At the beginning of August we flew to Paris to meet up with Mark and Lauren and then drive to Amboise in the Loire Valley.
Today Amboise is a small market town but it was once a home to the French royal court. Leonardo da Vinci was invited by King Francis I to live in Amboise at the Clos Lucé manor house. Apparently the king commissioned da Vinci to make a mechanical lion that could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies. Kings, they come up with some crazy stuff don't they? I don't know if this lion was ever made, but da Vinci spent the end of his life in Amboise and died in Clos Lucé manor.
We started our tour of Amboise by going to the Chateau d'Amboise where da Vinci is buried. (Yes, I know there's mad hoopla about where his remains are actually buried. The Wikipedia entry even says "tourists are told da Vinci is buried here". For the purposes of this blog, I'm just going to go with him being in Amboise.)
Walking along the Chateau d'Amboise:
Chapel inside of the chateau called the Chapel of Saint-Hubert where da Vinci's grave is located - Saint Hubert is the patron saint of hunters and there are actually antlers on the design of the roofline.
Me and Lauren with what's left of the chateau in the background:
Mark and Lauren stayed in this great little hotel by the river just under the chateau:
Megan and Stephen, well we booked our trip two days before we left and it was high season so this is where we stayed:
Oh well, take what you can get!
Amboise has a great little street market that we wandered through - cheese and wine and produce everywhere:
Just outside of Amboise is one of the most famous chateaus in the region - the Chateau de Chenonceau. This is one of the most beautiful places I've been in, just an unbelievable thing. It straddles the two banks of the River Cher:
The chapel inside the chateau:
Ceiling of the chapel:
View of the gardens from the chateau over the river:
I loved the eating areas and kitchen - took notes for my dream house someday:
Ceiling of one of the rooms:
The gardens:
The grounds included a real live labyrinth, we all picked different entries and raced to the middle:
To be cont...
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