Le General and Ford forced us out of bed this morning at 8:45. Eschewing the hotel breakfast, we set out for the center of town which is a 5 minute walk. It was hard to find a place to eat . . . Valency seems a little downtrodden. We settled for a working bar, which is really the best place of all to have coffee. The proprieter gave Ivy some treats. (Dogs are welcome in most restaurants and Ivy comes with us pretty much wherever we go). And the coffee was outstanding.
Then we went up to the Chateau de Valency. Here are some pictures:
This is an estate in/near the Loir Valley which was used by various important people over a long period of time begining in the mid 1500s. Napoleon "imprisoned" the king of Spain here.
One of the things you'll notice about these pictures and others is that there is practically no one here but us. It was like that at the caves too. These places are teeming with tourists in summer. But a great advantage to travelling off season is that we have never encountered any kind of wait or had to compete with other tourists. (The first cave we saw normally has a four hour wait in summer. But we had no wait.) So travel off season if you can!
We had fun touring acres of grounds at the chateu via Golf Cart! which we rented for half an hour. That was fun. We all squeezed on, and Ivy rode on the floor in front.
Here is Napoleon with his children. Notice that one of them has a dog-face and two of them have big grins, which was not the custom at the time, especially if Napoleon was your dad.
Ivy liked the peacocks which were wandering the grounds, and the royal fountains, which she waded in. Then we saw the inside of that chateu. Remember, this was before Ikea. The furniture is very fancy. Too lavish for our taste we decided. We liked seeing the kitchen where the feasts were prepared.
We went back to the hotel and flopped on the beds. But Le General would have none of it! Inspired by Napoleon no doubt, she demanded that we rise and go with her to the next destination, which was in Amboise about an hour's drive. The reason? To see the house where Leonardo da Vinci lived for the last three years of his life at the invitation of the King of France. This was the house where he died.
We parked and walked the mile or so to Leonardo's house. That took a long time. One of the things about having a three month old Golden Retriever puppy with you is that you have to stop every 2-3 minutes to let people pet her and say "ooooooo!" and "aahhhhhhhh!" Like this group:
It never stops. "What is her age?" they ask. "Is she a labrador?" "She is so cute!"
Leonardo invented many things, some of which they have built models of here at his house. He also painted a picture called the Mona Lisa. Apparently, when he decided to come to France, he rode across the Alps on a mule. He put the Mona Lisa in his saddlebag and brought it with him.
One of the things you'll notice about these pictures and others is that there is practically no one here but us. It was like that at the caves too. These places are teeming with tourists in summer. But a great advantage to travelling off season is that we have never encountered any kind of wait or had to compete with other tourists. (The first cave we saw normally has a four hour wait in summer. But we had no wait.) So travel off season if you can!
We had fun touring acres of grounds at the chateu via Golf Cart! which we rented for half an hour. That was fun. We all squeezed on, and Ivy rode on the floor in front.
Here is Napoleon with his children. Notice that one of them has a dog-face and two of them have big grins, which was not the custom at the time, especially if Napoleon was your dad.
Ivy liked the peacocks which were wandering the grounds, and the royal fountains, which she waded in. Then we saw the inside of that chateu. Remember, this was before Ikea. The furniture is very fancy. Too lavish for our taste we decided. We liked seeing the kitchen where the feasts were prepared.
We went back to the hotel and flopped on the beds. But Le General would have none of it! Inspired by Napoleon no doubt, she demanded that we rise and go with her to the next destination, which was in Amboise about an hour's drive. The reason? To see the house where Leonardo da Vinci lived for the last three years of his life at the invitation of the King of France. This was the house where he died.
We parked and walked the mile or so to Leonardo's house. That took a long time. One of the things about having a three month old Golden Retriever puppy with you is that you have to stop every 2-3 minutes to let people pet her and say "ooooooo!" and "aahhhhhhhh!" Like this group:
It never stops. "What is her age?" they ask. "Is she a labrador?" "She is so cute!"
Leonardo invented many things, some of which they have built models of here at his house. He also painted a picture called the Mona Lisa. Apparently, when he decided to come to France, he rode across the Alps on a mule. He put the Mona Lisa in his saddlebag and brought it with him.
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| Leonardo's House. |
We drove back to Valency where we decided to spend a second night. On the way back into town at 7:30 p.m., Ed took a wrong way turn up a one way street. (It was dark and poorly signed!) Anyway, Ed immediately noticed flashing blue lights behind him, attempting to turn around and follow him up the one way street. It was the Gendarmes! We went straight into the middle of town, parked, turned off the lights and tried to look natural. But we were spotted! A big van full of police pulled right up to our car and three of them got out and marched over and started saying things Ed did not understand but which he assumed had something to do with the fact that he had broken the law.
Ed was perfectly cut out for the role he knew he needed to play at that moment in time: Ignorant tourist who speaks almost no French. It came quite naturally really. But Ed managed to squeek that he was "sorry" and "it [was] an error." The policeman stuck a device in Ed's face and requested (demanded?) that he blow into a straw for five seconds. Ed did as he was told. The policemen looked at the device (it must have registered zero, as Ed had not had anything to drink) and then at each other. Then they shrugged and told Ed to have a nice night and be more careful. And Ed managed to tell them to have a nice night too and goodbye.
So it was all good. And we'll stay again in Valency tonight and head up to St. Malo tomorrow.
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