It got a little wild once we got off the train. You may recall that our train was over an hour late, which meant by the time we arrived in Tours the car rental company was locked up tight. Crap. We were about to order an Uber and just deal with the car in the morning (read: tired and hungry) when Jason spotted a tiny note on the door. (Jason says: Yes, tiny. As in, almost the size of a Post-It note. Okay fine, maybe it was a bit bigger, but honestly: this must happen often enough for them to put up a sign, so why not make it a sign we can actually *bleeping* see?!) It said something along the lines of, “if it’s after hours, go to the Kyriad Hotel to pick up your keys.” What? Again! Yes! Also, our thanks to Google Translate. #lifesaver

Sure enough, our keys were waiting for us at the hotel across the square. They handed them off with no additional anything beyond an ID, we found the car, and were on our way! This picking up cars at a hotel is working out great for us. This time, with Hertz.

The drive to the hotel was only about 20 minutes out of town and into the countryside. We arrived at Domaine de la Terraine, our chateau home for the next four nights. Yes, that’s right: our chateau; it’s okay to be jealous. It was gorgeous! We declined help with our bags (does anyone else feel bad about having someone else try to move your ridiculously heavy bag?) and rolled along to our flat in the old carriage house (did I take a photo?…no…dummy). It was HUGE! The receptionist was strangely apologetic about not reserving us a room in the chateau, but this was golden. We had room to spread out, get organized, and for the only portion of our stay in France, not constantly bump into each other. It was heaven.

We wandered back to the chateau shortly after for our dinner reservation, which they told us we could fudge a little, so we had drinks on the terrace first. Gorgeous view. This became a nightly routine. Is this really our life?! However, this was the only night we dined in at the hotel restaurant. I can’t recall exactly what we ordered but it was probably salmon for me and beef for Jason (he also says he had fois gras). All I remember is the giant cart of cheese they were rolling around for dessert (Jason says: yassssssssssssssss!). My cheese-loving husband was delighted for a chance to try all kinds of French cheeses while his dairy-allergic wife went for the fruit dessert. It was going on midnight by the time we finished and strolled back to our room for the night.

The next morning, we were up early for breakfast. (Jason clarifies: “early”) You had to be done eating by 9:45 here, which…is early for me, especially on vacation. We wandered back down to the restaurant (weren’t we just here a couple hours ago? [Jasons says: yassssssssssssssssssss]) and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of bread, fruit, and proteins to choose from. I may have had lemon bread, salmon, and a giant bowl of raspberries and strawberries every morning. Both coffee and tea flowed aplenty, and we were ready for the day once Jason had his fill of bread and cold cuts (#wheninEurope).

Our first full day in the area we decided to venture just 20 minutes away to the village of Villandry to tour the chateau and gardens there. It was quite busy, and hot for the first time on this trip! We immediately went for the chateau tour when we got there, hoping it would be a bit cooler.

The Loire Valley is known for the outrageous number of country chateaus that were once summer homes to Kings and courtiers. The chateaus are enormous (Jason wonders: it’s almost as if they were compensating for something…), the gardens are breathtaking, and the restoration and upkeep budgets must be in the billions every year. You could spend months here and never see them all.

We chose one of the closest chateaus to our little chateau hotel because of its extensive gardens. Chateau Villandry’s restored Renaissance chateau was a marvel, but the gardens. Wow! The entire estate is surrounded by perfectly manicured gardens that are maintained by the digging and hoeing of ONLY 10 gardeners. No chemicals are used, and biodiversity is flourishing, which means they’ve introduced different bugs for pest control, let them do what they need to do, and the gardens are home to over 100 different species of birds enjoying those bugs as well. It’s amazing. Everything is watered by an underground system and looks so effortless. I was blown away. We try hard to implement this at home, but I can tell you by the time the end of August rolls around every year, the bugs are huge, it’s been too hot for too long, and I’m over it. At this point, we call the garden done and wait until the first freeze kills off the bugs before we clean it up for the following year. So hats off to these guys – it’s hard work!

After a quick run through the gift shop, we decided to get sandwiches at the café, stop at the grocery store for a few things on the way back, and then bring it all back to the hotel for a champagne lunch on the lawn (one of our bottles of Champagne Gardet didn’t make it home). Pretty perfect. Hey, it’s a rough life sometimes, but someone has to do stuff like this, right?

After lunch, we decided on a short hike through the hotel’s wooded grounds. We had heard a tale of a boat you could take out on the river, so we went in search of it, but came up empty-handed, only to see it from the terrace later that evening. We never did get a chance to take it out on the water, but I’m sure it would have been lovely.

Since we hadn’t booked another night at the restaurant, we decided on bar snacks for dinner, which turned out to be huge! We ordered a quiche and a salad to be delivered to our room later and were very surprised by the size. It was not snack-sized and more than we needed at that moment, but easily plenty for dinner as an alternative to the restaurant, especially when everything always comes with a basket of fresh baked bread. Yum.

Our much earlier, low-key dinner allowed us time to get some laundry done that evening. We had a huge towel-warming rack in our bathroom plus two other areas to hang things, so we decided to take advantage of it and wash some of our larger items. Since we had both packed checked bags on this trip, there was really no reason we needed to do laundry, but we were so used to washing and re-wearing on previous trips that we did it this time too and ended up not wearing half of what we packed! Lesson learned! I feel like we talked about this somewhere else, long ago. Apparently it’s not sinking in.

The next morning after breakfast we decided it was time to check out a winery in the Loire Valley. Jason had found a small, local, organic winery the previous evening, so we set out to find it. After a 40-minute drive through the beautiful countryside, we pulled into Chateau Minière. It is a gorgeous old 15th-century estate completely surrounded by vines anywhere from 3 to 100 years old! This former fortified farm has been managed by women since the 18^th century. It is currently owned by Kathleen Van den Berghe, who has decided to live off-site and rents the beautiful chateau and its apartments for guests! What a dream!

The vineyards have been completely organic since 2010 but are currently in the process of transitioning to biodynamic (zero chemicals). The introduction of bees and natural flora and fauna in the chateau’s parkland has earned the League for the Protection of Birds refuge status. It is difficult to create biodiversity in a mono-crop environment, and I can see many efforts being put forth to achieve it.

But enough of that, how was the wine? I honestly can’t remember how many wines we tasted (Jason says: 9), but I can tell you that each one was a unique ride. They were all very different! We grabbed three to bring home: a red that I think will be wonderful with venison (must smuggle this one to Scotland), a white that will be great with seafood, and a bubbly that I can’t wait to break out with some dark chocolate or tart berries.

After our outdoor wine tasting under the trees, we got a private tour of the vineyards and grounds after our wine tasting where we asked all sorts of nerdy farm questions. I always try to stump our tour guides, but she was very good. The gal we toured with had only been there since July, but she knew her wine!

Afterward, we headed back to the hotel for another lunch on the lawn after a quick stop at the health food store. I like this routine. There wasn’t really a plan for the rest of the day, so it included a nap, another walk, and an aperitif on the terrace. We skipped dinner in favor of an early night. Neither of us had been sleeping well, so we decided to try our jetlag remedy – Sleepsana – so we needed a full 8 hours.

On our last day, we had a quick breakfast and then sat on the terrace for quite a while drinking tea and coffee. There wasn’t a plan for this day. After a week on the road, we needed to get a little work done, and we thought maybe we would try out the hotel’s pool later. But then it decided to rain and there were a LOT of kids around, so it was rather noisy. It was Friday, so many French families had escaped to the countryside for the weekend.

Somewhere in the middle of our caffeine (which we had moved to the table outside our room), I got a notification saying our train for the next day was eliminated, then rerouted (we needed to go to another station to get on), and then our second leg was canceled altogether thanks to the strikes going on. The SNCF website was very unhelpful as far as trying to figure out how to reschedule all of this, so we decided to skip the train, get a reimbursement, and keep the car an extra day. Our confirmation number for Hertz wasn’t working to extend our rental (ugh), so we ended up venturing into town to see what could be done.

In the end, Hertz was happy to extend our rental, but we had to trade cars. As it turns out, at least in France, the rental locations usually have two different types of cars: some the location owns (like the hybrid Renault SUV we’d rented) and others the rental company owns (like the DS crossover they traded us). Naturally, they wanted to keep the cars they own close to home, and so needed to swap cars with us – so we had a company-owned car – for our trip up to Versailles in the morning.

Our final night at the chateau looked very similar to the rest. We were rained out on the terrace, so we had our aperitifs inside the beautiful chateau and ordered snacks for dinner again, eating in our room when the rain continued and we couldn’t sit at our table outside the room. We went to bed not having packed a thing because our timetable was suddenly much looser the following day since we were driving ourselves to Versailles. One more yummy breakfast in the morning, a small walk in the woods, and then we finally admitted we needed to pack, check out, and be on our way.

We truly enjoyed the slow pace of Domaine de la Tortiniere and Loisium Champagne (which we told you about a couple of weeks ago). When traveling, we highly recommend getting outside of the cities. It’s easier to meet locals, it’s beautiful, peaceful, and there’s just so much to see! Our trip is about to kick up the pace a couple of notches: we’re leaving the peaceful countryside and heading into the city. We’ll tell you about Versailles in three weeks, and finally, Paris after that. Stay tuned!

The post Living the Exclusive Chateau Life at Domaine de la Tortiniere first appeared on The DeBode Way.

As we’ve talked about in prior posts, one of the neat things about Jason’s job is it gives him the opportunity to travel. Sometimes he’s traveling with students, sometimes he’s traveling to students. When traveling with students, we’re always staying in hotels of various types because it’s just so much easier than trying to find some other kind of accommodation with enough space. But when he’s traveling to students, that’s a different scenario.

Most often, when Jason travels over the summer to teach his students, he’s in one location for a medium-length period, what we’ll call somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks. In our experience, there are two main choices when it comes to a temporary home for this length of time: apartments or hotels. Until this most recent adventure, he’s always stayed in an apartment, but that changed this time, as he opted to stay at a hotel the entire time instead. So, let’s talk about the pros and cons of each option, at least as we see them.

Apartment Living

There are lots of things to like about having an apartment in a new city, especially when it’s in a foreign country. Having a space that’s really all yours is really nice, especially if you’re coming back from a long day of work. Let’s talk about a few of those things:

• Space. More than anything, having your own apartment (or a flat, if you’re in Europe) gives you the luxury of space that’s all yours. Most often, Jason stays in a one-bedroom apartment, so there’s dedicated space to spread out and relax without feeling cramped. Of course, it’s helpful to keep in mind that ‘space’ is relative, and when you’re in Europe it’s good to know their apartments trend smaller than in the US. Still, having your own space is great.
• Kitchen. The kitchen area isn’t one that we use all the time, but having the option to do so is super important. When you travel, it often means you’re eating new things cooked in new ways. That’s all fine and well, and a big part of why we like traveling; however, it also disrupts your regular eating habits which can cause…let’s just call them ‘issues’. For instance, we tend to eat lots of veggies while at home, but that’s difficult to do when we’re abroad, particularly when we’re in Spain where the diet is heavy on meats, cheeses, and carbs. So, having a kitchen where we can cook our own food can be a game changer and help keep us close to our usual eating habits.

• Work Area. Because we travel most often for work, having a dedicated workspace is really helpful. Sometimes that’s an actual office, while other times it’s a desk or table in a side room or off in the corner of a living room, for example. Regardless, having a place where we can set up shop and get some work done is nice, especially when it’s not on a bed or couch (unless we want it to be!).

• Location. One of the neat things about apartments is they’re usually in more residential locations. That gives you a different perspective on the places you visit. Being in more populous locations has its benefits, no doubt. But there’s something nice about waking up, walking outside, and being in the middle of a neighborhood, or over a local coffee shop. More often than not, your apartment will be in a quiet part of town that has less traffic, and a very different feel than the more touristy parts of the area. And, if you pick the right apartment, it’ll give you all of this while still being close to local transportation options like train and metro lines.
• Privacy. Above all else, apartments are nice because it’s your space. Most of the apartments we’ve had do not come with cleaning help. Sure, that means we need to keep the place tidy, but it also means no one will ever bother us, come into our apartment, or anything of that nature. To be sure, some apartments will give you the option of visits by a cleaning company, but we’ve never used that option and so we’re relatively confident no one will be in the apartment other than us.
• Laundry. If you get really lucky, you can find an apartment with at least a washing machine available for use. This significantly cuts back on the amount of time you may have to spend washing clothes by hand if you packed carry-on only like we typically do. There is not always a dryer available, so you will be hanging your clothes to dry either way, but the spin cycle on a washing machine does allow them to dry faster than hand wringing before hanging. Toss you clothes in before you head out for the day and hang them up when you get back.

While there are lots of things to like about having your own apartment, there are a few potential drawbacks to keep in mind.

• Scams. More and more, you have to be really careful about travel scams. Our experience has been that the more popular services like Air BNB and VRBO are pretty secure, but we’ve heard about scams when booking on various platforms, or directly with apartment owners. What’s even more concerning is we’ve been hearing about scams associated with these platforms. For example, more than a few folks have said they originally started to book their stay on the platform but then received a message from the owner (or so they thought) outside the platform asking them to book directly, as it saves them (the owner) from paying the associated fees. Sounds great, until you learn it was a scam, so they get your money and you didn’t really book that apartment like you thought you did. All that’s to say, be careful and know what you’re getting into, and always only communicate through the platform you’re booking with.
• Fixes. Most of the time, our apartment stays are uneventful, which is to say, nothing goes wrong. But every now and again, something does. One time, our keys didn’t work. Another time the router died and so the Wi-Fi went down. We’ve had friends who had a water heater start leaking in the apartment, causing a minor flood in their kitchen. Regardless of what happens, when it happens you need to talk to the owner/landlord/management company, rather than calling down to a front desk as you would at a hotel. Even the more responsive owners usually take longer to get things fixed than your hotel, and depending on the fix that’s needed, that can get frustrating.
• Amenities. Most of the apartments we’ve stayed at have no amenities. No gym, restaurant, pool, coffee shop, etc. None of it. Think about it, do you have those things in your apartment building? If you do, you’re living your best life and we’re happy for you. Of course, there are apartments you can rent in buildings/places like that, but they tend to get pretty expensive.

The Hotel Experience

We generally prefer staying at hotels, especially when they earn us points we can use to stay at hotels again. What do we like about hotels? Lots of things, it turns out. Let’s talk about them:

• Location. Most of the hotels we book during our travels are in pretty neat locations. Sometimes they’re in the middle of a city, sometimes within walking distance of parks or neat monuments. Sometimes they’re in castles. Other times they’re in renovated historic buildings or landmarks. All that’s to say, it’s pretty hard to beat the variety of cool locations in which you can find hotels. Of course, that’s part of what you’re paying for, but if you really want that kind of experience and the ability to walk out your front door and onto the local metro, a hotel might just be your best option.

• Amenities. While your apartment might be pretty minimal, your hotel probably isn’t. Pool? Check. Room service? You bet. Concierge? Sometimes, yes. Daily turn-down service? If you like. Gym? Almost always. Different hotel brands will have unique amenities on their properties, but almost all hotels will have some kind of amenities included in your bill. So, if you’re looking for a bit of extra pampering, a hotel might be what you’re looking for.
• Certainty. Probably more than anything, when you book a stay at a hotel you usually have a really good idea of what you’re getting. We try to stay within the Hilton family of hotels as much as possible, both because we like their different hotels, but also because we always know what we’re getting if we stay at a Hilton, Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn, or something along those lines. Even when we stay at one of their unique properties in the Tapestry collection of hotels, we still know it’s affiliated with Hilton and know what to anticipate. That’s rarely the case with an apartment.

That said, there are also lots of reasons you might not want to stay at a hotel:

• Price. Obviously, a nice hotel can set you back a considerable amount of money for a medium-length stay, and this goes up dramatically as you increase the quality of the hotel you book. It’s really easy to find hotels in the $200 – $400 price range, per night. And if you’re staying for 2-3 weeks, that can get expensive quickly. That’s not to say it isn’t worth it, but when numbers get that high, it pays to be sure that’s your best option. However, we have noticed that house or apartment rentals have also increased drastically in price in the past few years, making them more equal to a hotel.
• Experience. If you want to live like a local, a hotel might not be your first choice. Then again, some hotels are nestled among apartments and houses, so it’s not impossible to have that experience with a hotel, but it might be more challenging to find.
• Space. Above all else, space in hotel rooms is a premium, especially when traveling to Europe. For example, during Jason’s most recent stay, he worked from a small loft area in his hotel room from a low-sitting couch and a coffee table. Had this been an apartment, there would have been a kitchen table or even a dedicated office space to get his work done. In an even more recent stay in Paris, we were both hoping to get work done for part of the day but our room was literally about a foot larger than the bed. Suddenly you find yourself turning you bed into a double office, which isn’t exactly comfortable either.

• Eating out. One of the biggest drawbacks of staying at a hotel is your inability to cook your own food. Again, during Jason’s most recent experience, he had no kitchen facility in his hotel room. In fact, he didn’t have a microwave or a refrigerator either. There was a minibar that had a small refrigerator, but it was really small and didn’t give him the option to store his own food. Even if he could have, there was no way to reheat things in his room. That means he had to eat out for every meal, every day. That might sound cool, but eating at restaurants every day can get old (and expensive) fast.
• Laundry Facilities. Rarely will you find an apartment style hotel accommodation with a washing machine available. Most hotels have some sort of laundry service you can use for a fee, but we often resort to washing a few things at a time in the sink and hanging to dry overnight. This typically means you wash and hang things almost every night as part of your daily routine. You could also try to locate a local laundromat but sitting and watching your laundry spin while you’re on vacation is not exactly my idea of fun.

In the end, you know your travel style and life habits better than anyone, so do what makes the most sense for what makes you comfortable. Sometimes we like the apartment option, while other times we prefer a hotel. It just depends on the kind of experience we’re after and how expensive it’ll be to make it happen. And yes, there are other options out there aside from apartments and hotels, but these are what have worked the best for us so far with the type of traveling we typically do.

Happy tavels!

The post Medium-Term Travel: Where do you stay in a new city? first appeared on The DeBode Way.

We blew in from the South in the dusty 30+ mile-per-hour wind and drove into Sioux City in a blizzard. Ah yes, this is how I remember Iowa in the Winter. Luckily the snow didn’t amount to much and mostly blew away thanks to the wind, it just left us with really cold temperatures for the next day. After a run around downtown on one-way streets, the bane of my existence in cities, we found the parking lot for The Warrior Hotel and hurriedly bundled ourselves inside. We arrived at an expectedly chaotic lobby scene. It turns out we arrived on the heels of a traveling sports team and their entourage. But despite this chaos, we managed to get a big room upgrade, for free (thanks, Warrior Hotel!), and headed up to get settled.

We dropped our bags in the room and set out to explore the hotel, but not before noticing what was probably the most impressive part of the room: the toilet. I know, I know, it sounds crazy to us, too, but in fairness, the commode hardly ever gets its time in the spotlight, right? The toilet itself wasn’t anything to write home (or a blog post) about, but the toilet seat was another matter. First, it had a built-in bidet. We’re not convinced that’s the best option in a public setting, but points for novelty. What was even better was that it was heated (the seat, not the bidet. Or well, maybe the bidet was, too, we didn’t try it). No more shockingly cold seat experiences for body parts that ought not be too cold. Seriously, if you’ve never experienced a heated toilet seat, go look for one. It’s the neatest thing we never knew we needed, and obviously, we’re obsessed.

We ended up at the rooftop bar, which was mercifully partially enclosed, and chatted with the bartender for a while. We got the scoop on the hotel, how being employed in the Marriott system works (travel with a business professor sometime, it’s hilarious), and he recommended some pretty tasty drinks. After perusing the restaurant menu (which the bartender practically begged to fetch for us from the 2^nd floor – it was a slow night for him, haha) we wandered down to the 2^nd floor for dinner at Woodbury’s American Steakhouse where we enjoyed steak, duck and a wine flight. Yum!

We crashed hard in our huge comfy bed to prepare for the following day’s festivities. In the morning we had breakfast in the restaurant again, an omelet and potatoes for J and a Mexican breakfast burrito and fruit for me – so good. I did turn them on their heads a bit when I asked for tea, but they brought me the entire box of options to choose from. Haha!

Fueled up, we waited for the cherubs to arrive to go swimming. Jason ran to grab them some pizza for a pre-swim meal and I hunted down a place to eat where the pizza sauce wouldn’t destroy any fancy fabrics. I had a good laugh when the front desk pointed to a gorgeously upholstered lounge area where we could eat. No sir, we’ll be needing a hard surface that can be power washed afterward. I secured a table on the 1^st floor at the base of the grand staircase and waited for everyone to arrive, as awestruck as we were when we arrived the day before.

Bellies full, we went up to the room to change to go swimming. Jason and my sister took the kiddos for a swim while my sister-in-law and I watched and entertained our littlest (and sleeping) niece. Sweet thing. I had already done my hair for the wedding since I knew it would be zoo to get us all done up and to the wedding on time, so I didn’t swim. We somehow managed to pull everyone out of the pool, rinsed off, dressed, and to the wedding on time. It was very reminiscent of the one-bathroom and five-people chaos that I grew up with. Apparently, that practice is still hidden somewhere. Haha.

Gorgeous wedding! My cousin, the bride, was stunning. The groom was quite dapper. The color scheme was perfect, and the food was to die for – I’ll never understand how caterers can crank out 300 perfect meals at the same time. Well done. The open bar helped us manage the overly tired ornery children (oops) and my niece hauled me to the dance floor where we showed off her sweet moves and she learned the cha-cha slide. Core memories. But do you think we took any photos of us at the wedding, nope.

We sent everyone else home somewhere in the night and went back to The Warrior to collapse ourselves back into our giant bed. We hit the road again early in the morning to head home.

I personally think this is one of the coolest hotels we have ever stayed in, especially state-side. We learned quite a bit on our short stay and I’m very impressed with the work they are doing both as a historian and an environmentalist. When those two things can meet successfully, my little heart is just so happy. Let me give you some background on the hotel. I did a really terrible job of taking photos on this trip, so I leave you with the hooligans enjoying our room and the link for The Warrior complete with their fabulous photos.

The building was constructed in the “new era” of Art Deco following World War I, which makes it over 90 years old. It was slated for demolition after standing vacant for 40 years but was rescued for full renovation by owner/developers Amrit and Amy Gill of Restoration St. Louis (thank you!). It is managed by Inkeeper Hospitality Services LLC and is part of the Marriott Autograph Collection of Hotels (yay points!).

This renovation is mind-blowingly spectacular, from its restored grand marble staircase and ornate architectural elements to its new enclosed rooftop bar and elegant furnishings. But don’t worry, all this “old charm” is matched with 21^st-Century technology with fun things like restaurant menus on tablets, a spa, pool, sauna, and bowling alley as well as unglamorous things like clean energy features (high efficient HVAC, highly insulated windows and outer walls, low flow bidets, LED lights, compost stations, sustainable hotel gardens, solar panels, and geothermal systems). Plus, the food is locally sourced and delish! Clap, clap, clap. I can see why it has received the AAA Four Diamond Award and am happy to find it on the National Register of Historic Places.

In my lifetime, this is a type of glamour you just didn’t previously see in Sioux City, or maybe ever. I lived near there for 22 years of my life and I can say this is something special that I hope the area appreciates and takes full advantage of. I know we were very pleasantly surprised and just might be looking for excuses to stay in Sioux City again in the future.

The Warrior Hotel has sister hotels in Davenport, IA (Hotel Blackhawk and The Current) and St. Louis, MO (Hotel St. Louis and The Seven Gables Inn). We will definitely be checking those out as we often find ourselves in those areas as well for family functions.

We’re hoping to do some more local-to-us exploration in the next few months. It’s often easy to overlook the area where you live as is not a destination to you. Is there anything you want us to check out in the Ozarks? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Warrior Hotel – An Unexpected Gem in Siouxland first appeared on The DeBode Way.