PARIS TRIP: DAY 6: Tours (Chenonceau, Amboise, Cheverney & Chambord)
Tours, Monday, 19 June 06
(written on ?)
I got up at around 6 am. Sylvia was leaving. She works in a residential school (not in Tours) and takes care of the students and as I understood, also is a warden, but only for part of the week.
She is also planning to visit India, somewhere in Karnataka, near Mysore for a month and a half, I don’t exactly know for what. I suggested she visit Hampi.
Guillaume and Fanny study something called Art Therapy, the former is into the theatre aspects of this therapy, while it is painting for Fanny. They have to attend classes for 5 weeks (in a year? in a semester?) and the rest of the year/semester they have practical work.
Their university is not in Tours, so during these weeks, they drive there and stay with friends. However they were coming back this evening because Annika was performing a play at the university. They left at 7:45 am. Helene, who is studying to be a teacher, left for her classes. 
Annika came down at around 8 am and said she was nervous about her lines and had to find a melody for a song she had to sing.
While researching the available options for guided visits of chateaux from Tours, I had seen that the Tourist Office offered a few that fitted exactly with what I wanted. At the station too, I had seen another company had a booth for exactly the same trips but slightly cheaper. I wanted to do a full day trip for Monday and the morning for Tuesday, so I thought I’d do the first one with the Tourist Office and the other one on Tuesday. I was too early at the Tourist Office and so I loitered around a bit, before it opened. The full day trip with Acco-Dispo, recommended by the Tourist Office, costs EUR 49. There was still half an hour before the tour, so I got a cheese and tomato sandwich.
The tour-van arrived a bit late because of a traffic jam. The driver-cum-guide, Pascal spoke good English. There was a Canadian mother and daughter, who were not very friendly, and two Columbian brothers in their 20s. A Taiwanese group of three Chens were supposed to join, but didn’t turn up. Pascal said that the TGV from Paris was almost 45 minutes late (it normally takes 55 minutes!), and probably they were in that train.
We started around 9:45 am.
The first chateau we visited was Chenonceau.
It is very pretty and is built on the river Cher. It was a present from Henry II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers; but after he died (or was killed), her widow, Catherine de Medicis wrested it back from her. The rooms are pretty, with a lot of the original furniture and paintings. The grounds and gardens are beautiful and I much preferred the exterior to the interior in this and all other chateaux.
Next we drove to Amboise. There is an imposing castle as well as the house of Leonardo da Vinci , the Chateau du Clos Luce.
King Francois I had invited da Vinci to Amboise and the latter spent his last years living in Clos Luce. In fact the Mona Lisa was a gift to Francois I and that is how it is in the Louvre and not in Italy. The tour options were to visit either of these chateaux, but Pascal suggested that we could do both instead of having a long lunch—we had two hours in Amboise. We first went to Clos Luce. It is a nice house, and has models made from da Vinci’s drawings of technical inventions. The huge garden has full sized models. I didn’t see the whole garden, though, and instead walked to the royal chateau. This is huge, and built as a fortress on a hill. Da Vinci was supposedly buried in the pretty chapel inside, but according to Pascal, the tomb was dug up by ignorant and angry masses during the revolution and the bones were lost. 
Later, a few bones were found, and Carbon dating etc (not DNA fingerprinting though) indicated that they were of the same period and assumed to be da Vinci’s, and hence put back in there. Apparently, however, somewhere in Italy it is also claimed that he is buried. It is for sure, though, that da Vinci died in Amboise in 1519. The chateau itself is pretty, even the interiors (it is a pity that they don’t allow the inside to be photographed), and the views into the Loire valley are imposing.
The Chen-group—the Taiwanese girl studying in Paris to be a French teacher and her parents joined us in Amboise. They were indeed in that delayed train. Another van full of people also joined for the afternoon trip. Since their driver doesn’t speak much English, Pascal’s commentary was transmitted to their van.
We drove to Cheverny.
This chateau was inspired Herge for his Captain Haddock’s mansion, Marlinspike (in English) in the comic book series, Tintin. 
As kids we used to love Tintin, and at one point my brother, Apu, used to spend all his pocket money buying these. I was kind of caught unawares as I had no idea about this. The owners of the chateau used to live there until 1985 when they opened it to visitors. It is a very neat and well-maintained place. The Columbians guys were also very excited and they took a lot of Tintin-esque pictures of themselves in front of the chateau.
The last chateau in the itinerary was Chambord.
This was the grandest of them all, and I am glad we did this at the very end. It is very beautiful indeed and is the second largest chateau in France, after Versailles.
The grounds and woods are also massive and the chateau was used as a hunting palace, built by Francois I and developed by Henri II and Louis XIV.
We got back to Tours at 6:30 pm. Guillaume was making pasta and invited me. And soon afterwards, we cycled (I borrowed Fanny’s bike as she had another appointment and wouldn’t be coming or needing her bike) to the university theatre to watch Annika’s play. The theatre is quite large, and the play lasted for an hour. I, of course, didn’t understand a word of it, although I did get that it was a take on Lancelot killing the dragon. But apparently the others found it confusing too! One of the problems was that several people were playing the same characters, and that was very confusing. Annika later told me that the play was a translation of a German play that was a satire on the politics of the former East and West Germany. She said that her group was not interested in (and had completely missed) the satire. Although she herself didn’t know what exactly was satirical and hadn’t thought about it.The group including two other French guys, a French girl, Annegret and two other German girls went to the banks of the Loire and stayed there until 11:30 pm after which we biked back. I spent some time on the internet before going to bed.
(written on ?)
I got up at around 6 am. Sylvia was leaving. She works in a residential school (not in Tours) and takes care of the students and as I understood, also is a warden, but only for part of the week.
She is also planning to visit India, somewhere in Karnataka, near Mysore for a month and a half, I don’t exactly know for what. I suggested she visit Hampi.
Guillaume and Fanny study something called Art Therapy, the former is into the theatre aspects of this therapy, while it is painting for Fanny. They have to attend classes for 5 weeks (in a year? in a semester?) and the rest of the year/semester they have practical work.
Their university is not in Tours, so during these weeks, they drive there and stay with friends. However they were coming back this evening because Annika was performing a play at the university. They left at 7:45 am. Helene, who is studying to be a teacher, left for her classes. 
Annika came down at around 8 am and said she was nervous about her lines and had to find a melody for a song she had to sing.While researching the available options for guided visits of chateaux from Tours, I had seen that the Tourist Office offered a few that fitted exactly with what I wanted. At the station too, I had seen another company had a booth for exactly the same trips but slightly cheaper. I wanted to do a full day trip for Monday and the morning for Tuesday, so I thought I’d do the first one with the Tourist Office and the other one on Tuesday. I was too early at the Tourist Office and so I loitered around a bit, before it opened. The full day trip with Acco-Dispo, recommended by the Tourist Office, costs EUR 49. There was still half an hour before the tour, so I got a cheese and tomato sandwich.
The tour-van arrived a bit late because of a traffic jam. The driver-cum-guide, Pascal spoke good English. There was a Canadian mother and daughter, who were not very friendly, and two Columbian brothers in their 20s. A Taiwanese group of three Chens were supposed to join, but didn’t turn up. Pascal said that the TGV from Paris was almost 45 minutes late (it normally takes 55 minutes!), and probably they were in that train.
We started around 9:45 am.
The first chateau we visited was Chenonceau.
It is very pretty and is built on the river Cher. It was a present from Henry II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers; but after he died (or was killed), her widow, Catherine de Medicis wrested it back from her. The rooms are pretty, with a lot of the original furniture and paintings. The grounds and gardens are beautiful and I much preferred the exterior to the interior in this and all other chateaux.
Next we drove to Amboise. There is an imposing castle as well as the house of Leonardo da Vinci , the Chateau du Clos Luce.
King Francois I had invited da Vinci to Amboise and the latter spent his last years living in Clos Luce. In fact the Mona Lisa was a gift to Francois I and that is how it is in the Louvre and not in Italy. The tour options were to visit either of these chateaux, but Pascal suggested that we could do both instead of having a long lunch—we had two hours in Amboise. We first went to Clos Luce. It is a nice house, and has models made from da Vinci’s drawings of technical inventions. The huge garden has full sized models. I didn’t see the whole garden, though, and instead walked to the royal chateau. This is huge, and built as a fortress on a hill. Da Vinci was supposedly buried in the pretty chapel inside, but according to Pascal, the tomb was dug up by ignorant and angry masses during the revolution and the bones were lost. 
Later, a few bones were found, and Carbon dating etc (not DNA fingerprinting though) indicated that they were of the same period and assumed to be da Vinci’s, and hence put back in there. Apparently, however, somewhere in Italy it is also claimed that he is buried. It is for sure, though, that da Vinci died in Amboise in 1519. The chateau itself is pretty, even the interiors (it is a pity that they don’t allow the inside to be photographed), and the views into the Loire valley are imposing.The Chen-group—the Taiwanese girl studying in Paris to be a French teacher and her parents joined us in Amboise. They were indeed in that delayed train. Another van full of people also joined for the afternoon trip. Since their driver doesn’t speak much English, Pascal’s commentary was transmitted to their van.
We drove to Cheverny.
This chateau was inspired Herge for his Captain Haddock’s mansion, Marlinspike (in English) in the comic book series, Tintin. 
As kids we used to love Tintin, and at one point my brother, Apu, used to spend all his pocket money buying these. I was kind of caught unawares as I had no idea about this. The owners of the chateau used to live there until 1985 when they opened it to visitors. It is a very neat and well-maintained place. The Columbians guys were also very excited and they took a lot of Tintin-esque pictures of themselves in front of the chateau.
The last chateau in the itinerary was Chambord.This was the grandest of them all, and I am glad we did this at the very end. It is very beautiful indeed and is the second largest chateau in France, after Versailles.
The grounds and woods are also massive and the chateau was used as a hunting palace, built by Francois I and developed by Henri II and Louis XIV.
We got back to Tours at 6:30 pm. Guillaume was making pasta and invited me. And soon afterwards, we cycled (I borrowed Fanny’s bike as she had another appointment and wouldn’t be coming or needing her bike) to the university theatre to watch Annika’s play. The theatre is quite large, and the play lasted for an hour. I, of course, didn’t understand a word of it, although I did get that it was a take on Lancelot killing the dragon. But apparently the others found it confusing too! One of the problems was that several people were playing the same characters, and that was very confusing. Annika later told me that the play was a translation of a German play that was a satire on the politics of the former East and West Germany. She said that her group was not interested in (and had completely missed) the satire. Although she herself didn’t know what exactly was satirical and hadn’t thought about it.The group including two other French guys, a French girl, Annegret and two other German girls went to the banks of the Loire and stayed there until 11:30 pm after which we biked back. I spent some time on the internet before going to bed.
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