Back from Loire Valley & days behind

Lundi 23 Mai 2011

Managed to leave home in plenty of time for Gare L'Austerlitz to catch the train for  Amboise in Loire valley, mostly due to no milk, so no allbran. Still, good excuse for grande cafe & pain aux raisin at the station while we waited. Train full but very comfortable, 2 hour trip to Amboise. Amboise chosen as smallest town (around 10,000) with hire car facilities in the Loire valley. Bit of a scare when American couple behind us were asked to provide photo id , eg passport, ok for me as I had for the care hire, but M had left hers back at the garret - we just didn't think of it, anyway few digs in the ribs to M to keep her mouth closed & we just passed over our tickets & phew, all ok. Must remember on return journey, when the conductor comes, lips sealed & look like a local....as if.
Straight off the train to the Office de Tourisme, very obliging girl rang Yveline to discuss, yes she had our booking, it was as I thought, she did not understand me. We trotted down, 2 blocks from the Loire river, very old house on the corner, charming courtyard behind large burgundy gates, poor Yveline had a migraine (probably my phonecall to her the previous evening - M did say I harrassed the poor woman) Room & accomodation lovely & just what we wanted for the Loire Valley - character overload. 

Courtyard garden La Grange B&B Amboise

Headed straight for Chateau Amboise & Clos Luce (pronounced clo lucy) as in town and walkable. Amboise was seat on Valois kings in medieval times when Brittany was still a separate country, so part of Chateau d"Amboise is presented as it was in medieval times when royal life migratory. Once royals decided Paris was a better place to be, it fell into disrepair & was then redone in the 19th c as country seat of Bourbon royal family & the kids were tucked away there. Most interesting part was that Francois 1st was a patron of Leonardo Da Vinci & LDV spent the last 5 years of his life there & is buried in the chateau chapel. 

Chateau d"Amboise

Troglodyte house on rue between Chateau d"Amboise & Clos Luce

On to Clos Luce, 10 minutes walk from chateau, which was Leonardo's home in Amboise (provided by his patron) lovely old red brick medieval house. Lot's of displays re inventions & ideas, in fact the large grounds a sort of theme park for Leonardo's inventions, bit crass, but quite welldone for that sort of thing.

Models made from Leonardo Da Vinci designs in Clos Luce

Clos Luce, Amboise -home of Leonardo Da Vinci for last 5 years of his life

By then time to pick up the hire car, just didn't realise it was so far away (looked close on the map) 5 k's later, with M following behind cursing me, we picked up our little Nissan Micra & took off. My first action was to turn on the intermittant wiper (going for the blinkers) & not be able to turn it off. Stopped it finally, only to have the rear window wiper wagging away in the rearview mirror, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Also could not find the cigarette lighter to plug in the GPS-checked the book in the glovebox & everything - in another language,  hope this doesn't happen in Ireland! Lots of fun through one way streets (narrow) back to B&B, we circled it 5 times before we could get to it, all with M offering great encouragement. Yveline's husband, Patric, helped with the street parking, as bit of a minefield, & very kindly moved his car to give us a park.  Cleanup & out for lovely tea at La Reserve (recommended by the girl in the Autoeurope office) in the shadow of the Chateau, went for glass of champagne - yum, mousseline of scallop, M - ginger chicken dish, me salmon with red wine/fish stock reduction, & both chocolate fondant.

Old street in Amboise - on way to tea

Chatted to a Dutch couple on the next table, they were farmers & were on the first holiday after many years of hard work, touring around for 5 months in a campervan with a Harley Davidson on the back!!!

Dutch couple travelling around with Harley on the van

Strolled home via the Loire river & now sitting up in bed listening to 2 chaps chatting as they walk past the window (right on the street) - all "je ne sais quois" &  "qu'est-ce que" M already asleep!

Mardi  24 Mai 2011

At peace with the world after glass or 2 of bubbles (ask me in the a.m) and emporter pizza back in the courtyard garden at B&B after heavy day of chateaux, end of the day

Fruits-de-la-mer pizza

Start of the day, usual french breakfast with cereal bowls, which of course to the uninitiated means cereal must be coming, not so French couple also staying knew the drill, big bowl of milky coffee for dunking of croissant and/or baguette, yes seems unreal in this day & age, particularly when the supermarket shelves are full of cereals, unless they are all for the tourists!
Anyway back to breakfast- fruit, juice, yoghurt, baguette, croissant with butter & jams. Poor Yveline still suffering from migraine, purely selfishly I was relieved to hear she thinks her back is out, ergo, malaise not caused by harrassment by guest.
Chatted to couple from Sacramento, husband an air traffic controller, wife with parks & wildlife (or equivilant), just had their shared 50th birthday, same day. For the record they thought the bowls may be for the fruit & yoghurt. Also at breakfast a couple from Milwaukee & then the French couple. Car had to be faced again & we did it , hopped in (right side of the car) & off to Chenonceaux, thought we had got there at the crack of dawn, 9.15, but so did the busloads of Japanese tourists, hordes of French school children etc, boy has this place has been developed as a tourist destination, perfectly presented & extremely well done, think Loire Valley Disney chateaux. That said enjoyed it for the second time, as history so interesting & evocative, ie King Henry 11 gives beautiful little chateaux to best mistress, Diane de Poitiers , king dies & queen, Catherine de Medicis, chucks out the mistress, mind you, obsolete mistress is given another chateaux in exchange, Chaumont-sur-Loire, another modest little hovel. By the time we gave the place a good going over it was 1.30, so we sampled the crepes on site, really quite nice, but I don't see crepes as takeaway as the French do, as they wrap it in paper & it sticks to the paper & also sticky fingers by the end.

Front entrance to Chateau de Chenonceaux

Next chateau,  Chaumont-sur-loire, 10-20 k's away, not quite as developed but gardens huge & lovey setting high over the Loire river. Chateau had long history starting 1000, Catherine de Medicis mixed up in it again. Chateau decorated as it was by last owner -an heiress who married a Prince - from 1875 & it was a compulsory state acquisition from her in the 30's.

View

Fireplace with porcupine theme (emblem of Loius XII )at Chaumont-sure-Loire

Chateau Chaumont-sur-Loire

17th c majolica floor tiling at Chaumont-sur-Loire - came from palace in Palermo, Sicily

Next chateau another 20 k's, Montpoupon, low down on the commercial scale, but cute little chateau, all done out as hunting lodge, which of course a lot of these were, lots of forests around for deer hunting etc. We then wanted to look at a folly, Pagode de Canteloupe, which was only 4 k's from Amboise, well 50 k's later, and a lot of frustration, called it a day & headed for home, more frustration there as no parks near B&B, finally found one after 2 rounds of the town.

Chateau Mountpoupon - hunting lodge

Chatted to Ken & Bev from Milwaukee while we ate our pizza, Bev an ex-teacher (thought so even before she said) They had been to Chambord & Cheverney today, which is what we plan for  tomorrow.

Ken & Bev from Milwaukee

Mercredi 25 Mai 2011
Full house for La Grange again this morning, 4 couples plus 4 on bikes. I gather that this B&B is recommended by Rick Steves from what I overheard. Chatted again to Ken & Bev & they have been to Ireland 7 times (that put our minds at rest) & recommended Dingle on the Dingle peninsula  as good place to go  - put it on the list, M.  ate our full, same as yesterday, plus little sweet puffs (got to love those high gi carbs), paid Yveline (now recovered) 150 euro for the 2 nights & au revoir.

Off to Cheverny Chateau, reputed to be the most lavishly furnished, & really decor most complete, tres sumptious appointments. The family still live there & it has been in the same family  (the Huralts) for 600 years, although slipped out of their hans twice in its history, one incident being to KIng's mistress Diane de Poitiers  (mon dieu, she was good!) Style looked more like townhouse to me than chateau (  sleeping beauty)

Chateau Cheverney

Not sure how far it was from Amboise but it tooks us a good one & a half hours to get there, what with diversions & wrong turns, merde!

Wall panels at Cheverny - story of Don Quixote - by Jean Monier

Firedogs at Cheverny date from the time of Loius XIV

Ceiling at Cheverny

Fancy fireplace at Cheverny

On to Chambord - this one was started as hunting lodge for Francois 1 in 1519 & it is HUGE, 426 rooms with a double helix stone staircase, thought to have been the design of Leonardo Da Vinci. From the outside there is a hotchpotch of different shaped towers & turrets etc like it was designed by a committee which couldn't decide, inside & out tufa stone. The whole estate is now government-owned, national park, camping, picnicing etc.

Chateau de Chambord, a plethora of towers

Double helix stone staircase at Chambord

Interesting part on this one was  Duc de Bordeaux / Compte de Chambord - last of the Bourbons - owned it from 1821 & he was pretender to the throne, whiled away his time awaiting the restoration of monarchy and when the offer came, he refused to adopt to tricolor flag, so no dice. Place filthy with tourists (many buses) & schoolkids (French schoolkids have decent excursions, best I can remember from schooldays - mind you was a while ago - was bus to Melbourne to see play "Waiting for Godo"!)  Huge car park & of course we lost the car & continued to get lost all the way back to Amboise, only 2 incidents of road rage - directed at me, not by me, on the whole French quite tolerant drivers!  Delivered car to Europecar,  unscathed (well some nerve damage only) pleased to restore to more competent hands.  Taxi to gare for 7.02 train  back to Paris.
Impression of Loire Valley 2nd time around, bigger than I remembered, and also busier, could have been all the the extra k's done getting lost of course