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So the Stantons are officially defeated… Miles marched off this morning to hire a car so at least we can go back saying we have seen a few of the local sites. Rory thought it was a waste of money, but truly, we wouldn't have had a chance to make up for 2 days in the last remaining day of bicycles. We had a leisurely breakfast, and hit the road.
After 25 miles East we came across the Chateau of Chaumont, a beautiful and rather sleepy location on the Loire, but quite magnificent. It seems Catherine de Medici and Charles II put their stamp on most of the chateaux in the neighbourhood, there are C's interlocking on the ceiling, on the walls and on the floors… Some quite incredible furniture and magnificent high ceilings, even the horses did well in the stables. I imagined I would rather like to be a lady at a chateau.
A quick baguette, pate and salami (yes, I know it's not French… but we couldn't find any fromage!) for lunch and we hit the road on the fast road this time (rather than the cycling lanes) 50 kms west to Vouvray to the wine museum. Sebastian had said even the children would find it interesting - he was wrong - all the signs were in French and even Richard and my French could not translate all the words from crushing grapes and making wine.
A purchase of a couple of bottles and back to the hotel for a rest (this driving is exhausting!!) There is absolutely no way we would have completed even one of the days of riding - it was designed for fanatics!! Lovely countryside nonetheless and we can bike to Leonardo da Vinci's house and gardens and then out to the restaurant tonight.
La Clos de Luce where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last days was one of the highlights of Amboise for me. He chose to live in a lovely and relatively small chateau and he invented everything that had not yet been invented from a helicopter, swing bridge, tank, lifeboat rings, ball bearings, etc, all of which were displayed in the rooms or gardens (many reconstructed by IBM). An ice cream there and bike back to the hotel for the last time, and change for dinner.
This was the last night in Amboise so we spoiled ourselves with the number 1 restaurant in tripadvisor, La Breche. Certainly the food was delicious, but perhaps not as big as the previous night (the number 2 in tripadvisor - which was a bistrot which had a man cooking slabs of meat over logs of wood!). Nonetheless a successful last day in Amboise
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