Our stay in Amboise

 RETROPOST:This portion of our trip was my most favorite. The town is idyllic with its fairytale castle and its numerous sidewalk cafes.
Before leaving I mapped our driving directions from place to place using GoogleMaps. Up to this point it had worked flawlessly. Our directions got us to the outskirts of Amboise with no problems, but once we started to enter town we could not find the roads listed and lost our place in the instructions. We even back tracked and tried to reset our place but it was to no avail.
Road signs in France do not ofter tell you the name of the road, but rather where the road is headed. It took some days to adjust to this and to stop looking for confimration that we were on the right road. I instead was content to be assured that we were headed in the right direction. I knew that we needed to go into town and cross the bridge because the campground was on an island. So we headed into town, looking for the river on whatever road we happened to be driving. This was working well until the road became increasing narrow and was eventually tiled, as a pedestrian walkway might be.
Knowing that we should not be driving down these sorts of streets or goal changed from finding the campground to getting out of the center of the village. Our narrow road ended at the base of the castle, and our choices were to turn left (which I thought was the direction of the river) and try to drive through the crowd of people hanging out in the street/walkway in front of the cafes or turn right down an even more narrow street. We choice to turn right. There were cars parked along the already too narrow road, and we became more and more afraid that we were driving into a place were we would not fit and would be forced to reverse through the narrow pass. Within four or five blocks we finally reached a normal two laned road and were then able to cricumvent the downtown and reach the bridge. Later when walking throught the town, we did notice the signs prohibiting our large vehicle from using the roads that we had driven on earlier.
After this experience we where happy to have no problems finding and checking into our campground. The campground was municipal. I guess the villages themselves own campgrounds. They are pleasant, but basic. We had a nice shaded lot. The advantage is that you are within walking distance to the town. You can see the fairytale castle from your campsite!
We walked into town looking for somewhere to eat. We discovered that there was a brass band competiton/festival going on. After debating which of the cafes had the type of food we wanted and the best view, we selected the Cafe du Chateau. It was located at the base of the chateau and had a stage for the bands right across the way. I had the Salade Gourmande and husband had the Bruschetta Pili. We both had a couple of Leffes. We people watched and listed to the brass bands. All was right with the world.
After eating we wondered around the bars and cafes. We finally settled down at the Bar du Cheval Blanc near the river. There were two large group of revelers sitting outside. We took our place at the end of one of the long tables and ordered 2 Painte du Mois. Husband struck up a conversation with the man to his right and discoved that they were one of the bands that had competed earlier in the daay. In fact, they considered themselves the favorites.
Husband went to the marche next door and purchesed cans of Kronenbourg which we drank while walking along the riverfront as the sun set. On the way back to our campsite we stopped in at Shaker's Bar. The view from Shaker's terasse was awe-inspiring. The castle and the bridge are lit up at night. The menu of drinks might be questionable though. They serve what we have come to call fru-fru drinks, two person drinks,blue drinks, etc. We dove right in and ordered what we thought would be the most obnoxious drink on the menu, they did not disappoint. We sat and drank our fruit-flavored rhum in a funny shaped glass and looked a centuries-old chateau and bridge alignside a beautiful river in France.
The next day we got up, checked out, went up to the Chateau. We walked through the Chateau and grounds, then walked up Rue Victor Hugo to Leonardo Davinci's last house. We toured the house, known as Clos Luce'. On display were several of his inventions. The house was given to him by one of the Kings that lived in the Chateau d'Amboise (King Chalres ?) in exchange for occasional conversation with DaVinci.

Our visit to the Chateau

We felt obligated to visit a Chateau if we were going to be driving around the Loire Valley. My guide book told me that Château de Chenonceau was one of the most popular. So we stopped in on our way the Amboise. I can't remember all of the historcial data about the chateau. If you want the background story see the wiki.

The coolest part of the history that I can remember was that during WWII the banquet hall was turned into a hospital and since the castle stretched across the river, people used it to escape the occupied area.

We might as well have been on the Eiffel Tower, everyone was speaking American English and most of them we sorority girl types, that had "gone abroad for the summer". The types that we were taking this vacation to forget. They still have a working vineyard and cellar. In the cellar, they have wine tastings for 1 euro. The 1999 was not bad so we bought a bottle. After that we loaded up the ol' trailer and headed for Amboise.

Our drive to the Chateau

RETROPOST: After leaving money for our stay in the campground, we headed back into Mer to pick up supplies. We had spotted a nursery on our way into town and thought it might have some items that we needed (Don't ask) As we approached the store, it was looking kind of desolate. Oh yeah, it was lunch time. The sign said they would be back in two and half hours. How silly of us to try to make purchases between 12-3. So we continued on our way.

We drove along the Cher river. Our trip was from Mer to Chenonceaux, mostly on D764. I think that we chose our route wisely. The scenery could not have been more picturesque. Driving through small villages and through the country-side. Cars would be stopped along the river for a picnic. A few times a large Chateau would loom in the distance.

It completely matched the expectations I had when planning this trip. The following is a slide show of pictures that I took from the passenger seat of the RV.