One château twice in one day

The day started with our promised sleep in and room delivered coffee and pastries (delivered by Gabby). We headed off to town loaded down with a weeks’ worth of washing in search of a Laundromat. Finding one and having a lot of fun interpreting the signs we inserted our load into the appropriately sized machine (after sorting it out with the only other two people in the place - who happened to be from Sandringham, Vic) and headed off for a quick shop. For Dad this means one item, one shop, knowing what you want and how much you will pay. Apparently not so for the rest of the team. So whilst the girls explored the delights of the end of season sales in Provincial France he headed off for a photo shoot over the other side of the river.
Upon returning to the Laundry Dad and Louisa then spent 1 hour drying the clothes and trying not to shrink the shirts. Succeeding on the first front and failing on the second, we eventually escaped and we all headed up the Cafe’ De Dennis which was named after the inventor of the steam engine (so they say). Lunch was a very relaxed and drawn out due to the slowness of the waitress, however we were in no hurry and the locals seemed to be fascinated in our conversations (they could hardly avoid them...).
We then headed up the Château Blois, which dominates the town physically, emotionally and touristicly. However it was not crowded which was very pleasant (we’d noticed this was the same in town - even though it was our first experience of a normal day here). We enjoyed the history of the place (including a real life Fencing duel) and fine views from the ramparts. Drinks and nibbles (purchased with some confusion in the supermarket)was enjoyed back in the rooms, as we prepared for a big night out as our last in the land of “bag searching check-out girls.
So we had dinner in a joint just around the corner which specialised in Wok cooking similar to Mongolian restaurants at home. The difference here is you only choose your vegies, they determine the quantities of everything else. We figure this is for economic reasons. It was great to have some food that was not wheat based for a change.

Relaxed and slowly getting used to the idea that dark happens around 11pm we headed back to the Chateau for the light spectacular and very impressive it was too. We all agreed that it was a good thing we chose the one night in the week they did it in English as it was hard enough to comprehend anyway. Looked great, re-enforced the stories we’d gotten wind of during the day (assassinations and key events in the history of France etc). And we all left feeling quite exhilarated. Tomorrow we part ways with Gabby as we head off under the channel and on to the land of soggy fish and chips and Beefeaters.