Blois is a smallish, hill-strewn town situated on the Loire River with an historic area in the Vieux Blois.  The Vieux Blois is an especially hilly and partially-pedestrianized quarter surrounded by the chateau, the cathedral and the river. And these landmarks are surrounded by their own ancient labyrinth of underground parking structures that are nearly invisible until after you have passed them on one-way streets that are impossible to find again.

So we circled around Blois several times until we double-parked on the corner while Jake checked on availability in a hotel on the main drag.  They had a room available, which we took, but we circled three more times before finding the rabbit hole that dropped us down into the parking lot.  And then we circled the parking lot twice with luggage trying to find our way out while mentally documenting where the hell we were so we could retrace our steps the next morning.

We finally emerged from the darkness into the bright of day and deposited our gear in the room.  Our hotel had a great antique iron elevator, which is all I can remember about it, as we were immediately off to check out the historic district.

The Chateau de Blois was shut up tight when we arrived, but we peered through the gates and it looked like a worthwhile place to visit.  We also tried to explore the Cathedrale St-Louis, but I don't remember a thing about it besides the woman wearing wrestling shoes as a fashion statement, so I'm not sure if it was closed or just not very exciting.  Same goes for the Hotel de Ville.  And we walked part of the route royale, which seemed steep, narrow and quaint.  As you can tell, the sites in Blois really didn't make an impression on my brain.

But I do vividly remember drinking stout beer & 1664  in a lively square with small, round lights strung through the trees.  A band was setting up for a rock concert later and the plaza began to fill to the brim.

Before dark, I insisted on eating at a creperie around the corner where Jake ordered the "Texan," which was a crepe with a fried egg, fried potatoes, salsa and ground beef.  Think of that - an American ordering the "Texan."  Sounds crazy, right?  Well, Jake washed it all down with a sizable helping of the restaurant's signature hard cider.  To this day the thought of it gives me the heebie-jeebies and I'm not sure why he didn't get violently ill.

After our culinary adventure we returned to the square to enjoy part of the concert before heading back to the hotel for some much needed rest.  The next morning we spent a goodly amount of time looking for the car, even though we had tried so hard to commit it to memory the day before.