The rock concert that was still vibrating the walls of our room at 1am must have eventually stopped, and we awake to the pleasant surprise that the owners of our accommodation, the Starry Sky Charming House, haven’t broken into our room overnight and thrown all our belongings over the balcony into the street. They clearly haven’t discovered our blog posts from the last two days yet, but we mustn’t get complacent; we’ve still got four more nights here to endure. Today’s destination is La Pelosa Beach near Stintino in the north west corner of the island about 30 kms from Alghero. Unlike yesterday‘s mountainous coastal drive, today’s route takes us through fertile looking agricultural land with more than the odd vineyard. We were warned that La Pelosa can get very crowded, and it does indeed feel ... read more

Our accommodation is a bit unusual, and that’s being kind. It was very hard to find when we arrived here late last night; the last thing the GPS said as we approached it from a few different directions was “enter the roundabout”, and then .... silence. It’s called “Starry Sky Charming House”, but it’s not a house, it’s a collection of small hotel type rooms in an apartment block. It’s not really all that charming either, and the ”Starry Sky“ is a rather odd collection of tiny blue lights in the bathroom ceiling that you can turn on if you want to feel like you’re under the stars, although I think you’d also need to have ingested a fair quantity of hallucinogenic substances if you really wanted to feel that way. The owners seem to be ... read more

I take my now daily routine stroll down to the boulangerie to pick up a bread stick. We’ve both commented on how distinctly French all the streetscapes are here in Amboise. If you got dropped in here from outer space you’d be in no doubt at all as to which country you were in, even if you’d never been to Amboise before. If you got dropped into the middle of Melbourne and you’d never been there before, you wouldn’t know where in the world you were. We decide to visit Chateau Gaillard which is only a fifteen minute stroll from the hotel. We read that this was the brainchild of King Charles VIII, who visited Italy in 1496 and found himself a bit taken by a villa in Naples. When he came back to France he ... read more

Issy says that we should have a look around Tours, so we set off in our trusty little Golf. I thought she wanted to have a look at the town’s historic centre, but she's set the GPS to take us to an art shop. She says that she gets a bit bored sometimes when I go off on my own when she’d rather rest, so she thought she might stock up on art supplies so she can throw together a few masterpieces while I’m off doing my own thing. We park the car and walk to the art shop. Unfortunately it’s Sunday and the art shop is closed, but at least it was easy to park. We walk into the historic centre past the very ancient looking Torre de Charlemagne. Tradition has it that the Emperor ... read more

We wake to find that it’s been raining overnight, and it is thankfully much cooler. We meet Mark and Carol and head for the Chateau de Chambord which is about 40 kms north east of Amboise. As we pass through some small villages along the way Carol tells us that all these villages have their own festivals at some time during the year and that we should see if there are any on while we’re here. She says that they all have their own themes, and that the festival at the village next along the river from Amboise, for example, is called “The Festival of the Stuffed Tomato”. We read that Chambord is the largest chateau in the Loire Valley and one of the most recognisable chateaus in the world. It was built by King Francis ... read more