Revenge of Travel Day: Now With Less Travelling

(Note: This post is for last Sunday, so “Today” refers to that day)

Today we left Paris for a couple days in the French countryside, but not without one last Parisian croissant. It was again eaten too fast to take a picture of, but our artist in residence has kindly agreed to portray what it might have looked like:

"I'll miss you, Jason!"

*sniffle* I’ll miss you too, croissants! Don’t forget me…

With the tearful goodbyes said, we headed on our way. We drove out of Paris towards Tours. As it turns out, much of the French countryside looks a lot like the American midwest does, albeit with different houses, and more windmills:

The name "windmill" has become a bit divorced from its historical origins. Wind? Yes. Mill? No.

We stopped for a while in the (relatively) small town of Blois:

A patronizing American might describe it as "quaint." Since I am not, I would instead describe it as "kick-ass."

There was some kind of small fair going on. We got some lunch and hung out. It was a really nice day, and there was some really nice views:

Yes, this is a real photograph. No, I can't believe it either.)

I also bought some new sunglasses to replace those lost in the ruins of old Paris:

Not 100% sold on them, but I was getting a headache from the sun.

There was also some people at the fair selling leather jackets. This was mainly funny because it was about 100 degrees (no exagerration), so they weren’t having a lot of luck. One of them told my mom that he was “pére Noel” and that the jackets were free today. She was understandably skeptical. After that, we piled back into the car and headed over to Chinon. Apparently Joan of Arc was here at some point, so there’s a totally sweet statue of her riding a horse that someone threw a scarf on for some reason:

Notice how she's totally riding that horse RIGHT over that english dude.

We found a hotel, and then wandered around for a while. We ended up eating here:

Seventh Restaurant

I finally got to check Créme Brulee off my list of things to eat in France, and let me tell you, it was tasty. It was much more subtle than what you generally get in the states, and not too sweet. Two thumbs up, says I!

Tomorrow: A winery, and a castle!

BONUS: Jason makes fun of French signs for no good reason:

OK, so the meaning of this is pretty clear, but I decided to make it clearer

The Disco Fever has already claimed over 1000 lives. Don't let yours be next.

This is pretty clearly a speed bump sign. However...

...to me, it looks a bit more like a mustachioed triangle.

This one, I really have no idea about. If anyone knows what this sign is, let me know in the comments. For now, though, I'm gonna say...

Hammers available for all your convenient barrel-smashing needs!