All posts tagged: Amboise

A Pictorial Tour, Part two.

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Here are the second batch of photos from our trip, again in no particular order.   A commemoration and a tribute to the sacrifices made! The Abbey, Mont St. Michel. Almost expect a ‘Quidditch’ game to appear overhead!! Lisbon. The Baixo district was the only flat part, surrounded by hills. The very spectacular Sagrada Familia, probably the best building I’ve ever had the pleasure to enter. Pintxos, San Sebastian. Chateau Chambord, Loire Valley. The Loire is full of Chateaux great and small…this is the greatest! Kids fun in Honfleur, Normandy. Opera Garnier, Paris. Haunt of the Phantom of the Opera! Arguably the most famous church in Europe, the majestic Notre Dame, Paris. Amboise Chateau, Loire Valley. Perched high above the river and town, protecting all. Tuk-tuk’s in Lisbon Jeff Koon installation at the Guggenheim, Bilbao. Veules-des-Roses, Normandy Place de la Bourse, on the cover of all Bordeaux brochures. Santillana del Mar, Spain. Most restaurants featured fixed price menu’s similar to this one. The Cathedral at Bayeux, Normandy Etretat, again! The tragic, haunting silence of Oradour-sur-Glane Plaza de …

A Pictorial Tour, part one!

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On our recent trip to Spain, Portugal and France we took an obscene number of photo’s which took forever to edit once we got home. After natural selection got rid of about 700 of them, we were left with about 1400 images of varying degrees of quality and/or interest. Here, in no particular order are a few of our favourites. La Boqueria market, Barcelona. The best thing about La Ramblas, a wonderful, diverse marketplace. Chateau Chenonceau, Loire Valley. The valley is full of Chateau’s and this is as stunning as they come. Amboise Chateau. Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial. A moving tribute to the brutality of war. Paris. Still the best city we have visited, could spend months here and not get bored. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. Truly the best museum experience ever! L’Abbey Fontevraud, Loire Valley. Atmospheric, moody, haunting…and the best meal of our trip. Livrarian Lello & Irmao, Porto. How good is this bookshop? More tourist attraction than viable business…they should charge admission, just don’t tell them! Juno Beach, Normandy. B&W suits the somber …

Onward to Chartres

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Pack up time again, and with a leisurely trip of about 170kms to Chartres ahead of us, we were in no hurry to leave Amboise. Breakfast followed by coffee and croissant at the patisserie and a last look around town, including a visit to Clos Luce, the last residence of Leonardo Di Vinci. I previously mentioned Di Vinci’s influence over this town, and no where is it more evident than at this stately manor. Initially we thought we’d just look around from the road, but the 10 foot high stonewall put paid to that theory, so in we went to check it out. Leonardo’s influence doesn’t come cheap, €14 is at the high end, even for France, but when will we be back? Once again, a decision vindicated! We had a great time wandering around for an hour or two, going through the main villa with plenty of information on Di Vinci’s phenomenal talents, especially in the field of engineering. Model tanks imagined five hundred years early, machine guns, draw bridges and parachutes, gliders and …

A Chateau kind of Day

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The Loire Valley is famous for its Chateau, so what better way to spend a day than visiting some? Breakfast at the apartment then into town to get a coffee, which wasn’t bad. Cool little patisserie that will get more of our Euro’s before we leave here. Our first visit is to the largest and most popular, Chateau Chambord, about one hour from Amboise up the river. You enter down a long boulevard flanked by forest before opening up to glimpses of what was to come. This is one impressive structure, huge by any measure. It dominates the horizon surrounded by water, manicured gardens and 5,400 hectares of forest, all enclosed by 34kms of stone wall. Super impressive inside and out, this Chateau is regarded as the international symbol of French Renaissance and is the most visited of all the Loire palaces. Tick! Second visit was about 50 minutes away down some interesting single lane roads, encroached on by fields of maze, wheat, and corn, and in one spot the most beautiful meadow of sunflowers …

The Loire Valley

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One of the many up sides of staying at the Abbey was the sleep in and the sumptuous breakfast. Most of the food prepared at the hotel is locally sourced. Very local! Having indulged in both we set off once again with a walk around the Abbey in daylight, and yes, more photos of Richard the Lion Heart, where does the infatuation end?? With Hugh back in the drivers seat, phew, we headed of to a quaint village in the Loire Valley called Saumur. It was a quick stop to take a photo of one of the many Chateau’s which of course had scaffolding around the front due to renovations. Photo duly taken we jumped back in the car and headed to our next stop, Chinon. This little village is home to the Chateau Royale Chinon which we took the time to visit, despite the temperature now reaching into the 30’s…… The chateau at Chinon is aimed a bit at kids, with lots of interactive stuff going on, plus plenty of reference to King Arthur….who …