Our last day in Amboise was not to be wasted, so we got up, cranked into our incredible breakfast courtesy of Gloria and her minions, then headed out en masse to walk to Clos Luce: the home of Leonardo DaVinci during the last years of his life, 1516-1519 AD. He died here, and is rumored to be buried here, although there is some confusion about where. The estate is a pretty but ordinary stone and brick structure with rooms for his art studio, his research/study, and his workshop, along with a chapel, personal rooms, kitchen, great rooms, etc. Maybe he is best known as a painter (ever hear of the Mona Lisa?), but what was MOST impressive to me was the host of scale models of DaVinci’s many inventions. WHAT A GENIUS: he appears to have conceptualized and invented, among other things, caged ball bearings, water pumps of various types using Archimedes’ screw or canvas bailing dippers, portable military bridges and weapons (machine gun, steam-powered cannon, man-powered armored battle tank with on-board cannon, gear-sets similar to modern day transmissions, parachute, human-powered flying machines and paddle boats, etc.) plus maybe my favorites the wooden chain-driven bicycle and spring-powered 4 wheel cart. And more and more! The gardens surrounding his home included a beautiful forest with river running through, and full-scale models of several of his inventions were scattered around the place. Well, I could have stayed there all day!
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| Lynn in a replica of Leonardo's design for an armored battle tank, with cannons sticking out |
We eventually left, walked back “home” past many residences actually built into caves in the cliff above the town of Amboise, and made our way to the shopping part of town. Why, you say? I wondered the same thing…until I found Lynn and Sherye at a tiny scarf shop. The guy running the place was what you would politely call a character. He found scarves for everyone, to match their complexion, their clothing colors, and their gender (he found me a manly one). We bought some, and he taught us how to properly tie them to look cool (quarter the cloth longwise, double over leaving a loop, twist, and shove one end through the loop, or do the one up/one down fancy version). I can tell you this: I’ve used mine a lot the past couple days to keep the cold wind off my neck, and I think it’s an actual good idea…which I will definitely NOT use at home!
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| FRESH goat cheese - we found the authors! |
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| John trying out tLeonardo's battle tank design...gotta look out the door, not much visible through the slots |
LATE lunch for us: way late in the afternoon, we set out for a one hour drive to find a restaurant Gloria recommended, run by a Countess friend of hers on a farm near the chateau Villandry. The place is apparently well known among “foodies”, and is darn near impossible to find for the rest of us. No address, so GPS navigation didn’t work. We headed out as best we could with Gloria’s vague directions, got lost several times, found LOTS of interesting sights in the countryside, and eventually met several NICE Frenchmen who pointed us in the right direction. Lynn had to roust a couple of loafing guys from their work truck out in the middle of a nowhere corn field near a railroad crossing, to get us unlost the first time. Then, still not finding the restaurant/farmhouse, she and I knocked on the door of a random farmhouse to ask for help. Lynn had sufficient skills to ask the guy about the restaurant’s whereabouts, and to understand his directions, so we thanked him a lot and started to drive away. Then, Lynn saw him run out of the house and head across a field…when we passed him, he flagged us down to tell us he’d given us directions that were completely wrong! I think we must’ve woken him from a nap or something when we knocked on his door. Anyhow, he got us totally reoriented, and we found the farmhouse restaurant STAT. Good thing, too…it was late, they almost ran out of food, and we had to choose from the specialties of the day. Perfect: incredible appetizers (they call the entree) of red peppers stuffed with goat cheese then main plat of beef or fish, with desert of some kind of ice cream with fruit, and good house wine…just a perfect meal, all very good and pretty inexpensive.
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| Eating on the Ecological farm setting |
After lunch, it was either visit the chateau Villandry, or head for a winery tour! Well, none of us had done a wine tasting tour in France, so we headed there. We drove to the town of Vouvray, and found the Marc Bredif winery, where we got the last tour of the day…it STARTED with the wine tasting. I drank only water, being the designated driver, but everyone else had a great time sampling several great wines, and learning all about the differences between them. We bought some of the ones we liked, and headed into the “cave” with our guide, Geoffrey. This place was a couple of hundred years old, and really built from a cave, which keeps a constant perfect wine-aging temperature. It went back into the cliffs of Vouvray for what seemed like a hundred yards, all stacked with various bottles of wine being aged to perfection. There were also some huge oak casks for the best wine. They use their own white grapes harvested from 50 acres near the town. There are workmen who spend an hour a day turning filled wine bottles 1/4 turn so the aging process works properly. We learned these guys can turn 10,000 bottles in an hour. There’s a factoid you never thought of, huh? Some bottles had been aging 50+ years. Well, not so for the ones we can afford.
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| Lynn and Geoffrey with the bust of Bacchus deep in the wine cave |
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| The sun was just right as we drove toward Amboise from our adventures today - great place to remember! |
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| Can you believe it, a PIZZA selfie, for our last meal together in Amboise? |
After our wine tasting and tour, we were fried for the day, so came “home” to pack up for travels the next day (two couples flying back home to Florida, Lynn and I leaving for Auxerre and Villers-la-Faye). As usual, we were hungry for a light meal at the end of the day, so we returned to our fast pizza shop near the Chateau d’Amboise. They didn't let us down! Tomorrow we leave Le Vieux Manoir. What a stay it has been!
All our PHOTOS are here if you'd like to see:
TRIP PHOTOS
Our last day in Amboise was not to be wasted, so we got up, cranked into our incredible breakfast courtesy of Gloria and her minions, then headed out en masse to walk to Clos Luce: the home of Leonardo DaVinci during the last years of his life, 1516-1519 AD. He died here, and is rumored to be buried here, although there is some confusion about where. The estate is a pretty but ordinary stone and brick structure with rooms for his art studio, his research/study, and his workshop, along with a chapel, personal rooms, kitchen, great rooms, etc. Maybe he is best known as a painter (ever hear of the Mona Lisa?), but what was MOST impressive to me was the host of scale models of DaVinci’s many inventions. WHAT A GENIUS: he appears to have conceptualized and invented, among other things, caged ball bearings, water pumps of various types using Archimedes’ screw or canvas bailing dippers, portable military bridges and weapons (machine gun, steam-powered cannon, man-powered armored battle tank with on-board cannon, gear-sets similar to modern day transmissions, parachute, human-powered flying machines and paddle boats, etc.) plus maybe my favorites the wooden chain-driven bicycle and spring-powered 4 wheel cart. And more and more! The gardens surrounding his home included a beautiful forest with river running through, and full-scale models of several of his inventions were scattered around the place. Well, I could have stayed there all day!
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