Loire Valley - Day Four

A change in plan today.  Rather than cycling from our accommodation in Tours we drove to Ambiose with the bikes to complete a circuit south of the town.

Amboise is on the south bank for the Loire and we intended to cycle approximately 15km to Chateau de Chenonceau which staddles the River Cher.  Between the two rivers was a ridgeline that we would have to navigate in both directions.

The outward leg of the circuit was on dedicated cycle paths.  One of these was long and straight suggesting to me it was a former railway alignment.

The chateau is one of the more picturesque and consequentially is very popular with tourists.   We secured our bikes using our chains noticing there were hundreds of other bikes already present.   We arrived just before 12 and the next available vacant tour time for the interior of the chateau was 2:30.  We decided to skip the interior tour.   Daniel had already visited the chateau and informed me the interior was mostly empty.

We spent 90 minutes viewing the exterior of the chateau and its attractive gardens before heading back to our bikes.

The above photos are mine.  These next photos were taken by Daniel.  It's obvious who is the better photographer!

The route back to the car was on forest tracks and rural roads.  On the outskirts of Amboise we reached Chateau Du Clos-Luce.  The chateau isn't particularly large or attractive.   It's most notable feature is it's the last home of Leonardo da Vinci.

The chateau fell into the hands of the King of France and was subsequently placed at the disposal of Leonardo da Vinci when he left Italy.  D Vinci spent the final three years of his life here before dying on 2 May 1519.   It's now a museum to da Vinci.

It was only a short distance back to Ambroise town centre where we spent an unsuccessful 40 minutes looking for cheap drinks to rehydrate.  Eventually we gave up and headed back to our apartment in Tours arriving at 5:30.

On this trip I'm mostly recording 360deg video footage with my new Insta 360 camera.  And I haven't managed to do anything with the raw video.

Jenny, I need to lose weight  To date have successfully avoided chocolate and the delights of french patisseries.

Brian I'll give OLW another go.  Maybe it will work tonight.

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