All the way to Carnac

Woke this morning to the sun pouring in my window.

Wandered around the estate and had a look at the pool before breakfast and a farewell to Bruno.

Max and I headed into Loches which is yet another beautiful town in France. There was a castle and battlements overlooking the town and Joan of Arc had come through there 600 years ago and it was her 600th anniversary in 2012.

We had coffee in town and headed off to Amboise which is another beautiful town in France.

This is the town where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life. King Francois 1 gave him a castle to live in called Clos Lucé and it was beautiful.

The inside was lovely and they had rooms set up as his library, his artist studio and his study where he did all his inventions.

Apparently when he went down to this castle he took the Mona Lisa, the virgin child with St Anne and St John the Baptist. These are all now in the Louvre.

It was a very beautiful home and I didn’t realise how many things he invented. Way before his time.

I found something very funny in the kitchen of the house. There was a gossip chair where people sat when visiting

There was also a Mona Lisa rose

The gardens were spectacular and all around them were Leonardo’s inventions that you could actually see how they worked as well as his drawings having in the trees

Of course we couldn’t leave without doing this

It was a lovely way to finish of our journey from Italy to France as we decided it was time to have a day out of the car so headed for Carnac where Max lives.

We had lunch in Amboise before leaving and had a wander around the very beautiful town

I think this town had something to do with the Troglodytes we experienced in the Loire last year as a lot of the houses were built into the cliff and the streets were called Rue de Troglo

Spotted a library for everyone’s use

Had a wonderful lunch and had the dish of the day which was Stingray flaps

Absolutely delicious and the bones after were unusual.

Drove out of town and as I looked back over the Loire river this is what I saw

Loved the town and would come back.

We hit the road and every second place we passed was a little ‘shack’

Pulled in to get petrol and look what pulled in beside us

Did some serious driving this afternoon and arrived at Carnac at about 8pm. Still like daylight.

This is the view from his balcony. The Bay of Biscay/Atlantic Ocean

Now done basics like washing as had no clean clothes left and sitting on the balcony watching the sun set at 10.30pm.

A day by the beach tomorrow.

Goodnight all.