Day 7. Rest day at Amboise. 18 miles

Today has been spent in and around the beautiful town of Amboise on the Loire. We have been joined by friends George and Dee.
Leonardo da Vinci spent the last few years of his life here, sponsored by the French king Francis I. Leonardo lived in the Chateau de Clos Luce at the top end of the town. There we saw his bedroom, the room he received guests, and models built according to his designs. One of them was a bicycle with chain drive, preceding Kirkpatrick MacMillan by about 300 years.

We had a light lunch in the cafe at the old mill within the Clos Luce grounds. Excellent andouillette, steak hache, chips and very fresh salad.
The afternoon's trip was to the Pagode de Chanteloup, a folly on the hill south of the town. Dee and Brendan drove, while George and I cycled. The two halves of the party met up at the Chateau of Chenonceaux, but decided that €12 was too much to pay. Unfortunately the chateau is so surrounded by trees that it was impossible to view it even from the next bridge upstream.
Dinner was at a restaurant recommended by G & D's host Chantal. Chez Bruno is run by a young Englishwoman whose husband is a vintner. See www.bistrotchezbruno.com and www.closeriedechanteloup.com - Recommended if you are in Amboise.

Apologies to my readers for the lack of photos.
My iPad seems to have rejected the Blogsy app which I had downloaded. I can do text but not photos. Also having problems with emails. Several messages are stuck in the out box.
Note - several days late - managed to get Blogsy to work so am adding some pictures.
That was wishful thinking. Still haven't quite sussed out how Blogsy works.

Posted with Blogsy