Tours to Cannes

We rose early and bought fresh baguette from the boulangerie just down the narrow street on which our apartment was situated. Nothing quite like fresh baguette for breakfast, they don’t really last more than one day, but bought fresh from the baker in the morning, there is not much that can rival it for breakfast.

We packed up our apartment and left Tours by 9:00am. We bid au revoir to our Airbnb hosts, Andre and Christine, and then set off towards Orly Airport in Paris, a two-hour journey. On the way we stopped at two locations, Royal Chateau d'Ambois, and Chateau du

Clos Luce Parc Leonardo da Vinci. These are both located in a beautiful village named Ambois by the Loire River. The drive to Ambois from Tours is a picturesque route along the Loire River, driving up-stream. The old villages we drove through were old and rustic. Around every corner there was a new sight worth seeing.

Chateau Amboise is the main castle of Amboise. The early Gallic tribes lived here, King Clovis was involved in the early establishment of the fortifications, and Alaric the Vandal came through here. This part of France has been a regular battleground over the centuries. The castle of Ambois is an extraordinary fortification high on the highest hill and on the banks of the river Loire. It is a museum now,

like so many of the Chateaux, and this one is spectacular for its 360 degree views over the Loire River and Valley.

Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life in this region at the invitation of the Francis 1st with whom he had a relationship of friendship and respect. The French king regarded da Vinci very highly and invited him to have his own castle in Ambois, although it wasn’t this one, but the one we went to next. In this Royal Castle the grave of Leonardo is situated in accordance with his deathbed request. Da Vinci’s bones are now located in a special little chapel high on this hill in the grounds of this spectacular castle.

We left the Royal Castle of Ambois and walked the 500m to Da Vinci’s personal castle the French King gave him to live in, Chateau du Clos Luce. This is presented as a museum filled with information, paraphernalia and exhibits on the life and achievements of this

amazing genius. All his major mechanical inventions alone filled four rooms with models and information. He was an inventor, designer, architect, painter, writer, illustrator, teacher and all-round genius.

The Da Vinci display was captivating. A bit too captivating, in fact, because we missed our flight from Paris Orly to Nice and had to pay extra to catch a flight two hours later. We drove at high speed along the A10 freeway from Tours to Paris and things were looking great until we hit the long weekend traffic at the end of the freeway. It's like the M1 freeway north of Sydney after the long weekend. Not a chance of travelling at normal speeds. Jammed up roads and frustration for air travellers. But we got there in the end, rearranged our flight details, flew the 80 minutes from Paris to Nice, picked up our hire car from Hertz and drove the 30 minutes from Nice to Cannes to be greeted by our airbnb host and shown around our lovely Cannes apartment. It is just around the corner from the

Mediteranean foreshore and the venue in which the Cannes Film Festival is held in May. This is the 70th year of the film festival as the signs around the town attest. We will have a closer look tomorrow.

We walked the local neighbourhood looking for a supermarket. A kind local gentleman pointed us in the right direction so we purchased some food for the next few days. A meal cooked in our apartment and then early to bed.