After a relaxing breakfast in the morning sun, we visited Chateau Amboise. I really liked this smaller castle – especially Leonardo da Vinci’s (supposed) tomb and the gardens. Swallows were flying everywhere this morning, squeaking and visiting the little nests they had built along the castle lintels. We walked around the castle all morning and stopped at the gift shop before leaving to find some lunch.
We had sandwiches (chèvre and crudités) and Oranginas (of course!) at a nearby café and then returned to the hotel for a little break. After ~1.5 hours, we ventured back out to walk around and visit the maisons troglodytiques (houses built into the stone walls – cave houses). They were not as interesting as I was expecting, but it would be really neat to live in one. We also walked to Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years, but we did not go in.
We walked back to town and wandered through some shops in the pedestrian area. We also visited the Cathedral St.-Denis which was pretty nice and refreshingly cool inside. After our wanderings, we returned to the hotel for another break before dinner.
For dinner, we walked back to the main street near the chateau and eventually found a little restaurant down a side street (Restaurant Le Parvis). This was perhaps the best dinner of our trip! We had salads (I had a warm goat cheese salad), white wine, a cheese plate, and bread. The restaurant was very cute and the terrace where we ate provided a very pleasant atmosphere – great food with great company!
Once we finished dinner (~8:45 pm), we walked back to the hotel and turned in for the night. Tomorrow we travel to Paris!
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