We spent the night in Le Mans, at the Brit Hotel Le Cottage. This is a French chain, sort of like a Fairfield Inn level. The rooms are small—Geoffrey and Katelyn’s room had two twin beds, and our room had a double bed. The hotel and the rooms were decorated in a car-racing theme in honor of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race that happens here.
Le Mans is home to the world’s oldest active endurance sports car race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, first held in 1923. The race tests not just speed, but stamina, as drivers race in teams continuously for a full 24 hours! It’s such a big deal in racing culture that it inspired the movie Ford v Ferrari.
After we checked out of our hotel, we stopped at a grocery store to grab a picnic lunch. We took it to the Château de Chenonceau, one of three châteaux in the region that we were considering visiting because they’re each featured in Impressions de France at EPCOT. We chose this one for its proximity to our next destination—and because it might be the grandest of them all. It’s built out over the Cher River, which makes it look like it’s floating.
We ate our picnic next to a canal covered in thick green moss. After lunch, we headed into the château grounds. We started out visiting the garden to the right of the castle. It was designed by Catherine de Medici and features pink flowers surrounding a central fountain. We took some stunning pictures from this angle and enjoyed the beautiful garden.
Next, we walked to the other garden, which was designed by Diane de Poitiers. This garden’s flowers were done in a purple theme, and the lawns had cool metal shapes in them. It felt like an Alice in Wonderland garden! Both gardens were absolutely stunning—I don’t know that I could pick a favorite.
Then we walked inside the château, which was cook. It was very crowded, so we moved through pretty quickly just to get a general sense of what was inside: lots of artwork, tapestries, and bedrooms. Down in the basement, you could see the old kitchens. The long gallery ballroom, which stretches across the river, allows you to walk all the way to the other side of the shore.
Chenonceau is often called the “Château of the Ladies” because of the many influential women who shaped its design, including Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici. During WWI, it was used as a military hospital, and during WWII, its unique position spanning the river made it a secret escape route from Nazi-occupied France to the free zone.
Next, we visited the labyrinth, which was a lot of fun! I love a good hedge maze. We went through it a couple of times. We ended our visit in the vegetable and flower garden, which felt like Living with the Land—except we weren’t on a boat, lol!
After we left the château, we headed to the Marais Poitevin. We stopped at a pizza vending machine to grab dinner to bring back to our hotel. Yes, an actual pizza vending machine. It’s stocked with fresh pizzas, and when you order one, it bakes it right there on the spot. We’d seen this on a TV show we watched—Jet Lag—and couldn’t resist trying it. Plus, we were all pretty tired, so the idea of just relaxing in our hotel room sounded great!
Our hotel, Hotel Au Marais Coulon, was right on the canal in Coulon. We had a family room with a double bed and two twins, all decorated in a nautical “Yellow Submarine” theme. It was a very cute, cheerful room!
We enjoyed our pizza and watched a movie together: National Lampoon’s European Vacation. Perfect choice.
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Tuesday, July 29
Today we started our day with a boat ride through the Marais Poitevin—aka the Poitevin Marsh. This area is known as the Green Venice of France, and our boat driver said it was similar to a bayou.
One of the coolest surprises about the Marais Poitevin is that it does not have mosquitos, despite being a marsh! That’s because the water here is constantly moving thanks to an intricate network of canals , locks, and drainage systems originally created by monks in the Middle Ages. Mosquitoes need still, stagnant water to breed, so the flowing water makes it hard for them to thrive. Plus, the region has slightly salty soil in some areas, which also helps keep mosquito populations down. Plus, there are lots of fish in the area… Locals joke that even if there were mosquitoes the fish would bite them before they bite us!
You can spot several species of fish, birds, and plants here. It’s a peaceful, beautiful area.
This is also where the opening scene of Impressions de France at EPCOT was filmed. I know it seems a little silly to be chasing these locations down, but it’s been a lot of fun finding these cool little hidden gems; places we probably wouldn’t have visited otherwise!
We took an hour-and-a-half boat ride through the marsh with a guide. It’s amazing how affordable experiences like this are—less than $70 for a private ride for the four of us with a guide. Our guide spoke very little English, but Google Translate is amazing. He would talk, and I’d read the translation aloud for everyone.
One very cool feature here is the natural methane gas that collects at the bottom of the marsh. At one point on the ride, our guide stirred up the bottom with his oar, and gas bubbles rose up. Then he used a lighter to light the water on fire!
After our boat ride, we had a yummy lunch at a galette place. A galette is what they call their savory crêpes. Grant and I shared one with ham, cheese, egg, and tomato—the tomatoes were mashed into a sauce and were so fresh and sweet, they were amazing! Katelyn got ham and cheese, and Geoffrey got ham and egg.
For dessert, we had a caramel apple crêpe, a salted caramel crêpe, ice cream, and a warm chocolate melting cake. The desserts were très magnifique!
After lunch, we walked to a park to relax while waiting for the bike rental shop to reopen. At 2:30, we rented bikes—again, super cheap! For the four of us to rent bikes for six hours (way more than we needed), it was $55. That’s what it would cost to rent two bikes for an hour in Colorado! Lol.
We followed a 15-mile route through small villages. We traveled along the marsh, through farmlands, over bridges, and back along the river. Our road changed from pavement to dirt to bridges, and we were grateful for the front suspension on our bikes! We saw lots of cows, and the countryside was just stunning. I don’t know that I’ve ever biked in more beautiful places than on our two biking trips in Europe.
We were also able to stop next to a sunflower field and grab some pictures. We have seen so many sunflower fields traveling through this region! Turns out, this is one of two regions out of the top producers of sunflowers in France, and sunflower oil is a hugely popular export to all of Europe. It’s late in sunflower season and many of them are starting to droop and get ready for harvest, but they are still beautiful to see spread out all along and huge fields.
We returned our bikes and stopped for an afternoon snack of ice cream and soda. Grant and I shared scoops of passionfruit, pineapple, and peach. Geoffrey got coffee and banana, and Katelyn chose chocolate and caramel.
Now we’re driving to our next location—a two-hour drive to Bordeaux.
All right just throwing this in. We stopped for dinner… Kids are feeling a little bit homesick, great attitudes for the most part but definitely missing some things from home… Like ice… And free refills… So we decided to go to an “American“ restaurant for dinner. No free refills, but they did have ice!
Until next time!
Here’s the link to more photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QopbhihhB6mcbwSh6
And here’s a link to the pizza vending machine in action:
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