(Pictures: View of Fontainbleau from the gardens, the library, the Queen's bed chamber, the King's bed chamber, a green bedroom, a vine-covered house on the way to Nemours, Cookie!)
Today we started biking in the morning and arrived at the chateau of Fontainbleau. On the way we biked through the woods of Fontainbleau. It was fun to go off-roading for a little bit! Our bikes are somewhere between a road bike and a mountain bike so we've been able to go on a variety of terrain without much trouble. Once we arrived at the chateau we had a guided tour which was very interesting. Fontainbleau has a long history and was an official residence for many of the French kings dating back to the middle ages. This is the site where Napoleon abdicated the throne. We were able to see the desk he signed the papers on, and the staircase where he officially stepped down!
After our tour, we had about two hours to get lunch and walk through the gardens. Gramzie and I went to a little sandwich shop and got ham and cheese sandwiches on baguettes, and ate a picnic lunch in the gardens. The weather was beautiful again and walking through the gardens and fountains around the chateau was very pleasant. We also walked into town and browsed through a few shops, and Gramzie and I went for a ride on the Merry-go-round in the square! It was fun.
We biked the rest of the afternoon to the town of Nemours where we are staying tonight. The bike ride was again very pleasant. We stopped in the little town of Grez-sur-Loing where a bridge is located that has been painted many times by Impressionist painters. It was very picturesque. In order to get to the barge we had to cross a little footbridge that we were not allowed to ride our bikes on. The French have a funny little "bike barrier" invention, as we decided to call it, which prevent people from riding their bikes on the bridge. It's a stone with a little groove just the size of a bike tire with a metal gate on each side that is just wide enough for a bike to pass through. It basically forces you to get off your bike and walk it through the opening. It was a clever little contraption and not anything I've seen before.
Dinner was wonderful, as usual. All the people on this trip (except me, of course) have been on previous bicycle trips and many were commenting tonight that the food was never as good as this trip. I guess Markus really is exceptional! For starters we had Caprese salad, which is already a favorite of mine so I was really looking forward to it. The way Markus prepared it was great - slices of tomato, fresh mozzarella, and avocado, topped with basil pesto. Dinner was actually Indian food tonight. We had "Thailand tortillas," as Markus described them - basically crispy tortilla shells. We broke these into pieces and ate rice and curry chicken on top. We ate this with a white cabbage salad that was similar to coleslaw. It was very good. For dessert we had passion fruit sorbet with other diced fruit on top, plus a splash of champagne! It was great!
Tomorrow is supposed to be our most difficult day of biking. There were some grumbles and worried looks when Odile told us this, but I'm excited! I suppose I have an unfair advantage over everyone else, but I can't help that so I'll just keep enjoying myself. Check back tomorrow to see how we faired in the hills!
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