Woke to warm sunshine and onward drive to Amboise. Stopped in small village for pain aux raisin and coffee. Magic of village inspired us and in some way we imagined a life here. Picked up a brochure of properties from immobilier.
On to Amboise. Jaw droppingly beautiful sitting over the Loire. Parked up and walked to chateau. Very good audio tour. Little chapel inside containing body of Leonardo da Vinci who died in France. Interesting chateau tour. Spiral ramp for horses, precursor for multi-story car parks!
Ate baguettes by Loire. I could eat them every day! Drove onwards to Chenonceau - one of the Grand Dame Chateaux. Number of Japanese tourists in the carpark warned that it could be extremely busy and it was. Extremely hot day (late 30s), housemartins swarmed around the chateau making nests in every nook and cranny. Interesting art including several Rubens. Loire was as busy as a motorway underneath with rowboats, canoes and pleasure cruises.
Extreme heat meant that it was only comfortable in shade. Headed to hotel. It was in a small village. Had a pool which we ripped our clothes off to dive into (trunks on first).
Pool was a little murky, a little like people soup. Kept mouth tightly shut as I gingerly swam around. Cooling effect was great though.
Dinner in the village at a Chinese restaurant! Rice! Vegetables! Bliss! Spoke to a very interesting Chinese waitress who enjoyed practicing her English after being initially shy. She appeared to live in a caravan with two dogs while her house with her French husband was being slowly renovated. Husband seemed to be away most of the time working in Paris. 'I am very happy' she stressed.
Room was large but old and had a horrid smell, a bit like a sweaty armpit or doner kebab (I find that they are interchangeable). Windows open cleared some of the smell but we were worried about insect invasion, so the compromise was to sit in pitch black to avoid insect attention. Read for a while and tried to sleep but it was stiflingly hot. Woke to a huge thunderstorm and torrential rain.