We picked up our rental car on Wed AM at the Gare de Lyon and with some magnificent navigation from Max found our way to Chartres. Excellent roads and little traffic. Stick shift. Max is dying to try a manual transmission so I will find an empty road somewhere and watch him grind away.
At Chartres the sky was overcast so the cathedral was an upsidedown cave. It is gloomy stone anyway and this made is worse. Great windows and a little organ music really helped. Lunch on the Place and then onward to Amboise.
Cathedral HERE
Amboise
We lucked into the top choice guest house in the Rick Steves guide. We are comfortable in our own 2-bedroom house ! Lots of atmosphere - Max will do a photo-journal number with the photos of this place - La Grange. Our building is a former barn. Better than the dog kennel of my earlier trip.
Wednesday night we luckily blundered into the Sound & Light show at Amboise castle. Cast of 450. Runs 10 PM to midnight. Terrific as usual.
On Thursday Max hit the Amboise castle tour. View HERE
Then we drove to Chenonceau. Max scores this at 100 on a scale of 0-to-10. Sunny and bright. Video HERE On the return we thrashed around and found Fougeres castle - an early rugged castle. With especially interesting toilet procedures.
With Max navigating like a whizz, we went to Azay-le-Rideau chateau for the night light show. Very artistic. Moaning Enya-style music. No presentation. Just walking around the very dim grounds. I hated it. Max thinks it is great and cannot understand my irritation.
Amboise Chateau, near Tours Azay-le-Rideau Chateau
Friday
Max is still visiting Leornardo's House - Clos de Luce - and must be entranced since it is now 3 hours. Video HERE
This Internet cafe is a life-saver for hotel booking and planning. English keyboard thank gawd. Each country uses a different layout so it is like having dyslexia as the keys move around ! Our brilliant plan for this evening was to hit the Blois Chateau S&L but apparently it is another gloomy artsy effort. So I have to trick Max out of this somehow.
Max is taking some photos and seems to be enjoying himself. With a stick-shift car in the dark on poor roads, we make a great rally team as long as Max navigates. Totally impossible for one guy alone !
Saturday we move to Chinon for 3 nights to see the castle of Jeanne d'Arc and the Abbey of Fontevraud.
The adventure continues.
Max is taking some photos and seems to be enjoying himself. With a stick-shift car in the dark on poor roads, we make a great rally team as long as Max navigates. Totally impossible for one guy alone !
Saturday we move to Chinon for 3 nights to see the castle of Jeanne d'Arc and the Abbey of Fontevraud.
The adventure continues.
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