My expanded palate and French Laundry

We’re in Amboise now, with two days of chateaux to visit. The above picture is a baguette vending machine at the train station, and should have been an indicator of how serious the baguette business is here. We had a couple of hours before we got access to our apartment and so we planted ourselves at a cafe and watched people purchase armloads of baguettes from a line that was always 15 deep, more and more and more bread, until the shelves were bare and the cafe closed.

If I ever get too uppity about the fact that I got us out of Paris and over to Amboise on the correct train, with all of our luggage intact, you can always remind me about the load of laundry I’m currently trying to do in our rental apartment. It’s been on the wash cycle for four hours, so far. I’m working from a user manual that I found online but I feel like something key was lost in my Microsoft Translate App and that machine is locked and unstoppable.

Also, I got quite a few comments about my meal choices for Paris and I accept all the criticism. I deserve it all and I think Sam and Kris – heading our way from the Midwest as I type this/try to do a load of laundry – are nervous about our upcoming 18 days together, from a culinary point of view. I also haven’t been able to find a heating pad yet and so I hope they’re game for joining the search. Sam really likes shopping and searching for a heating pad (Sam: coussin chauffant!) should fit the bill for her.

I want to try to redeem myself with the pictures below so that you can see I can make a good food choice. We eat Magnum ice cream bars whenever we travel and in the Marais district we found an outpost that makes you a treat on the spot. (My superior design on the left)

Likewise, I know a good baguette when I see one:

I’ll leave you with these pictures. It’s our first view of Amboise as we walked in, followed by two shots from the famous Sunday market, where you can buy both a live chicken and a full size mattress!

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