Day 76: Villandry to Amboise

April 22, 2024

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Just down from the Red Horse hotel is the Villandry chateau. This has been one our our favourites in the past, because of their stress on the gardens. They are of course French formal gardens, which are not favoured by some, but we like them. This time around, though, we are just snapping a photo of the chateau building in passing.

Last night just at the turn off the cycle path into Villandry, there was a route barrée for the path ahead. Rather than explore whether the obstruction was real or not, this morning we took the road around the obstruction. That brought us up on the far end, one km down the path. As usual, we looked to see what all the fuss what about, but seeing nothing, did not invest the time in backtracking to find if it was a pure myth or not.

We came upon this Tern, which fulfilled a search we had been doing for days now. It was up by the path and not near the sand flats, as predicted. Later, we thought we had found dozens on the flats, but we were mistaken, as they turned out to be Black Headed Gulls.

What we call "Villandry" refers mainly to the chateau, as there is not much as far as a town goes. However we did get some shots of houses in or near "Villandry".

There were also some traditionally styled boats moored by the river. It is possible to take a ride on some of them, but the outings seemed very expensive.

It's early in the season, but we have been encountering dozens of long distance cyclists on the path. I took the two below, just to remember this point, and also because they both properly were using Ortlieb bags!

At a point half way to Tours, we came to a flour mill situated on the river. I think the original of it was situated out a small bit on an island. A sign talked about the mill, and how it had been developed to a more modern one, just onshore. So, no big deal. Except that there is an uncomfortable feeling of deja vue when we come to something that we have deja vue'd, but don't quite remember. I did remember that there were some trucks in the way last time, and that we lost the path. Backtracking, we guided some other cyclists to the right way to go. This time, there were some trucks again, plus we were distracted by a clump of cyclists, and we missed the turn again!

See, the mill, and the Grampies miss again!

A we continue to plot a possible return here with grandkids, we are extra sensitive to the safety of the path. While there have been some short hairy bits, mostly we see path like that below.

We came to a thing called Gloriette Park, near Tours. Whatever else this may have had, it had Rooks! Dodie has had me photographing large black birds for ages, because she is looking for a Rook. They all turn out to be crows! But here were definite Rooks, distinguished by the grey beak and grey featherless area extending into its face.

Just before Tours there is a further lake, off the Cher river, in the Parc de la Bergeonnerie, with a sailing club on it. That's how we could see a colourful sailboat and some city type buildings behind.

When we did come to Tours itself, there was nothing like giant roads or car dealerships to contend with. But I was still looking for something 'great" to photograph. The two shots below are to illustrate that there were no shots. Ok, it was a city, but not so bad, really.

Things picked up when we came to the Hotel de Ville, which admittedly is a magnificent building.

Standing opposite the Hotel de Ville to take my photo, I was beside the Cafe l'Univers, and their sign intended to entice me to come in for a steak. I don't think my magic word "carbonisé" would even work for this one!

Next we came to a main pedestrian street. This is the one with the big name or posh stores, but it had a major flaw. The entire street was taken up with tramway tracks, and these were real ones, in use. As a result, the people might stray off the sides, but periodically they would be swept away by trams. Not such relaxing shopping!

We finally took a turn, and entered what must have been the true old town. For example, here (below) was a fachwerk house, being held up by supports.

For some reason we had not been prepared to hunt down either the Cathedral or the Basilique St Martin. I guess our focus was just on passing through, to our destination of Amboise. But we could not avoid falling over one of the "other" cathedrals, the Saint-Gatien. This, as most, was under renovation, but still open. Continuing my rather lackadaisical attitude, I took a picture of the facade, went in and saw one stained glass that I liked, and seemed more intrigued by the shiny lift device, parked in the aisle.

I came out, and since it was time, we took a bench facing the building to eat our sandwiches. This gave the opportunity to send Dodie in for a look as well. Normally we leave one person with the bikes and send one in. Since I have the camera, I am the one sent in. It's risky (for me) to send Dodie in as well, because in 100% of cases, she will emerge saying "Did you see the the (fill in the blank)". I will always reply in the negative, and she will continue "And did you see the (fill in blank two)"? This can easily extend to quite a list of things, and I will normally resist going back in, unless it's something critical, like a Joan of Arc statue or a St. Jacques. My defence is that if I see it it will land in the blog, eating up time when I could be sleeping!

While I waited outside, two things did catch my attention. One was a pair of fellows with very large capacity electric cargo bikes. think these are swell, even surpassing the cargo bike culture we found in Yucatan.

The other was a fellow on the next bench, who asked me to watch his pack while he went to the nearby washrooms. We had already established that he, like us, was returning from St Jacques Compostelle. But as he returned, walking toward me, I noticed that he walked with difficulty. I asked him if he always had that difficulty or if the Chemin St. Jacques had wrecked his legs. The answer was surprising. He was from Belgium, and had already walked 20 km beyond Tours on the way home, when he was struck down by Lyme disease. He had just spent three weeks in hospital here, but both legs were swollen to the knee. The hospital stay had cost a lot of money (not sure why, since Belgium and France are of course both in the EU) and he was now broke and hungry. He had slept last night on the cathedral steps. He did however have a friend coming down from Belgium tomorrow to do a rescue. I dug out some cash from my belt and encouraged him to go find some food. And Dodie found some packaged baked goods .in our bag, to give him a boost right now. Interestingly this man was a fisher on the North Sea, typically catching shrimp. First North Sea Belgian shrimp fisher we have met! Given that background, we might have expected the man to speak Flemish, but he spoke to us in French. Maybe he knew both.

The Belgian fisher displays his extensively filled out Camino creantial.

We were already on the correct side of the Loire for Amboise, and so did not have to cross. But there is always a chance to find a medievsl bridge to photograph. Opposite the Saint Symphorien passerelle, there was a sign setting out the chances of find a medieval bridge here. The answer was that we were too late, the bridge having been closed in 1784. The replacement, the Wilson Bridge was opened shortly thereafter, says the sign reproduced below. But the Wilson was already behind us, so all we have is the rather lame passerelle. It was built in 1847, but has had some destruction and reconstruction since.

Here is the Tours chateau. I must be spoiled, because it looks rather small to me!

Nearby, a gauge stick shows the height of river floods in recent history. The worst (top of stick) was in 1856.

By the river we found some quite extensive plantings of vines. They were being fertilised with some heavy machinery. One unit was spraying solid pellets, while another was carrying the backup material.

There were also several of these giant fans, no doubt to ward off frost.

Someone had decorated a fence with coffee pots. Quite a sophisticated collection!

The path continued like this, beside the river.

We came across a noisy and large colony of what we hoped were terns, on a sandbank - where terns are said to nest. But closer inspection revealed these to be Black Headed Gulls.

Soon we rolled under Amboise Chateau. Amboise Chateau has a very long history, starting about the 9th century. But in 1431 it was grabbed by the French monarchy (Charles VII), beginning a long history as a royal residence. The most famous period was when Francois I (1494-1547), who was raised there, imported an aging Leonardo da Vinci to live at very nearby Clos Luce in 1515. Leonardo died there in 1519. He was buried at the Chateau, but following the Revolution there is some doubt about where his bones ended up. The consensus is that he is at the Chapel of St Hubert, inside the Chateau.

Clos Luce maintains a collection of Leonardo stuff and is worth a visit, we recall. However at 19 euros right now, it is not cheap.

In the parking lot below the Chateau we noticed this restored VW van. It's from Germany, we see, from the "D" on the license plate.

Unlike Villandry, Amboise has more of an associated town. We took a short walk, in the direction of Clos Luce, but gave up quickly because it was too chilly. That did not stop us, though, from trying the local gelato!

Our hotel faces the water. This is one the street behind the hotel.

For high traffic sections, this could be a good choice.

The shop specialised in this fancy scooping technique. The one being shoved in your face is Mango, while the one behind is Pistachio.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 3,720 km (2,310 miles)

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Karen PoretThanks for the tour and treats!
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