another gorgeous day

.

This morning we took a tour of Chenonceau and Le Clos Luce'.

Chenonceau is one of the Very Famous Chateaux of the Loire (river) valley. It was inhabited by several French kings and/or their mistresses, and spans the Cher river.

I had wondered what sort of pics would be available from the chateau's grounds -- excellent ones at Chenonceau, it turns out.

As we had taken a tour (mini-bus), our time was strictly limited, but we got some very nice pics of the exterior, and then we whipped through the inside and got some pics there, too.

Then we went on to Le Clos Luce', which I do not remember hearing about, but is where Leonardo (known as "da Vinci" -- which just means "from Vinci") lived the last three years of his life. He was given the house by Francis I of France (who was familiar to me as he was a contemporary of England's Henry VIII, and I have done a lot of reading about the Tudors......). In return for the gift of Le Clos Luce', Leonardo gave the Mona Lisa to Francis, which is why she is in the Louvre in Paris instead of in Italy......

I knew Leo was a scientific genius, in addition to an amazing artist, but do not remember knowing the depth and breadth of his curiosity and invention...... We saw models of many of his inventions, as well as animations of how they ought to work. Many of them worked a treat, but some (thinking of his idea for a helicopter), well, some did not fly......

After we got back to Tours, we had crepes for lunch. Savory crepes are a specialty of Brittany, which we had hoped to visit, but which turns out to be very hard to see without a car. So we had our crepes here. Mine had ham and gruyere and spinach, and the foodie had raclette (cheese), potatoes, bacon bits, and some onion. Both were yummy. A glass of cider was consumed -- traditional with Breton food, as that is a very big apple-growing region.

We had a rest, and then headed out for the gourmet market. After the market we saw yesterday, we wondered what on earth a "gourmet" market would look like..... It had mostly the same things and was a lot smaller. We walked through, and then got more bread from the same bakery as yesterday.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Supper was bread, yogurt, applesauce, apples (Reine de Reinette -- "queen of little queens" -- tart and very flavorful. Mmmmmm). We also got a loaf of bread with chocolate in it, and still have some of those very nice little mirabelle plums we got yesterday........

Tomorrow, we shift to Paris.............




In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.
.