Exploring Blois in France by foot on an Albatross La Grande France tour

West Australian

3 days ago

On group tours, you travel — and converse — with strangers who quickly become familiar figures (even if you can't always put a name to every face for the first few days).
In my experiences of escorted journeys down the years, I've been fortunate to have found the vast majority of my fellow travellers decent, endearing and convivial.
It's a similar story with my Albatross La Grande France tour, which includes several walking tours and meals together as we venture through the country.
Now, as much as I enjoy the company of my all-Australian group, I can't deny I occasionally like a bit of me-time, especially when that involves moseying around historic French towns and cities.
We get to do a fair bit of that on this tour, with free time sprinkled across the itinerary that currently spans 16 days, and which will be stretched to 19 days next year, 2026.
So well has our group got on during the first portion of this tour — which has taken us from Paris into the Loire Valley — that they've all voluntarily gone for dinner together tonight. Well, everyone except me. I'm the awkward so-and-so.
But that comes with the territory of being a travel writer. You're always wondering what's around the next corner and I couldn't miss the chance to explore Blois, a famous old royal city perched by the Loire River.
I bid my group a temporary farewell outside L'Oratoire, a well-reviewed local restaurant housed in the former orangerie of the Chateau de Blois, a hulking landmark, the birthplace of King Louis XII, capping a bluff in the city's ancient core.
Your leg muscles get a good workout in Blois. There are steep lanes and staircases to climb — and descend — but nice flat bits as well.
The most colourful passage is the Escalier Denis Papin, a brightly-painted staircase named after the physicist, mathematician and inventor, who was born in Blois in 1647 and credited with creating the steam digester, the first pressure cooker.
It's warm on this early summer's evening and I almost have steam coming from my ears when I reach the last of the staircase's 120 steps, where there's a statue of Denis Papin and a bar named after him.
I'm tempted to pause for refreshments, but with only a few hours before sunset, I press on towards Blois' cathedral, which has been rebuilt several times since the 12th century and was almost destroyed by a particularly violent storm in 1678.
Next door, the Jardins de L'Eveche command tremendous views over the city's silver rooftops with the Loire flowing behind.
The gardens' rose bushes are in bloom and I'm also drawn towards the statue of Joan of Arc on horseback (in 1429, she was blessed at the Chateau de Blois before going to battle the English at Orleans).
The topography of Blois may be challenging in parts, but the fact that so many streets are so scenic, bulging with centuries-old limestone and timber-beamed buildings, makes the effort worthwhile.
And when you are ready for a drink and a bite to eat, there are countless options spread around the historic centre, including French bistros and more cosmopolitan eateries specialising in, say, Japanese or Vietnamese cuisine.
Having enjoyed several filling three-course meals in recent days, I'm in the mood for something lighter, so I order a Breton-style galette (savoury crepe) from Le Comptoir de Mamie Bigoude, whose colourful retro-kitsch decor helps it stand out from the other establishments on Rue Saint-Martin.
I enjoy my ham, cheese and mushroom galette with a glass of house red wine, then pay the bill — about $30 — and carry on walking up another staircase.
This one brings me to Place du Chateau, a large square by the entrance to Blois' biggest landmark. The chateau has closed for today and so has the Maison de la Magie, a museum that faces it across the square, housed in the elegant former mansion of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin.
He was a Blois watchmaker (1805-1871) and a pioneer in the field of magic who is said to have inspired a certain Hungarian-born American illusionist, Erik Weisz — better known as Harry Houdini.
With my back to the mansion and the statue of Robert-Houdin, I cross the square and walk down an alley into the Saint-Nicolas district. It spreads out from the church of the same name and has atmospheric cobbled lanes with renaissance-era mansions and alternative haunts for food and drink.
Several groups of people — mostly French, by the sounds of it — are enjoying tipples and meals together in this enclave. Which reminds me. I must check the time. My group will be finishing their dinner shortly.
So I climb one last steep street, where two teenage lads are racing against each other, doing short, sharp shuttle sprints. Reaching the top more slowly than them, I catch my breath and wander over to the restaurant, leaning against a wall overlooking Jardin Augustin Thierry, where a baroque church overlooks a nice little park shaded with an assortment of lovely trees.
A few minutes later, my group emerges. They're in fine spirits — the food was good, apparently — and I briefly wonder if I missed out on a meal to write home about.
But no, I'm happy with my choice. Blois is a treat to explore on foot. And besides, there's another group dinner on the cards tomorrow.
+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Albatross Tours. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.
+ Free time in Blois is included on Albatross' 19-day 2025 La Grande France Tour, which begins in Paris and ends in Nice and costs $15,887 per person (twin) and $20,887 (solo). See
albatrosstours.com.au
+ If visiting independently, Blois has regular rail connections to Paris with the train journey lasting between one hour 20 minutes and two hours. See
blois.fr
+ To help plan a trip to France, see
france.fr