We have exactly 3 weeks left of this trip. That's the news I got this morning when we went to eat breakfast. It was strange, that breakfast was. I don't know if Ahmee and Poppy noticed this, but we were sitting in an odd spot. It wasn't the positioning of the table or the amazing view we got from sitting there, it was the strange likeness we had to the people who were sitting in the table right next to us (if you were standing at the bar we were on the right and they were on the left). There were three people sitting next to us: a grandfather, a grandmother, and a granddaughter. The granddaughter looked my age while the two elders looked a bit older than Ahmee and Poppy (at least he did-he had almost white hair). I don't remember if the men and the women were sitting parallel from each other, but I do know that the granddaughter was sitting just behind me. Back to back, mirror images of the same members of family just different families (they spoke French). Quite strange.
Moving on from one of the little things I happen to notice, we ate, we drank, and we talked. All of us were stunned to realize that we had exactly 3 weeks left to our trip. I found the news to be pretty depressing and after we'd packed up our things and put them in the car and had gotten on the road I kept asking to make sure that we really only had just 3 weeks left. Later on when we were walking around Amboise I continued to ask. Thing is though it wasn't like the whole "are we there yet?" I didn't ask them but maybe 3 times that day. I was going through all the things we still had left to do and I realized just how short of a time we had left, I was astounded that we really had so little time.
When we stopped in Amboise we got out and looked for the information center. We didn't find it there but we did find a plaque that told us the names of the hotels and where to find them. Funnily enough as we were looking at hotels a man came up and asked us where something was (in french), when we all looked at each other and at him with skeptical glances he turned to an incoming town-lady and asked her the same question. She quickly gave him directions and he was on his way. Ahmee then asked the lady where we could find Clos de Amboise, the hotel we wanted to stay in for the night. She gave us our directions and we thanked her many times over before taking off to find the hotel, to get ourselves a room, and then to walk back through the nippy air and the cobblestone streets.
We drove back to the Clos de Amboise, parked in the tiny parking lot, took our things up the staircase to our room (which I think is gorgeous), and went back to the main road where we found THE tourist information center and asked about the Chateaus in the area. We had no idea that there were so many Chateaus in the Loire Valley. There were at least 30 Chateaus there. We managed to narrow it down to 5 that we wanted to see. We decided that we'd make sure to see the: Chateau Chambord (momma went and saw this Chateau and had to take two different pictures and glue them together in order to get the whole thing), the Chateau Chenonceaux, the Chateau Royal (in Amboise), the Chateau Villandry (for the gardens),
and the Chateau Luce (famous for being Leonardo Da Vinci's home the last 3 years of his life). We decided to visit the Chateau Luce first. Since this was just outside town and was only a 10 minute walk away we hoofed it through the streets, peaking through windows and gazing around us at the very very cute town. As we got closer to the Chateau we saw little houses that had been built into the rock face. Grottos, or caves, were turned into modern-day homes. I made sure to get a picture of one of these houses.
Once at the Chateau we walked right in and around the building without ever once being required to show our tickets that we'd purchased at the information center. I found it interesting and I thought of all the people I'd seen so far who would take advantage of the situation to get in without having to pay a thing. I also found it interesting that Leonardo Da Vinci got invited by King Francois I to come and live in this Chateau and to work for the king. He lived there for 3 years and made quite a lot of money designing sets, preparing parties, drawing out his designs, inventing, painting, and talking to the King about scientific things. 
After being cast out of Florence for being a child molester (we were told in Florence that Leonardo Da Vinci was bisexual-this would've been fine with the Florentines, but he went too far when he started fooling around with really young boys) Leonardo Da Vinci went to Austria and then to France where he was the Kings pet. I found a lot of things interesting about this Chateau. I loved how they had models of the different inventions to Leonardo Da Vinci had made sketches of, and I loved how they showed us his room and the rooms he used as his studios (he did continue to paint). Something I found interesting though was that one of Leonardo Da Vinci's favorite views was that of the Chateau of the King (Chateau Royal). 
Something else that I found incredibly interesting was that the King often had Leonardo Da Vinci come and talk to him every night where they supposedly had long intellectual conversations. To add one more little twist: in the basement of the Chateau Luce there's a "secret tunnel" that they suspect was used by the King or by Leonardo Da Vinci to visit each other (this tunnel does indeed go to the Chateau Royal).
Now, maybe I'm looking too far into things, but I can't help but get the slightest impression that King Francois I was bisexual or gay. I have nothing against those who are bisexual or gay, actually I think that people in today's society should zip their traps about gay and bi people.
Why? I shall simply point out the reason why J.K. Rowling made Dumbeldore gay: sooooooo many brilliant men of the past who contributed sooooooo much and became famous for their brilliance and their passion for what they did were gay or bisexual. Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Plato are the first three men that come to mind that I know were gay List . Lay off of gay and bi people people.
Moving on. We got to look at the home of Leonardo Da Vinci, and as usual I took a huge interest in seeing the environment he lived in and did so much in for 3 years of his life. Something that we all three really enjoyed though was looking at the models that were inside and outside the Chateau Luce. Once you got out onto the grounds, or the very large park, you were able to see life-size models of the things Da Vinci drew and thought of. My favorite things to look at were the suspension bridges and the bridge that could be moved so that a ship could pass down the river (Ahmee and I still aren't sure if this bridge swung around or rose up). We were walking around outside the chateau longer than we were inside and we were really enjoying ourselves. After we left the Chateau we headed back into the main streets of Amboise where we looked for a place to stop and eat. Before we did that though disaster just about struck me down. I'm still not entirely sure exactly what caused this, but I'm certainly not surprised that it happened (and I wasn't surprised when it happened either). I knew that at some point on this trip one of us would stumble and fall over something. I'm glad I'm the one who did it. Ahmee's bones break far too easily, and I'm not sure how Poppy'd take it. At any rate, I was walking along on the sidewalk back into the center of Amboise when I turned and noticed that Ahmee and Poppy were busy peering into a shop window. As always I was curious to find out what they were looking at. So what did I do? I stepped off the sidewalk to walk across the street and check out this window. My left foot was on the yellow part of the sidewalk (this was slightly curved) and as my right foot moved forward and down to step on the black pavement this left foot slide down the yellow, twisting my ankle and causing the rest of me to go down. I did not get any scrapes or bruises on my hands, arms, or legs, and my ankle did not snap (it might look dainty but it's survived worse falls). My fall attracted Ahmee and Poppy's attention immediately. How'd that happen? Well, the camera was in my left hand and when that hit the ground it made a loud cracking noise (so they probably initially thought I'd really broken something when it was just the camera). I just kept moving and within 10 minutes my ankle felt just fine.
I kept moving when we stopped and checked out stores (shifting feet works as movement), and when we stopped to check out restaurants. We had a good time finding a place to eat dinner, but we managed to get a seat in the back of the restaurant with all the other misfits who had not made a reservation. Our seat was right next to the kitchen and the restroom. This could be a simply cruel place to seat truly hungry travelers because the scents of delicious cuisine kept wafting out of the kitchen as tray after tray passed before our eyes, none of which were destined to sit at our table. I did say that it'd be cruel for the hungry travelers for a good reason. None of us were desperately hungry. We were quite able to eat our bread and drink our beverages without being tortured by the smelly goods coming out of the kitchen.
We did the usual, eat, drink (me water), and be merry and then once we were done we walked through the streets back to the hotel. The street had been filled with people and things for sale before, now when we were heading back it was like a ghost town, no soul in sight. Ahmee made sure to point this out and I made sure to point out the yellow tile rocks that made up main street and how they were slicker than dog snot (didn't really use that phrase but I'm using it here). Once back at the hotel we grabbed the computer and went down into the lobby/breakfast room to email people.
After that we went back upstairs to go to bed.
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