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| Chateau de Amboise |
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| THE Chocolate shop! |
We drove up to Chenanceau...and we drove away. Crowds. Busses. Too many people. Even on a rainy day. So we decided to change direction. Here, every small village has a castle and a church. And most of them are on the banks of one river or other. So we thought it might be fun to find some of these villages and "discover". First stop, not such a small town: Amboise. Well, Amboise is small compared to U.S. standards, but nearly everything except Lyon and Paris is small here. And in Amboise, besides its trusty castle, its ancient church and Leonardo da Vinci's home, they have a chocolate shop to die for. Betsy, who was here 10 years ago, waxes eloquent about the hot chocolate she drank there. So, of course, we had to stop and get the chocolate plus formula for our kid! And additional presents for Brent, Kathy, and her two kids. And we had to wander enough to have a French "poor boy", which is really a small baguette with cheese and ham, along with a Coca Lite.
But then we crossed the river and saw-- it looked like a set of a movie being shot. You know. The old ones where they painted the scene on a big sheet or something and filmed in front of it. Only this was a really truly picturesque little village -- with fishing boats near the ancient stone bridge and an old castle along with old houses and stone streets and... Am I going on and on? Sorry.
So, we thought, how much would an "opportunity property"cost in such a cute area. Suffice it to say: TOO MUCH! How about $350,000 for a tumbledown. And the entire area except for already built on hills that hold castles, is flood plain. In the U.S. that would be a no-no. But apparently, you live with it if you want to live in a movie set on a river in France! Maybe you could pay for the property by renting it out for those future movies!?!
We drove up to Chenanceau...and we drove away. Crowds. Busses. Too many people. Even on a rainy day. So we decided to change direction. Here, every small village has a castle and a church. And most of them are on the banks of one river or other. So we thought it might be fun to find some of these villages and "discover". First stop, not such a small town: Amboise. Well, Amboise is small compared to U.S. standards, but nearly everything except Lyon and Paris is small here. And in Amboise, besides its trusty castle, its ancient church and Leonardo da Vinci's home, they have a chocolate shop to die for. Betsy, who was here 10 years ago, waxes eloquent about the hot chocolate she drank there. So, of course, we had to stop and get the chocolate plus formula for our kid! And additional presents for Brent, Kathy, and her two kids. And we had to wander enough to have a French "poor boy", which is really a small baguette with cheese and ham, along with a Coca Lite. 
Awesome photos...I can only imagine what the tumbledown looks like...like a scene from House Hunters International. Yeah, chocolate in Spain and France is awesome, but when I took Claire to Angelina's in Paris, she wouldn't drink the chocolate..."too rich". OMG! I ♥ chocolate.
ReplyDeleteThat chocolate shop in Amboise is wonderful...their hot chocolate is an orgasm in a cup. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteHad to stop reading and go get a piece of left-over Regent chocolate. Certain it wasn't as good as what you tasted but helped me be able to read the end of the blog posting without drooling on the keyboard.
ReplyDelete