Hi all! We kicked off our second day in France by walking along the river walk to the Amboise Market before heading out to explore 2 castles (Chateau de Chambord & Chateau de Chenonceau).
The Amboise Market is so much more than a Farmer’s Market – it really has it all.
The produce is beautiful!
The place I could spend all my money (I love olives!)
And the place he’d spend his if I let him 🙂
Not only can you get fresh breads, pastries, meats, eggs and cheese, but, they have fresh seafood vendors too.
The market smells wonderful from all the delicious foods roasting and simmering away.
As you stroll through, you can buy plants for your garden, candies, sauces, candles, clothes and even little chickens.
It was such a great way to start the day. I ended up buying some fruit and bread as I couldn’t convince The Husband to try savory pork / chicken for breakfast lol.
Post market breakfast at our hotel.
I still cannot get used to the texture of the eggs and I gave The Husband my crossaint plus sweet bread. Everything else was tasty.
The drive to the Chateau de Chambord from Amboise is beautiful. It takes about an hour and you drive past several farms and tree lined streets.
I wish I could show you all the vastness of this castle – it is so extravagant and huge with 440 rooms, 84 fire places and several floors to climb.
We look ‘tiny’ in front of it.
Its a bit sad that it took over 28 years to build and the King only stayed at it 58 days.
I really loved the mini iPad interactive tour in this castle as they had audio in each room explaining the purpose highlighting things to look at. You also had the option to view each room with a live reenactment.
This is the ‘waiting area’ where visitors would have to wait to greet the king.
Throughout the entire castle there are so many intricate details you can see in the choices made for flooring, the fire places and etchings like this in the ceiling.
I think it’s so cool they had a theater room.
Plus a gaming room.
The kitchen may have been the smallest area in the entire castle.
You get amazing views from the windows and outside terraces on each floor.
Next to the castle is the workshop where you can view the unused castle pieces.
And the buggies that drove the King / guests around town.
After 3 hours of walking / climbing, we stopped for bacon cheeseburgers, fries and salad.
Have I mentioned yet how much I love french fries in France?!? 
After lunch we drove another 20 minutes up the road to walk around the Old City of Blois. We had originally planned lunch here but couldn’t wait and didn’t want to miss seeing it.? It’s a cute village with alot of modern shops and the Mona Lisa steps are a center point.
We spent the balance of the afternoon at the other castle.
Dinner involved this super cheesy, meaty lasagna with salad.
My day was definitely not point friendly but it was delicious and I am hoping all that walking offset it a bit.
My next recap will be about the ‘Girl’s Castle’ which I love as it has the best scandalous story we’ve heard to date.
Catching up on our latest France Trip:
Night all!
Leave a Reply