of hours until it died forever.

I went back to the train station for other options. I contacted a phone unlocking service in the hopes that I could use my real phone. I sent them $30 and they immediately came back with the all good. My phone could definitely be unlocked, I just needed to send them $100 more dollars. Alternately, I opened a chat with my service provider back in the US to see if they could unlock my phone. It seems that my free phone was only free if I stayed with them for 3 years. I could otherwise pay them $650 to clear my obligation. The live or A.I. rep (can’t hardly tell anymore) said I could also get a roaming plan for $10 a day that topped out at $100 per billing period. Since my stay was going to cross billing periods, that would be $200 on top of reactivating my monthly service that I suspended because I wouldn’t need it while I was gone. Since my travel phone was dead I would need a new one sooner or later. I hiked over to the electronics store to see what they had in stock. I bought their cheapest off brand smart phone for $175.

Fired it up and it worked great. Then I got behind the thick French provincial concrete block walls of the apartment and signal dropped to the tiniest of the little bars and even further slower as indicated by the tiny little 3G and even 2G icons showing on the screen. My ability to stream came and went as though the signal floated on the wind. It was brutal.

The bigger problem to me hunkering down in France and doing my cabin research was that Tours and the surrounding Loire Valley is a pretty nice place. There is lots of good strolling around its old town and for more modern fun, an IKEA and a huge American style grocery store. I don’t know why it had to be so big. Unlike American grocery stores, the inner aisles were not all processed foods. It was all breads and wines and foods that needed actual recipes, not just 10 minutes at high power.

I didn’t really eat any better because of it. As with many AirBnB’s these days, they are furnished and outfitted from IKEA. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall. I had a pot, a pan and a spatula for cooking. I lived on egg sandwiches and premade $3 pizzas. Was pretty good actually.

The real problem with settling into Tours is finding things to do. There is plenty to do but typing in “Things to do in Tours” always forced me to scroll through 20 pages of Tour company website results. None having anything to do with Tours, France. But scroll, I did and I was happy with the final results.

The Loire Valley stretches from Paris to the Atlantic. It’s endless grape vineyards subsequent uncountable wineries and Chateaux (x is plural in France) are all connected by easy train rides. Except for days ending in “i” (lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi and vendredi) when they could quite possibly be on strike. And they did a few days that I had a trips planned. Across France, there have been civil protests and work stoppages to oppose the raising the retirement age to 65. Oh, the brutality!!!, Pretty civilized for a protest, just a lot of people with signs standing around in the road eating soup. No trouble, but still a pain in the ass if you are trying to get somewhere. If the weather wasn’t so cold and gray, I would have hopped on a bike. Its pretty flat and plenty to see and do on a day ride on designated bike trails.

There are a lot of Chateaux. Some can even be toured for the low low price of 10 to 20 Euro. I am not really a fan of ogling of other people’s stuff especially when I have to pay for it but it’s better than staying home and watching French TV (I don’t speak French). I don’t know what qualifies as a Chateau here because there are big beautiful houses all over the place. I am leaning towards the ones that have an admission charge are one qualifier and maybe someone famous had to sleep there.

Whatever the criteria, I am glad I checked a few out. I especially liked the more modest one but hosted Leonardo Di Vinci at the end of his life. There is a large park showcasing some of his better inventions worth a wander around. The Chateaux  were generally located near old towns with cobblestone streets lined with cafes and bars. Even the cold gray winter days didn’t hamper the hearty well bundled up French souls enjoying coffees, drinks and smokes at the sidewalk cafes. The places that look really fun are the bars with after work crowds overflowing onto the street creating little impromptu street parties. I bet it’s even better when the warm weather rolls in for the summer.

Summer in France isn’t on this trip’s agenda though. I am on the home stretch and its time to catch a train out assuming its not a day ending in an “I”.

While I work on getting to my next stop here is the link to my Tours pictures on google. All the links to the pictures from this trip are on my IG-ish page.