Another beautiful morning when we packed up and made our way out of town by 10.15am. We chose the N10 through Boneville and Chateaudun and found it to be a really good road all the way. Lunch was in a layby along with 2 lorries, just like England really. We had noticed a Le Clerc advertised on the outskirts of Amboise so headed there first for food stocks and LPG and eventually arrived at Camping Ile d'Or which is a municipal site on the island in the middle of Amboise, having driven 90 miles. Typically French they were closed until 2.30 so we joined a couple of other motorhomes for a chat whilst we waited. Needless to say at 2.30 there were about 10 of us waiting to check in. We got seen fairly quickly and given pitch 204 so duly drove off round the site to find it, only to discover there was already someone else there! So whilst Brian waited in the T Kar I was left to hike the 200m back to reception to sort things out. We finally got given another pitch, luckily in the shade of some trees as by now it was stinking hot, we were fed up and in dire need of a drink. We found lots of other English vans on site, they had all come for the Brass Band Weekend that we had seen advertised so we sat in the shade and chatted until salad time. By 10.00pm the mozzies were out in force, so after showers we retired indoors.
Friday 7th June
Hot & sunny again! We quite like this but were not so keen after we had walked back over the bridge in to the town and up to the Royal Chateau.
Once more we had to find a shady seat and sit for 10 minutes to get our breath back. We spent a good hour or so investigating all the stunning rooms and furnishings in the Chateau mainly from Loius XIV period. Outside the gardens were just as picturesque, all little box hedges cut in to balls. We meandered some of the side streets, but decided to leave the rest for Saturday when the bands would be playing. Back to base via a cold drink shop, to sit under the trees once more until salad time again. It was very hot overnight and sleeping was difficult even with no covers on the bed and windows open.
Saturday 8th June
Unfortunately during the night about 5 vans were broken into and valuables stolen; also some tents further down were ripped and broken into. Two of the vans had dogs, but still nobody heard anything. We got up to find gendarmes everywhere asking questions and searching some of the other tents. We could only thank our lucky stars that we were OK, maybe having an old small van has some advantages, if anyone tried to come in our window in the night they would land on top of us and get quite a shock!
Anyway, we went back over in to town around 10.30 to listen to and watch the Brass Bands. There were a couple from England, one from Norway, a couple from France all starting off at the square and marching up to the base of the Chateau, playing a couple of numbers and then marching back down again. A bit like the Grand Old Duke of York, only the ten thousand men were tourists like us! It was something a bit different and quite interesting. We had a look around some of the shops but soon realised we would not be buying any clothes, biscuits, chocolates or any souvenirs unless we robbed a bank.
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| The Best of the lot getting ready! |
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| Statue on footpath back to campsite at Amboise |
Back for a late lunch and read of the map books trying to decide where to go next, and I even cooked some bacon for dinner, then showers, then it decided to rain so we had to rescue everything that was outside.
Pictures below:
Amboise
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