Amboise to Tours

July 5

Short easy hills today, we also ran into a plum tree that was ripe and picked a bunch of plums for our next break. We were taking it very slow and easy because we have a warm shower's stay set up, and they were only available at 6:00 p.m., so we had a lot of time. We biked along a section where wine storage facilities and even some houses were built into the cliffs on the side of the road, very interesting. Also ran into a Canadian lady who was biking with her two kids, they had lost their dad along the way, and we're having a hard time reconnecting. In tours, we spent some time in the cathedral which had some very impressive stained glass. They each had a huge sign to describe what each section of the stained glass meant, but it was really hard to try to figure out which sign corresponded to which window, and which section corresponded to which explanation. They needed somebody who has some experience in user interface design to tell them how to make it more understandable.

At 6:00 p.m. we knocked on the door of our hosts from warm showers. The mom and one of the daughters was actually just coming to the home, they had been a little delayed. they were very friendly and welcoming, they host a lot of people from warm showers and have a wall up in their hallway with pictures and notes from their guests.

I tried speaking some French, but blondine spoke English, and also encouraged the girls to speak in English, which they did mostly. They have four girls, three of them at home. Also - no TV! That gives a whole different atmosphere to the home, much more peaceful and calming. They had many many books also lots of comics, Peter was able to read Calvin and Hobbes in French, though he said he didn't need the French because he had memorized the English. Matthew is a doctor, general practitioner, and blondine is a pediatrician, who works at a center for children with disabilities. I asked them some questions about the French healthcare system, it seems very complex, with both a public and a private insurance system that both appear to be mandatory? I'm not quite unsure I understood that properly though. Blending makes a ton of jam! She has all different kinds, including fig from her own trees, and apricot pair mixture, and the most exotic which was banana jam. Matthew actually opened up one of the banana jam jars for me at breakfast, it was quite good!

For dinner we had what blondine called a salad composee, basically pasta corn garbanzo beans tomatoes hard-boiled eggs, with a dressing. Then afterwards bread, cheese, and fruit. 

Also I sat up with Matthew and blondine when they had some coffee in the evening, we talked till about 11:00. I asked blundeen about her job, we talked about health insurance etc. Very good chat.