A Tale Of Two Cities (or maybe one town and one city)

Je vais tres heureuse!  Yes, very happy!  More sunshine to spend a day strolling the streets of two major towns on the Loire riverbanks.  First we drove to Amboise, parked Eileen, purchased some blood oranges and in a lovely little shop purchased an apron, in the hope of less clothes washing after cooking!  At 11:30am we ordered deux chocolat chaud at a café on the footpath leading up to the Chateau.  We then walked up to the top of the town for a view over Amboise and back down to Eileen via a road that went right around Clos Lucé, the final home of Leonardo da Vinci. Rodney thinks he probably died in France because he couldn’t face the long journey back to Italy; it would have been a long and difficult trip in those days.

Next stop, the all important Le Clerc supermarche to stock up on meals for two days.  It was a huge supermarket and we even managed to buy ourselves a small roll up table for eating outside. Our pate lunch was eaten on the banks of the Loire and we finished the meal with two very yummy raspberry tarts, sorry no photo this time!  One thing we are finding crazy is that two beautifully made tarts cost less than one cup of hot chocolate or coffee……doesn’t seem right, somehow.

Fifteen kilometres further along the banks of the Loire we stopped at Tours. This is quite a big city; lots of high rise on the outskirts, but there are still a few lovely streets full of cafes and a few mediaeval buildings to wander around near the Basilica of St Martin. By 5:30pm we were starting to feel a bit tired, so we drove Eileen down to Ballan-Mire (sounds more Irish than French) and checked in to Camping La Mignardiere for the night.    Bon nuit.