After a fabulous five days in Paris we caught a cab to Orly airport to collect the lease car. Turned out to be a simple process and off ewe went. According to the Peugeot there was 125 litres of petrol in the car. We intended to fill up as soon as we saw a petrol station. That was the Aire des Plaines de Beuce. No joy there so we kept driving. My husband wasn’t to concerned as we couldn’t get into the next station. From 80ks of fuel left, the fuel alarm kept going off every few kilometres.
It was a great relief when we found a station.

We then arrived at our accommodation and I was underwhelmed by the look on the outside and being on a busy road. Once we got inside I was ok. The apartment is clean, and the bedroom is at the back so you don’t hear any noise. Felt cold though and once we found the heater we turned it on. Couldn’t find any other heating so we turned the oven on too.
I am so glad I decided to bring my puffer coat as I haven’t taken it off since we arrived.

The night before leaving Paris we tried several times to get Crit’ Air sticker. Apparently we will need it for some areas. A few hours of being very frustrated when each application was rejected as shown below.

Pour vous délivrer un certificat, nous vous invitons à vérifier que les champs TYPE D’ÉNERGIE (P.3) et TYPE DE VÉHICULE (J ou J.1) figurent bien sur votre certificat d’immatriculation.IDENTITE DU DESTINATAIRE

NUMERO + LIBELLE DE LA VOIE ou LIEU DIT

CODE POSTAL
Not to worry we thought as the guy from Peugeot will be able to help .We did som research on the net and Renault advise people that you don’t need one if you car is a brand new model. When we mentioned it to the Peugeot guy his response was there was no need as the car is new, and they will send the sticker to your home address ( Australia ) and you will be lucky if it ever arrives. We are still not convinced and no matter what we do our application is rejected

Once we settled in to the apartment we went out to eat and sat in Place Plumereau and had an early dinner of very good and hot lasagne. We couldn’t understand why we were so exhausted. Maybe all the stress of trying to work out the sticker, packing up, etc contributed and we were in bed at 9.30. So rare for us to be in bed before midnight

Added Trip Report and France tags

"Grand Paris, Grenoble, Lyon, Strasbourg, Reims, Rouen, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice, Toulouse, Saint-Étienne" are the areas where you should have a Crit'Air. Nowhere near Tours.

kerouac thank you as always. We had checked and we were on the Periphigue for 1.8 kilometres and that’s what we were concerned about. Even though it’s not that long a distance.

Interested to hear more about your time in Tours!

jumping on board with you. I have always liked the idea of longer stays but rarely had the chance to do it so I will be fascinated to see how you get on.

After a domestic day on Tuesday we visited the first Chateau on the list of five. Chenonceau was a forty minute drive from Tours and I was excited to be finally getting here.

I loved Catherine Medici’s apocathary and the rooms are lovely. There were a lot of people and I felt that we were being herded through, and you couldn’t stay long to really examine some of the beautiful furniture. The floral arrangements in the Chateau are really stunning and have given me some ideas for Spring and Summer. it was not a long leisurely visit inside. It would be awful visiting in peak season as you wouldn’t be able to move. We then explored the gardens in depth. So much beautiful wisteria and tulips. Really enjoyed the visit although I felt a bit underwhelmed by the Chateau. I will put it down to having to high expectations.

After three hours we left for the short 10k drive to Amboise.
We stopped for lunch and had a fabulous chicken salad baguette for me and tuna salad for for my husband. All the ingredients are made up on trays and then tipped on to the slightly warm baguette. As part of the special lunch option you get to choice a cake. Citron Tart ( good as always) for me and Pistachio tart for my husband. The Pistachio tart had a crumble on top and was really good. Total 17 euros. I’m still on the elusive find a good coffee hunt and I’m not having much success.

We had a lovely drive back stopping at Vouvray for a look and it is a small place and very clean. Then a stop at the supermarket as for some groceries ffor dinner, and we didn’t have any wine in the house.

Staying for a longer period is appealing to me. Following along with much interest.

Following as well so I can show this to my wife and hopefully convince her of a 4 week vacation ourselves.

I'll be interested to hear what your favorite chateau is. Or maybe you'll have more than one favorite. Enjoy!

I think when deciding on a longer stay there are different things to consider and what we look at and what we must have

Accomodation at least 40sq metres

Outside space to sit is not negotiable. This place has a terrace, and wish the owners had removed the dead pot plants.

Reading reviews to see what the amenities are like.
For example in this apartment in Tours there is only one wine glass, one size saucepan, no vegetable peeler, no clippers, old cutlery, one knife. Not a big problem as we went and purchased some wine glasses, clippers and vegetable peeler. If you are on a strict budget all these little things add up. Amazing what you can cook with if you improvise. This apartment is rated as four stars. Not sure the stars are warranted. We have paid €1,896 ( with taxes) for 27 days and works out €70 per day.

Australians nearly always find French (and European) coffee disappointing because it is made for local tastes rather than Australian tastes. No, I am not being snarky, but rather than saying "good" coffee, it might be better to hope for "Australian style" coffee. (snowball's chance in hell most likely -- I can't really comment because I am not a coffee drinker except in social situations.)

<<For example in this apartment in Tours there is only one wine glass, one size saucepan, no vegetable peeler, no clippers, old cutlery, one knife. >>

That's appalling Cheska. When we ran a self catering business [in a very small way, just one "unit" as they are called ni the trade] I used to be mortified if any of our guests said that there was something missing. I'm tempted to wonder if they rely on guests buying equipment and then remove it so the next lot have to repeat the process. As a minimum you should provide one of everything per person plus decent kitchen equipment. And dead pot plants? Who gave them the 4 stars?

Apart from that nice to read that you are enjoying your sightseeing. The lunch was a bargain at €17!

cheska, so happy to see you back in France and taking us along for the ride! Am surprised about your apartment, usually they are much better equipped. Our Luberon Airbnb host even got us an Instant Pot just because I asked if there was one at the house.

We spent a week near Amboise some years back and loved it, unfortunately we couldn’t stay longer. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Glad you are getting settled. We are finishing our first week and will move on tomorrow where we will stay for two weeks. The weather has been cold and overcast but not too many showers and it did not affect us. Today is lovely. We have been around this area before and have enjoyed re- visiting places. We visited Chateau de Bonaguil yesterday and I would love to know how many stairs we climbed up and down. We were had it by the time we finished.
As side note, we tried an unmanned service station at an Intermarche this morning and our card worked. I have just checked and the only amount pending is the amount we put in. So that is different from our experience on previous trips.

We are similar in what we look for in our gites. I always want a full stove, not just hotplates and a microwave because we cook a lot. Somewhere to sit outside is a plus as well. We have a little seating area here and today is the first time we have really used it. The rest of our gites have nice terraces. This is a small studio but is well equipped - well not great knives and a very blunt potato peeler. We snapped our white asparagus spears peeling them. But no worries. It is annoying though when you have to buy something. We have bought chopping boards, corkscrews, coffee mugs, pot holders over the years.
Enjoy Tours.

I always read reviews very carefully before deciding on apartment rentals and for a longer stay I like to see that other people have stayed there for more than a few days. A fully equipped kitchen is important to us as one of the primary reasons for renting an apartment is to be able to cook at least some of our meals at home. I also try to pay it back - to give reviews that will help other travelers choose an appropriate place.

Last year we stayed in a very nice apartment in Paris but it had a spiral staircase to the upstairs bedroom and no toilet on that floor - which meant that we had to go downstairs on that challenging staircase in the middle of the night. Upon returning home I re-read the reviews and confirmed that no one had mentioned that so I made sure to do so in my review - which was, otherwise, positive. And I now know to look carefully at toilet location vis a vis the bedroom when choosing another apartment!

I’ve been told Tours has the clearest French accent, so it’s a good place to pursue further language learning. How are you finding it?

Yesterday visited two places that you see on the travel shows and think I want to go there. We left home early to visit Lavardin an hour from Tours to as we wanted to visit Saint-Genest Church as the murals are reportedly from the 12th century. Beautiful hamlet with the Chateau ruins sitting on top of a rocky outcrop. Shame there isn’t a cafe there to sit and enjoy the view.

By the time we left it was to find somewhere to grab something for lunch and drove to Saint Amand Longpre to grab a baguette from the boulangerie.

Another short drive to see Vendome and what a beautiful town. Sadly we were here while everything was closed except the Abbey. Unusual for it to be open between 12-2. Beautiful parks, lovely buildings and definitely want to go back and have lunch on the river. I think I could live in this town as from what we saw today it seemed to have everything. Another home cooked meal of Roast chicken and veggies, and small apple tarts with the most delicious Normandie thick cream, and a glass of wine.

A few months ago we saw that SNCF had a sale on the carte seniors card for €25. We ordered two as we wanted to mix up our transport options. I don’t drive at all so going by train somewhere gives my husband a break from the driving, and we enjoy a longish lunch with a couple of glasses of wine.

We decided to visit Angers today by train as it is only just over an hour away. Despite being held up for 30 minutes due to a technicality it was a lovely trip. The countryside is so green and we could see the Chateau at Langeias and Samur. The small town of Langeias looks gorgeous and will go for a drive to investigate further.

Angers was much bigger than I expected. We walked to the Office of Tourism and they were so helpful. We then followed the blue tourist line around the town.Of course we went into the Cathedral and it certainly is spectacular. It is currently undergoing renovations and doesn’t seem to disturb the visitors.

We then had an ok lunch. My husband enjoyed his hamburger with blue cheese, and I had spinach and ricotta lasagna. Followed by Crème Caramel for me and a good Tarte Tatin. Four glasses of wine and the total was €57. We will visit again one day next week to visit the monuments.

We are having a wonderful time and feel very relaxed. We haven’t developed a routine as we have been leaving Tours everyday to visit other areas.

I went to the supermarket on my own and was quite excited that I understood a woman telling me she was tired. The trouble when you want to practice French, everyone wants to practice their English.

We were talking to an English guy the other day( former restaurant owner) and he made the comment that the Australians he has met don’t like Tours. Sure it’s not as pretty as some other places on the surface, however once you start walking around the town there are some lovey areas. The pedestrian mall is one of the cleanest I have ever seen.
I have also noticed that the “ Bonjour “ to people when walking down the street isn’t as often as it was in Nimes.

This is fascinating. What are clippers? And what is an instant pot? In similar type accommodation (not necessarily in France) where we've stayed with a kitchen, it's unusual to have it well equipped. Mostly it's two teaspoons, 2 bowls, one tiny saucepan etc. And usually it's all a bit grubby. They obviously don't think people will actually cook. I love reading about the food, the filled baguettes sounded yum. And cheap