The court of Francis I

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Bonjour gentlemen and ladies of the court greetings from Tours, France. Yesterday Alliey and I picked up our car....yes we are actually driving in France...and drove to the tiny village of Amboise. Our car is named Mademoiselle Cleo because it is a Renault Clio. So far Alliey has done a great job of driving a stick shift in the area...it helps that we have a GPS system to help us navigate!!! So after we got the car we drove along the Loire River past the village of MontLouis, which is famous for it trodyglote caves. In these caves there are vineyards, fromageries (cheese makers), restaurants, homes, art galleries, and even farms. Alliey and I are going to eat in one of the restaurants tomorrow.
Amboise is a very scenic place to visit. It is happily situated on the banks of the Loire River. The vistas are dominated by a beautiful castle in which Alliey and I watched a reenactment of the court of Francis I. We spent most of the afternoon walking around looking into the various shops and meandering down the narrow alley ways. We walked over this small bridge and saw some ducks just happily swimming along. We stopped and got some ice cream, which was delicious...I had apricot and pear and Alliey had black currant and praline...YUM YUM!!!(the ice cream tasted exactly like the real fruits...even the pear ice had the gritty texture that pears tend to have. The black currant ice cream was so tart it was just like the berry iteslf) Later in the evening we had our picnic dinner and watched a little of the crucial football (soccer) game between Italy and France!!! Finally we made our way into the courtyard of the Chateau Amboise for the "spectacular". There was renaissance music playing, torches lit everywhere, and plenty of men and women wandering around in period costumes. The show itself chronicles the life of Francis I starting from the death of Louis XII (who has no heirs) declares the young Francis as the new heir to the throne until he returns from battle and brings Leonardo Da Vinci home with him...The show was entirely in French, which didn't really matter because the lights, music, and actions were easy to interpret. The show is put on by the residents of Amboise and the surrounding villages. In this performance there were over 200 performers but usually at the height of the summer there are over 500 performers. Local businesses donate money to put on the massive reenactment. They projected the portraits of the real Francis I and Da Vinci onto the castle walls...the whole show was really amazing!!! We will try to post pictures soon!!!

Miranda

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Photos

Rive Loire
we had a nice picknick on its banks

The peasants of the Roi
The court of Francoise re-enactment

Amboise, re-enactment
Oh the Splendor

Comments

[sandy]

reenactment envy
I officially have reenactment envy! You went to one without me! For Shame! France and the ice cream sound delightful. My vacation has officially begun and I have a new job!