In the court of Francois I

We just got back from a wonderful holiday away from our holiday.

It was a bit of a struggle to get up in time to catch the train yesterday morning, but we made it. I had bought our SNCF tickets online, and was a little nervous about collecting our tickets from the machine, after reading other people's experiences, but it was very smooth and easy. Apparently you can only do it if your credit card has a chip, and our Australian one does, so that was easy. The ticket machine also composted (validated) our tickets, so we didn't have to do that before we boarded. There are little orange composting machines everywhere, though. There was no assigned seating on the train, and it was a pleasant trip down. We enjoyed the 'milk run'.

When we arrived at Amboise, the first thing we saw was an Aldi shop. We loved Aldi in Australia, and were delighted to see our bargain supermarket again. A lot of products were different, but the Choco Biscuits were the same, so we stocked up.

It's about a fifteen minute walk into Centreville, and it's very pretty. All the buildings were very old, with lots of ivy and vines, and roses - beautiful. When we crossed the little river, the castle loomed huge in front of us. We walked up the touristy but pretty street alongside the chateau, and found our way to our hotel. We were very shocked when cars stopped for us to cross the road, even when we weren't at a crossing - the opposite of Paris! I talked to a couple of friendly old men about this, and they laughed and said that Paris was a crazy place, but that there were a lot of Parisiens in Amboise, now. It was a bit too early to check in at the hotel, so we went back to the cafe/tourist shop strip and went in to an Italian restaurant called Via Roma. The 11 euro 'formule' included the plat du jour, which was a pasta, and the dessert du jour, which turned out to be chocolate mousse. The pasta was okay - some kind of ravioli with eggplant and other vegetable strips, but the chocolate mousse was divine. It was about 250 mL and, though ungarnished, theck and rech and creamy. I could only eat half, and that is really saying something.

The Hotel de Blason was great, at 78 euro for a room for four, plus an extra 6 euro for an extra trundle bed, and 6 euro each for a simple but delicious breakfast of croissants, pains au chocolate, yoghurt, bread rolls, cheese, juice and tea, coffe or hot chocolate. The bathroom was very tiny, but it was very clean and the staff were very friendly and helpful. We also bought cheaper tickets there for our trip to Clos Luce when we left, the next day.

The chateau was lovely. We lay about on the softest greenest grass, and discussed the clouds for about an hour. Nobody seemed to mind. The place has a gentle, happy spirit about it, I thought. Maybe that's because I picture Leonardo's automated lion delighting the court of Francois I.... The souterrain (underground) tour was a washout - don't bother. It was all in French, which I expected, but it was all above the level of the road, and very well lit, and mostly a lecture, rather than an adventure. There were some dark tunnels I was dying to escape to, though.... I asked the guide about the alleged tunnels between the chateau and Clos Luce, and she said that there has never been any evidence of any such tunnels, and that they're all a myth. We don't believe her. On the way home, we stopped at a kebab shop, and for 5.5 euro each, we had a kebab-type thing, fries and a drink. It wasn't haute cuisine, but it was very filling.

Back at the hotel, I collapsed into bed just as Hugo was looking for the large bag of bubble gum I'd accidentally bought for our train trip. David decided to play a game with the tattoos, and my first few hours of dozing were intermittently interrupted with squeals as someone unwrapped a particularly ludicrous tattoo (I think "I love strass" was the winner) and then someone stuck it on themselves. Today my children all resemble

the Illustrated Man. They told me not to worry, that they wash off easily.