This morning we wandered downtown Tours, with stops for small quiches and apple pastry for breakfast and bread, cheese and an apple for lunch. We went into the main cathedral which was very impressive.
After lunch we took off on our minivan tour to the chateaux at Chenonceau and fortified castle at Amboise plus a tour through the house where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life (he's buried in the castle in Amboise.
There were 7 of us plus the driver in the minivan. It cost 29 euros each plus admission fees of usually 7.50 euros at the 3 stops. Chenonceaux was the home of some French king's (Francis II?) favourite mistress in the 16th century. Part of it spans the Cher River and it has amazing gardens and rooms. Amboise is more of a fortified castle on a high hill overlooking the Loire River, also very impressive but totally different. There are 250 big chateaus in the Loire Valley, one of which is owned by Mick Jagger. He's often seen in the town of Amboise because he lives here 2 months per year. I bet when he hears we were here he'll be sorry he missed us.
Leonardo's house is smaller but also interesting. IBM put up the money to build models, some full size, of many of his inventions. He was one smart dude.
By the time we got back we had seen enough castles for the day (it was 33C in the shade). We wandered down some tiny side streets until we found a restaurant that looked good. Anita had smoked duck breast, gizzards and foie gras while I had a big smoked salmon and shrimp salad. Along with 2 glasses of wine for Anita and 2 beers for me the total came to only 40 euros, which we thought was a pretty good deal compared to what you can spend in Barry's Bay for a meal that's not nearly as good.
Tomorrow we hit the trains almost all day with a short jaunt from Tours to St Pierre de Corps, a longer high speed train to Bordeau, another to Irun at the border with Spain and then a short jaunt on a Spanish train to San Sebastian. We booked Saturday and Sunday as well at a different hotel in San Sebastian so now we'll be there for 4 nights. The world cup game on the weekend should be interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment