With the Chateau looming over the town of Ray-sur-Saone, we thought it definitely worth the detour for a few kilometres over water about as deep as damp blotting paper to the little mooring in the village.
Even as we approached the mooring we chuckled and began to discuss what reason for the chateau could give for being closed to thwart our attempts at inspection.
It's not Monday or Tuesday or Friday afternoon, nor a holiday, and it's not the weekend, well actually it is the weekend but it's in the middle of the summer holidays when most old things are open for inspection on weekends anyway and besides, it's not a public holiday that we are aware of, although admittedly we did discuss the thought that by the time we secured the boat and wandered to the information sign near the little quay, it was getting dangerously close to lunch time.
Being cautious sorts of folk, or perhaps having climbed cliffs to find things closed once too often, we were delighted to discover from the information quite clearly set out on the sign, that on Saturdays and for that matter on every other day of the week the admission charge to the chateau was six Euro. While there weren't any actual opening hours stated, we felt certain that the admission charge was a reasonable inference that providing we presented ourselves outside of mealtimes, we may actually gain admittance.
So we climbed another mountain, and when we arrived at exactly quarter to lunchtime, the faded sign on the gate said:
"There are no visits inside the chateau.
You are welcome to enjoy the gardens.
Please do not look in the windows."
We did enjoy the gardens, and despite the overwhelming desire to walk up to the nearest widow and peer in we did not.
All the way down the hill we talked about what we would do with the twelve Euros we had just saved, and then we received the call.
Dave and Ria had picked up our new bikes from the place in Belgium we'd found on the internet.
I suspect we'll owe them that much at least!
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