Leonardo de Vinci in Amboise, France
Zagan the motorhome has his shoulders scrunched up to shield himself from the cold rain hitting his roof. Fortunately he’s parked in a free aire (that allows us to stay for up to 10 nights!), so we’ll probably just sit out the weather here and explore the town of Esvres-sur-Indre (N47.28260, E0.78460) later.
Motorhome Aire in Esvres-sur-Indre, France
After a great night’s sleep at the goat farm, we headed south for a few minutes to Amboise – the town where Leonardo de Vinci spent his last years, and his final resting place. A few years back we visited Vinci in Italy, Leonardo’s home town, and enjoyed the museum dedicated to the town’s famous son there. However, as we were passing, we thought it would be rude not to pop by and have a look at where he spent the end of his life.
We could tell Amboise is a bit of a touristy place, as it has three motorhome aires and a campsite. We opted for the municipal campsite (N47.41742, E0.97956) as its free WiFi enabled us to Skype our families back home and join my Dad on his birthday, albeit virtually.
We paid €13.70 for the campsite (no electric), the folks over the hedge in the aire paid €13 inc elec.
The campsite, and the aire next to it, are both situated on Ile d’Or, the Island of Gold, which sits in the middle of the Loire – yes, we’ve finally reached the Loire-with-an-e after spending days on the Loir. Our first challenge of the day was to work out how to get into the campsite, and from what we saw later in the day we weren’t the only ones having trouble working it out. The entrance is a wall of locked gates and barriers, so we pulled into the lay-by just outside and I jumped out to see what was going on. Only then did I see that the campsite reception is about 100m before the gates, set back from the road next to the mini golf. Once this was sussed there was no stopping us, and soon we were in place, hooked up to the WiFi and with tokens ready for the laundry.
I wouldn’t have fancied being on the island when the Loire got that high (see flood heights to the left)!
The WiFi and laundry could wait though, today was market day in Amboise, and we love a market. Closing the van blinds and curtains, and opening the skylights, it kept cool enough for us to leave Charlie happily munching a gravy bone – he’s not a big fan of markets. We set off over the bridge to the main town, stopping to gawp at a huge statue of a naked Leonardo and the view he has of Chateau Amboise rising above the town across the river.
Leonardo has the best view in Amboise
We followed the crowd and were soon wedged in with the masses getting our ankles bumped with pushchairs as we squeezed between the queues lining up to buy from the stalls; the cooked chicken stall queue was epic. It was one of the biggest markets we’d seen in a while, and using our ‘cooked chicken scale’ it appeared to be more expensive than the other ones we’ve visited. We left having without purchasing, but not empty handed as I managed to get a free cloth bag from a PR wagon promoting some sort of soft cheese.
Free tasting of local wines
Asparagus is everywhere – it must be in season
Looks like we were too late for the paella today!
If you don’t want your chicken cooked, there were plenty of live ones to choose from – they were being sold as egg layers, not for dinner!
After the market we took a walk around the town. Now, if you are looking forward to reading all about our visits to Chateau Amboise; the ‘Seat of the French Renaissance Court’, home of Leonardo’s tomb, or Clos Luce, the house Leonardo spent his last years in, you may be disappointed as we didn’t go inside either of them (but I have put links to both of their websites if you want to read more about them). We enjoyed our visit to Chateau Chenonceau a few years ago, but we aren’t bothered about going into any more of the chateaux, a bit like we don’t tend to visit stately homes back in the UK. The only thing that might tempt us would be something unusual, something like Leonardo de Vinci’s tomb. But hang on a minute, what is that you say, it might not actually be his tomb?
It turns out that when he died in 1519 he was buried in the Chapel of St. Forentin within the chateau grounds, but after the French Revolution (1789~1799) the chapel was in such a state that the engineer appointed by Napoleon had it demolished. Around 330 years after Leonardo’s death the site of the chapel was excavated and it was said that a complete skeleton was found with fragments of a stone inscription containing some letters of this name. Other reports described heaps of bones and children kicking around skulls for a game. Either way a collection of bones with a large skull were said to have been reburied in a new chapel within the chateau grounds. The Chapel of St. Hubert is now the visitor’s entrance to the chateau and has a large marble stone with a portrait and Leonardo’s name on it. I guess however you look at it, he’s buried in the ground here somewhere!
Entrance to Chateau Amboise with Chapel of St Hubert perched on the top
Instead of visiting the ‘must see’ sights, we enjoyed ourselves wandering around the town which is dominated by the huge defensive walls of the chateau. We walked up to a fairly unimpressive viewpoint, then back down to explore the town a little more before heading back to the campsite for some lunch.
The locals have built little homes in the rock under the castle, many of which are now available for rent.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Amboise, it had a really nice feel about it and the chateau and house are probably excellent. However I felt more excited at the prospect of watching the goats being milked yesterday than I was about walking around a chateau, so I guess that gives you an idea as to how I’m feeling at the moment.
Clos Luce – not a bad retirement home!
After lunch, laundry was done, families Skyped and Charlie explored around our pitch (it was huge so he didn’t venture far off it). In the evening as it cooled a little, I managed an 11km jog by going around the island twice and enjoyed the view of the chateau again – probably my favourite thing here when the market isn’t on. We all slept like logs last night and this morning we woke to rain that had been forecast for yesterday afternoon. Jay still went out for a run though, he’s determined to beat that mountain into submission in July.
Then it was time for breakfast, long hot showers and gear up for the off. It took less than half an hour to get to tonight’s stop, and we’ll go out for a wander around once the rain stops. Then it’s out with the maps again to see where we are heading next.
Ju x
It certainly is asparagus season. For 6 weeks we gorge on it and then leave it alone until the next year! Glad it has cooled down for Charlie – Bruce was never a fan of the heat. The weather should be better again after tomorrow.
Incredible coincidence that Leonardo de Vinci was from Vinci isn’t it? It’s like Achilles being hit by a spear in the achilles heel… Doh …of all the places!!!
Yes..yes.. I know.
I totally get the “cathedral fatigue” thing. After going around so many I now tend to find a cafe or bar, with a view of a cathedral, and view it at a distance, from behind a glass of something cold.
Keep ’em coming.
Lee at Go Humberto!
Liking your style Lee!
I agree about visiting historic buildings. The towns with the patisserie and boulangerie are just as interesting. Having said that we thought Chateau Chambord was well worth visiting. The view over the parkland and gardens and walking around the turrets was amazing. There is an aires in the grounds.
We are currently in a soggy campground by Lake Garda. Going to watch the cars which are doing the Mille Miglia today.
Well done Jay for the motivation to run in the rain! We’ve sponsored you and I’m sure you’ll do well.
Cathy
Meyouandpogo2
Thanks Cathy, very much appreciate the support. Enjoy the training, I’m personally trying to avoid the rain but it’s getting quite warm here in France now so other challenges to face down! Cheers, thanks again, Jay
you missed a real treat by not visiting le clos luc, shame on you, also we have used the campsite at amboise several times, i can never understand why poeple would choose the aire when the campsite has toilets, showers and laundry and huge pitches for vertually the same money. having said that we love your blogs, keep on trucking!
Andy! Thanks for the comment, you’ve given me a great opportunity to try and explain something:
Yep, we completely understand why folks say “WHAATTT, YOU MISSED THE, HOW COULD YOU!!!”.
Step inside my head and peer out of my eyeballs for a second though. With pre-blog travels, I’ve now slept in around 1000 different places in a motorhome/campervan. As we sometimes visit a place and move on before we sleep, we’ve actually visited maybe a thousand more. That’s a lot of castles, museums, churches, stately homes, ruins, restaurants, beaches, mountain passes, villages/towns/cities, caves, art galleries, farms, vineyards, rivers, lakes, factories, people’s homes etc etc…
I’m not saying we’ve seen it all, that would be stupid of me, but we’re WAY, WAY, WAAAAAYYYY past the point of trying. Sure, if we were ‘proper bloggers’, we’d visit each and everything there is to see in every town, and try to write a nice, succinct ‘5 must-see things in‘ blog post, which would attract the attention of the search engines and earn us more wonga in adverts etc. But we didn’t go down that path, and aren’t about to turn back.
Even after just a few months on our first tour we discovered there is no ‘must go to’ or ‘must see’ place for us: we go where we want, see what we want, and if we miss something which would have blown us away and changed our lives, so be it.
Keep on trucking too fella, hope the above ramblings makes some sense. Cheers, Jay