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Published: September 23rd 2007
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Several months have elapsed since my last blog, and therefore our last travels. To rectify this we decided a short trip to the Loire Valley was in order. We flew to Tours (cheap Ryanair flights) and decided to base ourselves there.
We arrived in Tours mid morning and aside from a slight hotel hiccup we were soon ready to explore the town. We saw the Cathedral, The Loire itself and various nice squares and buildings. I saw my first château! Tim, having already visited everywhere in France in his youth, had already seen plenty of châteaux but I was impressed. The château in Tours is pretty small and does not have the impressive gardens that are common in some of the others.
The following day we decided to cycle to Villandry to visit the château. The
Rough Guide said it was 13km away which we felt was in our capabilities! When we got a map we discovered that it was actually 21km away but we had already decided we were going so thought "not to worry". Our bottoms certainly did not share that view the next day! Anyway we got out bikes and set off. The whole route is
on cycle paths and off the road apart from maybe a 100m section. The first 3km were through the suburbs of Tours but once we got past that it was paths that went through the countryside. It was very rural and enjoyable and we found ourselves humming the tune to
'Allo 'Allo as we cycled along! Luckily there was no one around to hear us.
We made it to Villandry without any problems and really enjoyed the château. The gardens are amazing. I dread to think how many gardeners it takes to maintain it. Everything is so neatly arranged. Even the gravel is raked into neat rows.
The 21km back to Tours seemed a lot further than the 21km there and by the last 10km our bottoms were starting to feel every bump in the road! We can now see why cyclists wear those shorts with the padded bottoms. If we ever take up cycling holidays we are going to get some.
The next day we decided to visit Amboise. It is a small market town about 15km east of Tours. After the previous days exertions we decided to take the train. It is a very
pretty town and we visited a market before visiting the château. Like Villandry it had very impressive gardens. The château is also famous as it is where Leonardo Di Vinci is buried. Leonardo Di Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life in Amboise and lived in Clos Luce - a mansion that we visited in the afternoon. There were lots of models of his inventions in the house and grounds.
The food was great and we ate plenty. Tim has vowed never to eat out in England again (I'm sure he said that when we got back from Namibia!) due to it being twice the price but only half as good. Regional food seemed to be very much the thing and we tried various dishes. Our last meal out was in a little bistro that we happened to stumble across. We have since learnt that it is "the place to eat" in Tours! The food was great as was the copious amounts of wine we drank!
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