Amboise is dominated by the Chateau (also once owned by King Francois I) which overlooks the river and town.

Walking across the bridge from the campsite, we spotted one of the traditional flat bottomed Loire boats (the river can be pretty shallow)……

The town is very attractive with lots of narrow streets full of shops and restaurants (to which we returned for dinner).

Today we walked through the town to Clos Lucé, the villa where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life.  He moved there at the request of King François who was a big fan of his work! The building has been restored, with his bedroom and many workshops looking as if he had only just left.  Much of his work showing his artistic and engineering genius is on display with the gardens containing full scale models of many of his designs that were way ahead of his time – a helicopter, a tank and many others.

Oddly enough there was also a collection of Ferraris and Masseratis in the gardens on their way to Le Mans – Sue was quick to show me which one she’d like to have….

Incidentally I’m not so sure about Sue’s ideas about making earrings out of fruit – she claims it’s perfectly normal behaviour but I’ll let you be the judge of that!

So as the sun sets on another beautiful day there’s just enough time for some of the local sparkling wine……