Lovely Loire

The Loire Valley is lovely in many ways. It's scenic, very green and feels much like my home state of Wisconsin. But each village we drive through shows the history of the area and a French charm. Old buildings set right on each narrow street.

Today we slept in late, must be the time change. I never sleep until 9 am but today I did! So instead of getting in 3-4 locations we only visited two, Amboise and Chaumont, east of Tours. In Amboise we just looked at the imposing Chateau on the hill and then spent our time at the home of Leonardo da Vinci. He spent his last years at this house as the guest of the King of France.  

This small chateau is restored a a tribute to Da Vinci, telling the stories of his many "before his time" inventions.  IBM has donated to create models of the many machines from Da Vinci drawings.  And his living quarters have been recreated.  He looks like he lived well under the wealth of the king.  Next to the chateau is a wonderful and lovely garden with several life size recreations of Da Vinci machines and bridges and water works.

From Amboise, we were off up the Loire to Chambord.  Today we stopped at a market and bought bread, cheese and fruit, and had a picnic lunch on the shore of the river. Lovely views, and warm and sunny for a brief moment.

Then up the hill to the Chateau Chambord, lovely and the site of a major garden exhibit. But first a tour of the Chateau complete with audio headphones explaining the history of each room. Lovely.

But it was the garden exhibits that were amazing. This was not the gardens from the chateau, but rather modern garden exhibits, 24 separate small gardens each designed by a different landscape architect around the theme of the seven deadly sins. Really really fascinating. And lovely.

Tomorrow is another day of touring this lovely valley.