Amboise

And off to Amboise ... another old city and castle.
It was a lovely drive along the mighty Loire and we took time to look at all there is. It’s a good road. And more troglodyte houses and hotels, so interesting and sometimes quirky. I’m not sure the photos will do it justice.

We arrived at the campground in Amboise at lunchtime... off on a walk to find the Boulangerie- success - and we had lunch and waited. First in the queue ... and the lovely receptionist who has a dream of taking her children for a holiday to Australia.

A nice French couple alongside.

It was quite hot so we took a break and did some washing etc. at the washing machine I chatted to a chap from Manchester who is walking a couple of months of the Camino (this is his second year of doing some, different parts) so it was interesting. He has worked at vineyards along the way. He has a hammock and a light plastic he puts over when it’s wet; with the weather getting cooler it could be challenging. I invited him to share our simple dinner of pasta - my turn to cook.

So Dave came to dinner , pasta with whatever I could find in it, salad, lots of wine and great discussion. Another great night.

In the morning we took off relatively early for town as it was going to

be warm. And who should we run into but Dave, having been for a walk to get breakfast. Good timing as I’d forgotten to get a photograph of us all.

Across the bridge, we found a restaurant we decided on for dinner (turned out it was closed on Sunday nights!), found a cafe for breakfast and waited... and waited. Eventually it all happened.

And then we walked up to the castle and walked and walked - beautiful gardens and well preserved. Leonardo da Vinci lived and painted here. There is an amazing larger than life brass nude of him on the river bank near the campground.

From there we wandered back to town and, having learned of a market ... food of all sorts, clothing of all sorts ... fun. James bought a knife. I looked for a warm jacket as I know I’ll need one but nothing suited.

We wandered home and our next door neighbours brought over a bottle of a muscat - the woman didn’t like it (and they would have seen us drinking wine the night before) so she thought we might. We had a taste, it was like sherry and quite pleasant so we thanked them, and later took over a bottle of Sancerre - gratefully received. This was all done in French. We had a break and then wandered back to town for dinner at a good looking place. Very nice.

A lovely time in Amboise, and on for a visit to Le Sentier and then on to Le Mans: Next chapter.