Loire Valley / Driving to Limoges

This morning we were leaving our cave accomodation and driving south to Limoges. We FaceTime my parents since we hadn't talked since we were in Paris the morning we picked up the car. They did know we were alive and well due to the blogs and also the photo on Facebook that Diane posted when we met up in the wine cellar the other day. It was strange as they were eating dinner as I was eating breakfast and it was the same day! The wifi wasn't very good since we were in a cave so we decided to flag the idea of booking some more accomodation and packed up since we still had two Chateaus on our pass to complete. We were slightly concerned about leaving all our stuff in the car but Lew put the laptops in the back of the bag. He then put this facing down in the boot propped up on the Emergency triangle we have to carry so it didnt squash them. He then attached two cable locks to each end. Safe to say if someone did try and break in the would probably be very disappointed it would take them ages to sort through the mess and hopefully leave. We managed to stuff the cooler bag, sleeping bags and some other things around it which left only two bags full of groceries in the back seat. Pretty good for a small car I think!

We said goodbye to Alexis our host and he briefly showed us the other room he has on airbnb as well. It was much smaller and we remembered choosing our one over that one. We drove across the bridge into Amboise and struggled to find a park in the small streets since we refused to pay for parking. There was one on the opposite side of the road but the roads are too small to turn around in so we had to go back up another road to be able to pull into a driveway and get back to it. It was right outside so couldn't have been more perfect. Chateau du Clos Luce is the one Chateau that Lew is most excited by since it has lots of Leonardo da Vinci's models and creations. The house itself wasn't anything we hadn't seen already in the other three Chateaus with similar furnishings and interior designs but the basement was where the clever fella made magic happen. His workbooks with his futuristic drawings were shown and you can see how he modelled a lot of things off things from the land and sea. He was quite the visionary and had his finger in every pie with his love for painting, sculpturing, engineering and architecture. Unfortunately back in the early 1500's majority of his inventions were unable to be created due to lack of technology and materials. 

IBM had created models off his drawings which meant we were able to see what he wanted to create. To me it just looked like typical engineering stuff but Lew was in his element explaining how the models worked to me and being in awe of some of his creations such as the ball bearings which we use extensively today. He has amazing inventions to bring water up from a river with the use of tubing that rotates and even invented the lifebelt which is the same floatation ring you see beside most pools. I can't even list everything there was but he has diagrams of a helicopter, a car, bicycles, tanks, gearing systems, cams, moving bridges and wind measuring equipment. Gosh could you imagine what the man could have done if he was alive in this day and age! Once we had finished looking at the small models we realised there was an entire garden full of actual versions of some of these things that you could play with. As you could imagine Lew was like a small child basically skipping with joy as he found the moveable tank, gearing systems run by a water turbine and the contraption that allows you to wind water up by hand. Safe to say that this is his favourite Chateau and absolutely a recommendation if you are also fascinated by such things. The weather was the warmest day we had since leaving Dubai with the sun shining down it was a toasty 26 degrees.

Once we had throughly assessed all areas of Chateau du Clos Luce we had one more on our list that was included on our Chateau Pass. That was the other called Chateau D'Amboise or Chateau Royal Amboise in English (Photos above). Although there is controversy in regards to the burial of Da Vinci his initial remains were buried at St. Florentin in Amboise which was demolished in the French Revolution in the late 18th century and the alleged bones of Leonardo da Vinci were discovered in 1864 and moved to the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the gardens of Chateau D'Amboise. By this stage we were a little over looking at interiors of Chateaus and quickly checked out each level. We have to admit these places are terrible for disabled people but this one did have an elevator up to the ground floor of the chateau so people are still able to visit Leonardo da Vincis grave. We have noticed a lot of older people with waking sticks struggling up the mass loads of stairs of every single one of the 5 chateaus we have seen. So make sure you visit these places before you find it hard to manoeuvre stairs (ok mum and dad!). Since it was about 1.30pm and we wanted to get down to Limoges via another Chateau famous for its gardens - Villandry and also a place our French Ice Hockey coach Jeff recommended Oradour-sur-Glane . We picked up a baguette for lunch and walked back to the car. Once we worked out the distance to each of these places we decided we would have to miss Villandry and keep that on the list for next time.

With Lew driving we set out on the road. Some of these back roads were so tiny that when you approach another car going in the opposite direction you have to slow right down and drive on the grass shoulder. But we came across some stunning small towns obviously farming towns since we had to dodge combine harvester which meant getting completely off the road, clearly missing the 'wide load' sign the car in front was driving with since we don't know any French!

The drive took 2.5 hours and despite google maps telling us where to go at times it is difficult to tell which street it wants you to go down. A couple of times Lew went the wrong way and apparently I was supposed to clarify which one he was going down since he can't drive and look at them map. Hence it was my fault. I have to admit though when I was driving last night I had the exact same issue and it's easier if someone points you in the direction. Lew asked me a couple of times whether we have to pay to get in or something to see the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane but I said no. From what I had gathered from everyone we spoke to you just drove through the town and you could see the ruins at any time of day. Silly me I should have gathered that wasn't going go be the case and we turned up in the town at 5pm not knowing exactly what we were looking for. We followed some signs and found that they had a memorial site that was free to access. But it was just our luck that the last entry in was 5pm and it was now 5.18pm. Grrr we need to start planning our days a bit more because now we will have to come back tomorrow. Becoming a little frustrated with each other probably due to only eating a plain baguette for lunch we continued to Limoges another 30 minutes away. We were lucky enough to find a park just opposite to where we were staying but it was quite a noisy road. Other than that it was really nice with a kitchen, washer/dryer and everything. A bit bigger than our previous one but not quite as unique! We found the closest supermarket so that we could cook again tonight. Vegetarian pasta was on the menu and we brought eggplant, mushrooms, courgette, cherry tomatoes and a capsicum to go into it. We spent a bit of time also booking some accomodation in Nice and in Aix-en-Provence since we are afraid to miss our on the good Airbnbs leaving it this late. Time always goes so fast and we end up going to sleep just before midnight.