After another simple but tasty B&B breakfast, I headed over to Chateau du Clos Lucé, the final home of Leonardo da Vinci where he lived for ~3 years.
I parked my bike, purchased my ticket and entered the guard tower to the gallery. The English pamphlet was informative and I really enjoyed walking through the house.
I most liked his bedroom where genius slept (and died), his studio and study, and the kitchen.
After the chateau tour, there were beautiful grounds to walk through that had various open air exhibits of reproductions of his inventions.
There was also an indoor gallery, where outside, two peacocks casually pecked at the ground for a mid-morning snack.
After the Clos, I went to the Caves Ambacia for a wine tasting. I booked it the night prior because I had really liked the Margaux workshop where we went over the appellations of Medoc. I was hoping for something similar for the Loire Valley and I was in luck! We had a great tour of the caves, followed by a tasting of six regional wines. I think I remember the tour guide saying there were 60 AOC in the Loire, so it was a comprehensive testing but it was a nice focus on areas mostly around Amboise. The only exception was we tried a Sancerre, which is farthest east. The wines are dry whites (Sauvignon blanc, Chenin blanc) and fruity reds (Pinot noir, some cab franc). Interestingly, this was the first tour where it was more than me +/-SMS with our retired friends. There were several young people on the tour- two couples and three college girl friends who had graduated from VA Tech.
After my wine tasting, I hopped on the train to Tours. I wanted to bike to Chaeteau de Villandry, but it was too far from Amboise unless I wanted to make it an all-day event.
In Tours, I had plans for a cheese lunch but I cycled past Pl de la Resistance where there was a beer festival. So lunch turned into a few beer samples and French fries with mayonaise. Pulp Fiction, anyone?
After some time at the festival, I hopped on my bike to Villandry. This bike ride was almost exclusively on dedicated bike lanes, which was awesome. The parts that were on shared roads were really, really quiet backroads that connectives far set back farmhouses to the road. So it was very quiet.
I got to Villandry, but I felt there was too little time to make going inside worth it. So instead, I refueled with two boules of ice cream, which are little scoops: rose and salted caramel. Both were delicious. After ice cream, I went about 10 minutes past the Château to see the confluence of the Loire and the Cler.
I thought about cycling back to Amboise but realized that I only had enough daylight to get to Tours. No matter! Off to Tours I went.
But once I was there, the next and last train wasn’t until 2200. I had three hours to kill. Ooops.
Well, it was a fortuitous mistake because I loved wandering Tours. It was Saturday night on a gorgeous evening. As I was walking, I came upon a huge plaza filled with cafes & outdoor tables and it was absolutely packed. It was so high-energy; it felt like a Spanish Summer night around midnight. It was awesome! There were several pedestrian-only streets. I think it was Rue du Grand Marche, but I’m not absolutely sure.
I tried to go to Verjust but they were complet, but the owner suggested Dagobert. Even though my heart was set on scallops after seeing such delicious ones yesterday at the Farmer’s market, I got a delicious entree+plat+dessert combo that was parsnip velouté, risotto topped with grilled duck, and a fig financier. The food was exceptional. I was SO full afterwards, oof.
Although my soup came out super fast, the rest of the meal was more leisurely. Perfect since I had time to kill. Then, I caught the train back to Amboise.
Such beautiful pictures, and what an amazing day!