On the Loire

The river Cher from our
 window

So, much has happened without the blog being updated. Still having no luck in posting photos to the words so we are losing a fair amount of info.

Oh, well, now in Paris on a rainy afternoon so time to catch up.

Where did we leave the story?? Ah yes; we had arrived at our mill on the Cher (Le Moulin du Port) and were off for dinner at the Cheval Rouge. We splashed out. The 35 euro dinner menu and a bottle of Bordeaux (half only mind you, I was driving) Dinner began with a G& T, God it tasted good. The food was absolutely lovely and we basked in the lovely atmosphere of a pretty little auberge.

Home to a large comfy bed, wrapped in down pillows with the sound of the river flowing outside our window.

Woke to a niceish day with some showers and a little cooler. Breakfast was included with the tariff so down for croissant, eggs, cold meats, coffee, juice and bread. Had a lovely chat with and elderly English couple who were touring like us. As the husband of the pair stated “I haven’t found her off switch yet” He could not have been more correct. Kris got the full life story from the wife. They were lovely though.



Da Vinci's bed

We had decided to do some of the Chateau that we had overlooked on previous trips to the Loir. Plenty of internet research was done so off we went on our first visit, to the Chateau du Clos Luce. This was the wee country house in which Leonardo da Vinci spent his last three years. Thanks to TomTom, the trip was easily made over the hill to the Loire valley from the Cher. Parking was found and we walked up the road to the chateau. Entry was a little pricy but it is not often that you stand in the room in which da Vinci died. A very special moment. The rest of the house was the usual but the real jewel was in the da Vinci models housed in the lower levels. Made from da Vinci’s drawings, the models made da Vinci’s mad ideas become reality. A great walk through the great man’s ideas.

Machines!

Garden

Flying machine

Following the tour of the building we walked through the extensive grounds where once again life sized models of da Vinci’s ideas showed what a great thinker he was. Perhaps he was a time traveller as certainly there was some ghost in his machine!!

Da Vinci garden

Oldest tower in Da Vinci's house

Leaving Clos Luce, we stopped in at Amboise to walk through the town and gaze up at the huge castle towering over the town. A lovely wee walk.

Amboise

Chaurmont

Back into la voiture for a wee tiki along the banks of the Loire heading up stream. We had not planned to do another Chateau but we came across the Chateau Chaurmont. Now reputedly this Chateau had a wonderful garden show in progress. So after climbing the hill (dans la voiture) we managed to snaffle a park and bought tickets to the garden part of the chateau. The actual building looked very similar to Saumur with white stone towers and grey slate roofs. There were some “very interesting” art installations in the grassed grounds and we spent a good deal of time wandering the grounds and enjoying the integration of art and ecosystem. We progressed to the photographic part of the exhibition (John Mead would have enjoyed this) and were just about to leave when we stumbled onto the garden part of the exhibition. We thought we had done the bizz with the art installations; Nope, there was a further HUGE area akin to the bloody Chelsea Flower Show!!! So another hour or so was spent wandering around the lovely wee gardens with the prize going to the wild garden that used mirrors on the back wall to make it look like they were windows into another garden. Great idea. It was autumn and the plants were showing their age, but even so, the gardens as they were were absolutely beautiful and interesting. We must come back in the spring or summer to see them in their full glory. Now there’s an idea.



Which one shall I steal???

Back to the mill and not feeling like a full meal, we head into Montrichard for a lighter meal. The town is celebrating the end of summer (there were fireworks last night which we missed) but there was a girl marching group performing in the main square. We watched until they were about to end and hurried off for a pizza, wine and bread. Home once again for a good sleep.

The Loire is such a huge area we have only just touched the sides. Great food, great places, great people and great wine. What more could you ask for??



The "holes" are mirrors

Our wee mill house from across the river Cher