A Tour In Tours

Thursday, October 6 we had a private tour scheduled at 2:00 with Véro. I have been following her for a very long time online, where I first knew her as French Girl in Seattle. In 2019 she moved back to France after 24 years in Seattle and was in Paris initially. She was a Rick Steves tour guide that first year. Then the pandemic hit and France had several different lockdowns that were very restrictive. Tours weren’t happening and being the entrepreneur that she is she started teaching French lessons online and doing virtual tours, first around her neighborhood during lockdown, then further afield when she could be more mobile. She started a patreon program that has different levels depending on how much you pay each month and her patrons get additional content that other people don’t get. She is giving private tours to her patrons at a discount if they are in Tours, so of course I jumped at that. Another patron, Annette, was going to be there at the same time so we joined together to split the cost of the tour.

Since the tour wasn’t until 2:00 we decided to go to Château Villandry in the morning. The château was great and the gardens were impressive. Even this late in the year they were beautiful. They must be spectacular in the spring and summer. No photos were allowed inside, but I made up for that with far too many of the gardens.

We returned to Tours and met Véro and Annette for the tour. We spent what seemed to be a very fast 3 hours walking around the historic center and learning the fascinating history of Tours. We ended the tour just down the street from our apartment and we all had a very nice time at one of the local restaurants talking together and sharing a bottle of wine.