Amboise Saturday

Two more Chateaux – Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry. Couple from Florida and a couple from Georgia on the minibus.  There was a remarkable difference in their accents.  Florida couple spoke in a nice soft accent.  The Georgia couple were from Atlanta, very strident, and the woman really did keep saying ‘y’all’.  The gardens at Villandry are superb, so much so that all the time was spent in them and there was no time left to go into the Chateau. Fly got a bit snap happy, so there are lots of pics of cabbages, asparagus, and pumpkins.  Villandry is actually still privately owned, the family living in the converted stables, not in the Chateau itself.  I suppose they use the income from tourism to keep the army of gardeners going; and the produce is sold also.  Markets were being set up in the forecourt when we were there.

The tour bus dropped me in Tours, where I spent some hours wandering around the old city area.  It is a university town now, with many international students.  They have deliberately spread the university through various buildings so that the student presence permeates the whole town.  Tours was badly affected by bombing during the War – they were trying to destroy the bridges to prevent the movement of German troops (must have been after the invasion).  About 60% of the city was affected.  Since the 60s, they have had an energetic programme of conserving old buildings and re-invigorating la vieille ville.  It is now a maze of wonderful winding alleys of old buildings now converted for apartments etc, all converging on La Plum the central square, which just throbs with life (helped by a man playing a very mean sax!).  There are so so so many cafes, all with outside settings, all fully occupied, I had to wonder if people do anything else but eat. 

And the clothes in the shops!  Winter wear is on display, and it is all so colourful.  Coats in multi-colours, almost patchwork but not quite, and orange seems to be the colour this year.  And wonderful, tempting winter hat, scarf and mitten sets, colourful, decorated with fabric flowers in sympathetic colours (not the mittens), of course artfully displayed for maximum appeal.