Amboise

The city of Amboise

We're on break right now, and while we don't have a lot of money to travel around, we did take a day trip to Amboise, famous as being where Leonardo Da Vinci spent the last three years of his life. He's also buried in Amboise. Amboise was a typical, cute Loire town, but smaller than other cities we've visited, like Blois and Tours.

Nicole and Justine

We went with Justine, our friend who lives in Tours, Catherine, and her Canadian friend who was visiting for the weekend. Our first stop was Clos Lucé, Da Vinci's workshop/house. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was full of replicas of some of his more famous inventions, mostly a lot of war machines. The outside would have been excellent if it hadn't been below freezing, but at any rate we had fun playing on some of the replicas in the garden area.

When we were sufficiently frozen, we had lunch and then split into two groups. Andrew and Catherine's friend headed to the château where Da Vinci is buried while Justine, Catherine and I high-tailed it out of there for the warmth (and free-from-cost) of the train station to await the next train to Orléans. Andrew took some pretty cool photos in the château, but honestly after seeing 5 or 6 castles, really you've seen them all!

Outside of the château

Andrew on the ramparts

Beautiful city view

Andrew on one of the towers

Da Vinci's Tomb

We returned to Orléans to find the city covered in snow. When will the coldness end??