Sur la Loire

Last Friday Mary set off on the train via Lyon for Montpellier and we took a much shorter ride to Amboise. We rolled our bags across the Loire to the very easy-to-find hotel and settled into our dwelling. We’d heard that our friends Steve and Glenda were out exploring the town so we decided to go for a walk to try to find them. It was full of tourists hanging out in the cafes and organising themselves into groups to make their way up to the town’s obvious attraction Chateau d’Amboise.  Unsuccessful in trying to find our friends in town, we headed back to our accommodation and found them. 

Our decision was to join the throngs and go and look around the chateau. Because I hadn’t done any reading about the place it was a very nice surprise, when looking through the chapel in the chateau grounds, to stumble upon the grave of Leonardo da Vinci. He had spent his final years in Amboise, and on Sunday, we spent the afternoon exploring the home he shared with the sister of Duke Francois. Francois grew up in Amboise before becoming King in 1515. He was fascinated with the arts so invited Leonardo to the town and home where he had grown up, Chateau du Clos Luce. Surrounding Clos Luce is a children’s park with playground equipment based on Leonardo’s ideas. Very cool.

Saturday we shared Steve and Glenda’s car and had a good look around two very famous Chateau –Chambord and Blois. Chambord was built by Francois as a hunting lodge with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms. The biggest surprise was walking out onto the top terrace and seeing the turrets close up. 

You’d get an idea with what we confronted with by looking at the photo of the chateau.  Although Francois reigned for 32 years, it was his sons Henry 11 and Louis XVI who made most use of it. (Francois spent just 72 days there).

It was great then, to visit this sparingly furnished chateau first. Blois was a major contrast being decorated in the flamboyant Renaissance style and giving a far more once lived in feel. The walls were decorated not only with paintings, but wallpaper made from woven cloth possibly made in Tillerg as the patterns were very similar to what we’d seen a few weeks ago with Cathy.

Saturday evening we had tickets to a show back at Amboise castle. Run completely by locals and entirely in French it told the story of Amboise including the arrival of the young Duke Francois, his ultimate coronation, and the arrival of Leonardo. Groups of adults danced, and children aged from what looked like barely three did acrobatic tricks. There were horses who also did tricks and fireworks and the lighting display was impressive as it used the castle as a giant screen.

In the morning we set off for Cheverny Chateau on quieter roads; first along the edge of the Loire, then through forests and small villages. We finally came to a larger village where we were directed by signage to a carpark. We walked through the very pretty town and in through a gate where we finally spotted the chateau set in a huge park used for hunting. In one area we found a cage full of barking hunting dogs, and in another a paddock of horses. The gardens were also very pleasant to wander through. The chateau itself is only partly open due to the fact the family (now in its sixth century) still live there and it is used as accommodation if you are prepared to pay the price.

The first room you walk into is the dining room with 34 wooden panels illustrating the story of Don Quixote. Gold leaf was also very evident around the fireplace and this is repeated throughout the house that we saw.

For the second time, we’d taken a picnic and Glenda and I spotted a perfect place to eat our food in the shade. In the afternoon Steve drove us back to Amboise and we walked to Chateau du Clos Luce. In the evening we found a really nice hotel to eat our meal. We spent a very pleasant final evening with our friends drinking wine and reminiscing on all those places we’d been in the last three days.

In the morning we reconvened for a quick breakfast and soon we were on our way to Blois and then on the train to Paris. The four of us said our farewells at Gare Austerlitz. Steve and Glenda were catching a taxi to another station to ride on to Strasburg; S and I were negotiating the metro system to Montmartre.

We are now settled in a small studio for the next two days and last night took a walk up to Sacre Couer and saw the final stages of the sunset.