Amboise

Yesterday I had my first day trip outside Paris since my mom came in July/August.  I went to Amboise, which is a small town in the Loire Valley, about 1 hour and 45 minutes by train southwest of Paris.  There were a number of places I wanted to go but I picked Amboise mainly because it's in the area I wanted to visit and I saw that the castle is still open in the winter - many are closed between November and March.  After picking Amboise I did some research and also found out that Leonardo da Vinci lived there for some time, serving the then-king Francois I, and his former home is now a museum containing a bunch of his original inventions and machines.  So cool!  Those two things, however, I'll discuss in the next post as they sort of go together and are long enough to have their own thing.

The Loire Valley is reputed to be the most beautiful area of France, and I must say after having been to Amboise, even in the middle of winter, I would probably agree (although the lavender and other fields near Aix-en-Provence are absolutely gorgeous as well).  I've hardly seen a more picturesque town of its size, and the castle affords great views of the river.

It looks a little drab now, but imagine it in summer!  Everywhere I went the buildings were quaint and interesting, and the streets super narrow and very medieval. 

The center of the town itself hasn't changed too much from the Renaissance, in fact.

I timed my arrival so that I could have some time to walk around and get lunch before the castle re-opened after its afternoon break.  I thought I might stop by some of the old churches I'd scoped out as I headed to the town center from the train station.  The first was not open, and for some reason I neglected to take any pictures of it.  Oh well, it wasn't much to see from the outside: it was made of grey stone, two stories, boxy, with few windows, and not very inviting.  It sits on a nice spot, just before the bridge which connects one side of town with the other.

Amboise is set up a little like Paris in that the town is mostly split on two sides of the river, with a small island in the middle.  The island in this case, though, is quite long and narrow, residential at the tip close to the bridge but the rest of it is taken up by campgrounds.  At the very end of these campgrounds is a 12th century chapel that I was interested in seeing, so on my way I wandered onto that island.  This place definitely is quite unchanged from earlier times - I doubt cars can go down two of the three main streets.

It has a more claustrophobic air than the rest of the town, and I did not see anyone else at all on the island the first time I went there.  After going through the residential area I realized the chapel was almost three quarters of a mile away, and since I wanted to be at the castle for its 2pm opening I wouldn't have time to get down there and have lunch so I abandoned that mission.

It had great views of the castle, though.

I went to a recommended place that had some regional specialties; the Loire Valley's pâtés and foie gras are reputed to be the best in France, so although I'm not generally big on meat I was brave and ordered the assiette de cochonaille (basically, a dish of pig meat) as a starter.

Clockwise from the top, in a spiral, my best bets on these: dried ham; some kind of fresh sausage (that is, not cured); a galantine (not very tasty); a coarse textured pâté (much better than I was afraid); hiding under that is a tiny mild salami-type thing; and finally, those two little dark rounds...I'm very much afraid that was a blood sausage of some type.  I didn't ask for fear that if I found out it was in fact a blood sausage I wouldn't try it.  I did try everything, and the fresh sausage was definitely the best while the dark one was really not good.  The flavor was only slightly yucky but the texture was gross: it was squishy and almost spreadable but with identifiable um, chunks.  Ew.

For the rest of the meal I got a mi-cuit (halfway cooked) salmon filet with a really delicious vegetable side and some very good creme brulee for dessert.

Next I made my way to the castle and then da Vinci's palace, which as I mentioned I'll discuss in the next post.  I passed some interesting things along the way.  This is the Renaissance clock tower in the middle of town:

I read that centuries ago there were primitive homes carved out of the hillside on the road between the castle and da Vinci's palace.  Some I guess can still be seen today but it was unclear to me exactly where and what they were.  This picture (I was stabilizing the camera on a fence post and it must have been crooked!  I promise I wasn't drunk or anything) was taken after climbing halfway up the hill and I think some of the areas of the cliffs here might be the homes but I'm not sure.

The article I read said that some are still in use today so I'm thinking that's what this is?

The castle took much shorter than I expected, as I was in an out in about an hour.  I had been under the impression that more of it was extant, but I guess not.  So I was a little early getting to da Vinci's place and early getting out, and I decided to wander off to a more out-of-the-way church that I had spotted from the top of the castle.

It was the Eglise St Denis and the sign tells me it was originally built around 1187. 

It has one of the best preserved portals I've seen in France outside the major cathedrals. 

But despite its outside and shape the main entrance looked much more like a chapel of the time period - the difference being chapels were usually very simple and functional while churches and cathedrals displayed a lot more artistic work and were much grander.

Anyway, it was also closed.  By this point I was running really ahead of my schedule, since the castle didn't take very long and two of the churches I wanted to see were closed.  I headed to the next church on my list, which I wasn't sure was open either.  Turns out it was but there was basically nothing inside - it no longer functions as a church and was recently renovated so there is almost nothing inside it.  I liked the interior, though, it was very light and airy, with some nice stained glass.

So, third church to basically take up no time on my trip.  I left this church around 5pm and my train wasn't until 8:30.  I had also planned on having dinner in town but after my large lunch I was still very full; so the only thing left on my list was possibly a cup of tea in a local cafe (something I always try to do) and to see the small chapel on the middle island.  I ended up looking at the train schedules to see if I could get an earlier one back and decided o take one around 7:15.  After getting a cup of tea at a popular local hangout - it was a pleasant bar/cafe with a lot of regulars - I headed off towards the campground.

By this time the sun was starting to go down, and it was almost completely set by the time I walked the mile plus to the chapel.  There was still virtually no one else on the island (one guy walking a dog and a few kids playing on the playground), especially one I got onto the campsite.  It's about a half a mile of just one straight road headed towards the far tip of the island and I got farther and farther away from any signs of life as it got darker.  Now, I am not one to get nervous traveling on my own, and I am never uneasy in in cities or bigger towns when I do.  Some might find this strange, but the open countryside makes me far more nervous than any city; sometimes people are astonished that I'm perfectly comfortable walking alone around a city at all hours of the night while unpopulated areas make me uncomfortable.  This was one of those times.

Oh well, it was still quite early, just around 6:15pm.  And I was cheered up when I finally arrived at the chapel as it definitely tickled my sense of whimsy: it would be the perfect setting for a ghost story at this time of day - nearly dark but that point where there is just enough light to cast everything into shadowed relief.  Not to mention the chapel itself is imposing and clearly very old, with just the main door and another tiny sidedoor closed with iron bars, and only two windows at a height where you cannot see in at all.

Also my camera batteries just happened to die when tried to take pictures so I had to make do with my camera phone.  Someone should write Poe-inspired short story about this place.

And then I made the long (when walking, it's only about a mile and a quarter) journey back to the train station, and thus concluded my trip to Amboise.  Stay tuned for the castle and da Vinci's palace!  They were awesome.