Castles

We left Avignon the day after Sean's race and took a train to a town outside of Amboise. I must confess, the train ride to Amboise was not pretty. In fact, both of my littles set new records in bad behavior and in tantrum volume. More than one passenger shifted their hostile eyes between us (with our dueling scream-a-tronic-2000 models) and the doors. At one point,I feared a mutiny, but we were within walking distance to the station. This day was truly the low point of the trip. My children have never been so awful in public. Its the kind of record you hope you never break (again). We rented a small bus there, (nine seat van) and drove to Amboise. We were (not) so surprised to find a medieval wall around the town and a castle smack dab in the center of the town.

It's actually becoming a norm for us. I know it sounds awful, but at frst you think "I can never get tired or bored of these castles. Its just so amazing" But then, after dozens of them, you find youreself thinking, "oh look, it's another castle, *sigh*" and you feel ashamed (a little) because you know that most people never see one back home, but they are everywhere here!

Would you believe we never made it to see the Amboise castle? We spent our first night there just having a lovely dinner at the hotel and getting the kids to bed. The next day, we wandered around, saw an incredible gothic church, and meandered through town and the shops, walked along the Loire, and had a nap. Then we saw the last home of Leonardo da Vinci. This place was so cool! Working models of so may of his inventions. Including the round flotation device, the paddle boat, a working water loch system for canals, water pumps, the crane, and some of the weapons he designed. What is really amazing is how many things we use today that are based on his designs:)

The next day we managed to squeeze in three castles (and we were exhausted that night). We saw
Cheverny, a small castle, still lived in by current royal descendants, and immaculately furnished. Then we headed over to Fourge a Beivre, a medieval castle, that is almost empty. BUT, this castle was very cool because inside, it has demonstrations and examples of how people actually built these castles, and it had real tools that were used. Fascinating. Our last castle of the day was Chenonceau. It's a castle on an island in the middle of a river.
King Louie the XIV was one of it's inhabitants! Catherine de Medici's garden was my favorite:) the kids loved the maze the most. Naturally. It's like the world's best hide and seek game:)

Our last full day in Amboise, we spent half a day doing chores. Laundry, the post office, and market day. But we still managed to go to a museum and two castles. The museum was the Maurice Dufremse museum and it was nothing short of amazing. This guy had a love of inventions, and he collected agriculture machines, automobiles, toys, bikes,fire trucks, horse buggies, and a menagerie of mechanical engineering equipment (not to mention weapons). Then he bought an old mill and put all of his stuff there. We learned so much. My favorite was the weaving looms from the eighteenth century. We stopped at a castle for pictures only, can't remember the name, and then we saw Villandry. We only saw the gardens at Villandry. But the gardens there were amazing. Another labryinth for the kids to runaround in. The vegetable garden was mind-blowing. My gardening is to Villandry what finger painting is to Renoir. Sammy ate grapes off the trellises (and the ground) by the fist fulls.

I felt like we missed out on so much in the Loire valley. There are archeological sites, mushroom caves, wine caves, candy store tours, and dozens of other things to do there that we just couldnt get to (not to mention a couple of hundred more castles), but we have lots left to do for next time!