Barge Holiday on Le Cher France Day One 27/6/2015

 

Well the holiday started well leaving home at 9am in bright sun, a gentle drive to Stansted Airport for a 2pm flight. The drive took just on two hours with not a hint of problems, into the prepaid car park and a short walk to wait for the bendy bus. We were the first on so we visited every other car park before arriving at the terminal. We already had our boarding cards so just had to book our two cases in. Here Stansted did its best to thwart us. By the time we had booked the bags in we just had time for a quick bite and I mean quick before rushing off to our gate. Unfortunately I misread the board and we boarded the train for gate 39, we should have been at 40 in the other arm and there is no way we can go back. I rang the number given to me by one of the staff and a chap came in a minibus and picked us up to drive us to the other side of the apron arriving as about half the passengers had boarded.

It was a good flight to Tours Airport in France and as we stepped off the flight the heat hit you. I don’t know how many flights they get a week, but there is just one building divided into two, arrivals and departures, In arrivals there is one carousel hand loaded through a hole in the wall, no customs or immigration. Ryanair are the only people to fly there with only 8 destinations.

We had planned to get a Taxi to the hotel but there were none there so we caught the shuttle bus into Tours town for 7 euro's each. The bus dropped us by the railway station, unfortunately our hotel was by the other station which is why we wanted a taxi. We were wandering around, again no Taxis at the station when a local chap took pity on us, He used my phone to call us a taxi and stayed with us until it arrived to make sure we were OK.

We stayed at the Kyriad Tours hotel right by the station and planned to eat in the hotel restaurant, mistake, its closed at weekends and the only place to eat in the area is a small Pizzeria, needless to say the rest of their customers were also staying at the hotel. The tables were in the back yard but the pizzas were good and the wine cheap. The hotel was very comfortable and the staff spoke good English which was handy for me. As we walked back to the hotel we passed several closed bars but the windows in this one caught our eye.

For Day two click HERE