France Photos Nov 25

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Very delayed continuation of pictures from France. I got a little bit sick and we were trying to fit in all our museum sightseeing on the last couple days so I wasn’t going through my pictures at all. But my last email I had sent we had just arrived to our Airbnb in the Loire valley. It was in a very small town surrounded by vineyards and sorghum. The next day we rode our bikes to the nearby town of Amboise. It was just over 5 miles but it took us a lot longer than the estimated 27 minutes since it was my first bike ride ever and I kept having to take breaks! The town of Amboise was very quaint. We went to a restaurant that serves regional dishes like goose with herbed butter and bread rolls baked over a fire. After lunch we went to the chateau in the city. It was built for a King of France in the early 1400’s and then was used by various friends of the royal family for the next several hundred years. Including Leonardo da Vinci! After he finished the Mona Lisa, he retired to a cottage owned by the chateau and brought the Mona Lisa with him (this is how it ended up in the Louvre). He was buried in the chateau gardens. There is a large bust of him marking the spot where he was originally buried and he was moved during renovations to the grounds in the 1800’s. He now rests in the small chapel next to the chateau, which we could not see because it’s being restored. The rooms on the lower floor of the castle still look the way they did when it was first used but as the years went on, I guess the residence preferred the upstairs rooms and decorated them to match the current styles. The older room had a chest belonging to Catherine de Medici that included a false bottom to hide her jewelry (or maybe her poisons!). We had no idea the history of this town when we decided to stay close by so it was very exciting when we found out. As we were enjoying the scenery of the area we kept remarking that Leonardo da Vinci himself walked in the same spot and admired the same views! There is a museum dedicated to him in the cottage where he lived but since we knew it would take a long time for me to bike back we had to leave with plenty of time before sunset. The way back was just as beautiful as the way there, although the egrets had moved on from the spot we saw them in the morning.  Unfortunately the next day I woke up extremely congestion with a very sore throat. I read online that an intense bike ride can cause that if you have pollen allergies since you inhale so much air. Buster had some allergies as well but not as bad because the bike ride wasn’t as tiring for him. He went to the pharmacy to get some medicine for me and we found out that in France, everything at the pharmacy is behind the counter. You explain your symptoms to the pharmacist and they help you pick out the right ones. I find this very strange! But despite speaking no French, Buster was able to tell the pharmacist my symptoms and get some things that helped. It was a good thing too because we had some restaurant reservations that I did not want to lose my sense of taste for!

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