After a delightful lunch with Catherine and Joël we were off and running again, this time to a small village just east of Tours, a region noted for its châteaux. There are about six major châteaux in this tiny area out of what some say are 3000 overall. Our B&B is just outside the wall of the Château Royal D'Amboise. This is where Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany were married and joined France with Brittany in 1491.

We arrived in the late afternoon. Our B&B was called Les Fleurons and our room faced the ramparts of the château. Looking up the walls one could see the marks in the stone left by the German artillery during WWII. I was impressed by the 40 meter walls that would make the château virtually impregnable back in its time. In one of the towers, there was a spiral ramp that would enable horses and carriages to climb to the height of the ramparts. The château itself had been situated at the level of the ramparts with a view of the Loire and the surrounding countryside. Most of the château had been destroyed over time, but what remained was a good representation of the opulence of the time.

Saturday morning arrived too fast and we were planning to visit a château about 30 km away. However, we had run out of energy and decided to stay close by and just focus on what was in the village. Our lunch was at La Pause du Temps. We sat next to a young French couple who lived in a village nearby who were a great help in sorting out the menu. The restaurant building was very old with a a huge oak beam crossing the entrance to the dining area. The beam didn't leave much headroom and the owner was very tall. Shan watched as he ducked naturally just before his head might have hit the beam each time he entered the room, very much akin to what Doc Martin in his surgery in the BBC series.

We spend some time in the château and wandered down to the bank of the Loire, which was moving right along and very shallow. We chatted with the French skipper one of the two 40 ft wood flat-bottomed boats with one square sail for tours on the river. His boat was beached in the mud where he had just offloaded his twelve tourists. If the wind was blowing up river, they would frequently sail their boats and not use their outboard, which he said really was not powerful enough for conditions today.

Tomorrow Sunday would be Father's Day in France and it also meant the supermarkets would not be open all day. Our drive on Sunday would carry us about 3-4 hours east to a little village called Connelles, where our hotel is located on the bank of the Seine. We had to plan ahead to ensure we were able to cook our dinner as restaurants would likely be reserved and markets closed.