Blois Travel Articles & Travelogues

FRANCE TRAVEL ARTICLES

BLOIS October 2002

We arrived at the Hôtel Mercure in Blois at about 3pm, had baths, changed our clothes and went out.

We walked around a little before finding a cake shop, Eric Saguez, where we had cakes and coffees. In the shop, there was a fantastic chocolate replica of a statue of Denis Papin. On leaving the shop to explore a little further, we found the original statue of this famous son of Blois. We discovered the next day that he is reputed to have been the original inventor of the steam engine! After photographing the statue, we continued our exploration in the area around the cathedral, where there were some very attractive old streets. Then we made our way back down to the River Loire and along the riverside to our hotel.

While we had been out, we had read the menu at Au Bouchon Lyonnais and had decided to book a table there. We had tried to get into the restaurant with a Michelin star, but it had been booked up. Anyway, we had a very good meal. Norman was a little more adventurous than I was. He started with a terrine of scorpion fish in a cream sauce, while I had a feuillette with seafood and wild mushrooms in a light sauce. Next Norman had pike dumplings in a cream sauce with rice. The dumplings were egg-based and the fish was in the mixture. He let me try them and they were delicious. I had escallops of monkfish with buttered cabbage and rice. Finally, Norman had pain perdu à l’ancienne, which was a sort of bread pudding but tasted rather like a thick pancake served with cream. I had a perfect crème brûlée. We shared a bottle of local while wine and finished with coffees served with chocolate mousse. It was a superb meal for about £45.

The next morning we had a fairly nice breakfast in the hotel. We walked along the river, as far as the church of St. Nicholas and then climbed up to the chateau. First we came to the square outside the main entrance, where there were several cafés and restaurants and lovely views over the town to the river. The chateau is a very impressive building, built between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries around four sides of a quadrangle.

nfortunately, the weather had become very changeable. One moment there was a blue sky and the next it was raining – fortunately not too heavily.
After looking round the chateau, we went inside St. Vincent’s church, which was close by, and then walked down into the town. We went into the Palais Café for a not very good crêpe and coffee and then walked across the Old Bridge to the other side of the river. There were some very good views of the city from this side of the river. We walked around a few streets, but there wasn’t anything of great interest to see in this area, so we crossed the bridge again and went for a fruit juice in a café close to the river.

The sky was beautiful and the light was lovely. It was warm enough to sit out without coats, even though the sun was going down. We sat for a while, before deciding to go to a nearby restaurant to eat. By this time, the sky had become really stormy and looked like something Turner might have painted. Norman took a couple of photographs before we left.

Les Bacchanales was not a good choice of restaurant, but you can’t win them all. It was Sunday and there wasn’t much choice. Norman had eggs Benedict and I had a crab flan; we were both very disappointed. Then we both had quite a good fillet steak with absolutely awful vegetables. Both the beans and the potatoes had been reheated and the potatoes were particularly unpleasant. Norman had a pichet of wine (25cl), and we had a bottle of Bâdoit water and coffees. It cost about £41 – not our cheapest meal and one of the worst. We went back to the hotel at about 9pm.