Blogs from Amboise, Centre, France, Europe
April 23rd 2011
The Loire is literally littered with chateaux. We were not wanting to get castle fatigue and decided two might be sufficient to visit. To make the best informed choice we visited Parc de Mini-Chateaux where they have scale (1/25) models of the top 44 chateaux in the area. They were even laid out geographically correct with the Loire and other rivers running through. It was all very well done although in need of a bit of maintenance - like some real life castles I'd suspect. There was a hedge labyrinth which the girls had fun racing around in. So we came away with an agreed list of three. Then ten minutes later we found ourselves queuing for entry tickets to a castle not on the list. Well it had been on the short list prior to ... read more
April 23rd 2011
Today we went to Mini Chateau which is a place that has the 40 most famous castle's around the area we are staying in. They were geographically laid out with the Loire river. There were some huge castles and some not so big. Some castles also had amazing gardens. There where heaps of different castles. We decided to chose two or three each then decide on three to go to together. I chose the Usse Castle, the Chambord Castle and another huge castle. We all decided to go to the Usse Castle, the Chamord Castle and the Villandry. After going to Mini Chateau we went to have a look around the town near it called amboise. About two minutes after leaving mini chateau we came across one of the castles that was at the place. It ... read more
Playing Queen and King in the Loire Valley
Published: April 20th 2011Europe » France » Centre » Amboise
April 14th 2011
After spending a week skiing in the Alps, we went back to Luxembourg for few days. It was time for Leslie to spend a week with his grand-parents visiting Pisa and Roma. For Mari and I, a week in France to celebrate our three years together. No time to blog on the road, I've got hundred of pictures to sort out, so it will be one entry at a time. , and it could take some time... We drove from Luxembourg early morning to the Loire valley, enjoying the small roads, and a very short stop in Champagne to stock on bubbles for all my little family for the next few months. Wish we could stay longer in the Champagne region, but we did it properly last summer. We arrived early afternoon in the Loire Valley, ... read more
May 13th 2010
Bonjour kids Today we realised that we have acclimatised to the freezing temperatures. We were feeling really hot and had to take off our beanies, jackets and gloves as we were getting a bit gross and sweaty. We estimated that it must have be around 20 degrees, however upon checking the temp it was only 13.5! We strolled into the centre of Amboise today past the troglodyte dwellings that were built into the cliff walls and made our way to the Amboise chateau. This chateau is quite different from the others as it is a bit older and less decorative. It's more medieval and has been built upon a rocky cliff, however much of it has been destroyed. A couple of the King's lived here and King Charles VIII was born here in 1483. It was ... read more
May 12th 2010
CHCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCH That’s the sound of my teeth chattering. Day 11 and with no end in sight to the cold snap we headed off to Chateau de Chambord. Once again our Aussie Sat Nav let us down again so we relied on the Merc’s French version (she also sounds a lot sexier). I honed my European driving skills by facing a truck head on down a tiny French alley. I find repeating the “F Word” over and over again really helps you get through some of those tight squeezes. I’ve noticed that my parents have also adopted the same practice. Chambord is yet another home built by a King so he could go hunting (apparently the King only spent 42 days here all up!). The chateau is not as ornately decorated inside as Versailles or Fontainebleau, but ... read more
January 30th 2010
Today was a fabulous day. However, the start was a little rough—I woke up at 8:56 and was supposed to meet Denise outside my house at 9. I frantically texted her (which actually takes a while on my cell phone here because the only t9 setting it has is in French) telling her I was running “a few” late, but luckily was out the door around 9:07. We treched our habitual 1.1 miles to meet up with the rest of the BEF (Bucknell en France) group to take our first excursion to Amboise! It took about 20 minutes or so to get there, and I was actually appropriately dressed for the expected cold weather (as opposed to the first day where we had to tour of Tours—Mme Fazalley won’t let me live down the fact that ... read more
France's Château Country, the Loire Valley (Langeais, Chenonceau, Chaumont, Blois, Chambord, Cheverny, Amboise, Villandry, Azay le Rideau, Abbaye de Fontevraud, & Chinon)
Published: November 1st 2009Europe » France » Centre » Amboise
September 3rd 2009
Day 7 continued (Thursday, September 3, 2009) From Fougeres, we began the very long drive towards the Loire Valley. Throughout the nearly three hour journey, the sun was in a constant battle with the clouds, but it appeared as though the sun was going to win, or at least I hoped so. Seeing blue skies while in the Loire Valley was extremely important to me as visiting and photographing the many château was one of the things I was most looking forward to during our visit to France. Our first stop within the Loire Valley was Château de Langeais , which was rebuilt in 1465 on the ruins of a 10th century fortress. This chateau is most famous for a well-known incident that occurred within its walls. In 1491, King Charles VIII secretly married the ... read more
November 24th 2008
21st November - 23rd November Arcachon We drove from San Sebastian on Friday in the rain. Leaving behind the wonderful tapa bars. We were staying in a hotel with the Sally and Brian from Palmy. Down the road from Arcachon are the Dune de Pylon. But we did't visit them until we had the Quantock-Holmes with us. Our hotel was perfect. Kitchen and bathroom all separate from all the other rooms. Everyone had a bed with sheets and blankets. Blake The sand dunes were fast and cool. We jumped off the big cliffs. We ran down the big cliffs too. I got sand in my shoes, in my pockets and down my ****. Anton, Nic and Mason built a contraption using the skim board and some rope. They pulled each other around for nearly two hours. ... read more
October 4th 2008
Amboise - October 3 (Geoff) Today was C day. C is for Chateaux. When we arrived in Amboise, Sue contacted a little tour company by the name of Acco-Dispo who specialise in touring the area by minibus to arrange a tour of the outstanding Chateaux in the region. We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day and sauntered down to the Tourist Information office to meet our guide, one Pascal Accolay at 10:30. He was a youngish guy who spoke pretty good English, thankfully. We really appreciated not having to wait long as the air temperature here is pretty cold and there is a freezing wind blowing - I reckon the wind chill factor is about -5 degrees. Our first port of call was a Chateau about 10kms out of Amboise, called Chennoneaux. This was a ... read more
October 2nd 2008
Amboise, Loire Valley 1 October The trip to Paris on the night train was uneventful, but a disturbed night of sleep. The night trains are fast which means they rock from side to side and are noisy. Not the best conditions for sleep. We woke around 7.30am expecting to arrive at Paris by 9am. Somewhere in the night we had lost 2hrs and were informed we would arrive at 11am. Our next train from Paris to Amboise was at 11.40am. When we looked at our ticket we noticed it left from a different train station. As it was an open ticket we figured if we missed it we would just have to catch the next one. We made a quick dash from the Bercy station to the Austerlitz station across the Seine (didn't have time to ... read more
