Monet & Da Vinci cont:

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The Chateau at Amboise  viewed from the Isle D’Or campsite.

 

(right) bridge over La Loire between campsite and town

 

 

 

(below) Whilst we ate our al fresco dinner we watched a flight of hot air balloons make their way up the river.

Amboise campsite, L’Isle D’Or is on an island in the middle of La Loire and just a very short walk across the road bridge into the town.

(right and below)  Clos Lucé,  Amboise.

 

Unfortunately, no photography allowed inside the chateau.

Inside the chateau was full of antique furniture and well decorated although not all of it was contemporary with Leonardo Da Vinci.  He spent his last years in this chateau as he was a great friend of King Francois 1 of France. Allegedly they spent many hours chatting about science and technology.

In the basement are many of Leonardo’s drawings and models of his inventions.  There are also computer generated animations of how his inventions would have appeared and worked.

A beautiful park surrounds the chateau and Leonardo loved spending time in the gardens. Here there are many full size models of his inventions and huge banners of his well known paintings hang in the shady areas of the gardens.

Leonardo conceived aeroplanes, paddle boats, tanks and guns.

Time to start back home.  Leaving Amboise we drove to Bonneval on the river Le Loir. At Bonneval was a really lovely little campsite with very friendly owners and a warm welcome.  The pitches were generous and scattered among the trees. As soon as we had parked up we were inundated with thunderbugs. They were all over Priscilla, all over us!  We dashed back inside and closed the doors.  Switched on the air conditioning to full cool and this seemed to keep them away.  Sure enough, in the middle of the night the thunderstorm arrived and in the morning all the thunderbugs had disappeared,

 

It was a shame that these little thrips were so annoyingly itchy because it would have been lovely to sit outside and eat dinner.

 

A short stroll into town was welcome and the bugs did not seem so bad away from the campsite.  Bonneval is a pleasant little town to pass an afternoon in.  The old chateau of the town is now a major psychiatric hospital for the area which meant that the grounds and the chateau itself were out of bounds.

Bonneval on Le Loir  (Le Loir is the smaller brother of La Loire and is a pretty river in its own right.)

Next day we travelled to Forges Les Eaux, which is one of our favourite aires on the road to Calais. It is 6€ per night which includes all facilities and electric hook up. Always very clean and tidy with a pleasant grass area where you can sit out and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the French countryside. It is just a short walk into town to pick up groceries.

 

The following day we ran north to Arques.  We were intending to stop on the aire behind the municipal campsite but it was closed because of a firework display that evening. The aire is right alongside a lake and the fireworks were sited on rafts on the lake. They were concerned that debris might fall on motorhomes.

A large canal runs through Arques joining Dunkerque with the French canal network. On the canal are huge (really huge) locks that will accommodate four large European barges at one time!  Also in Arques is the Fontinettes Ascensceur, a boat lift similar to the English boat lift at Anderton.  However, unlike the English one, this lift is no longer operational and there are no plans to restore it. Nevertheless, an enthusiastic band of locals have purchased it and provided a visitor and information centre. The 4€ tour included a video (in English) of how it was operational in the 1960’s. The boat lift was constructed in mid 1800’s to overcome the long queues for the flight of 5 locks.  The lift is 13.1m (42 ft). In 1960 the lift was replaced by one huge lock which is still operating today.  The barges enter through a guillotine gateway rather than lock gates.

 

(below)  Fontainettes boat lift and the new lock in Arques, northern France.

(above) a slightly smaller piece of engineering on a joining river and (right) the unusual sluice gate building.

 

All photos above were taken late evening

Final day was a short hop from Arques to Calais via Dunkerque and a ferry back to UK.

A visit to Clos Lucé is very educational and makes you appreciate that Leonardo was hundreds of years ahead of his time and was, indeed, a genius.

 

After the visit to Clos Lucé it was time for a cuppa!  We found ourselves a table in Amboise town square and sat and watched the French people enjoying their Sunday afternoon in the sunshine.

 

Like many of the Loire towns Amboise too has its troglodyte dwellings in the chalk cliffs.  Not as prolific here as we saw in Montsoreau last year.