Lovely Loire Valley

This past April, after Sam and I visited a friend on the southern coast of England, we flew to Paris, rented a car, and drove through the French countryside to the town of Amboise, in the Loire Valley. 

(Click on pictures to view them enlarged.)

This shot was taken from a hilltop in Amboise, overlooking the Loire River.

Months earlier, I had read about a young couple, who purchased what is called a troglodyte (cave dwelling) from the local government for €1! Then after investing their savings, and lots of blood, sweat and tears, they turned it into a very comfortable bed and breakfast which they advertise on Airbnb. (Some of my readers may think the use of the word troglodyte is incorrect, since it is a term used to describe a cave dweller, but in the Loire Valley, troglodyte is what they actually call these dwellings.)

Alexis is a native of this part of France, and his beautiful partner, Lotte, is from Holland. They welcomed us warmly the evening we arrived, gave us lots of good advice about what to do and see in the area, and we ended up spending our last two evenings sharing wine and food with them, chatting until late. Probably my favorite part of traveling is making new friends in faraway places!

The Amboise Troglodyte – Chez Hélène, is built into a cave in the small town of Nazelles-Négron, just across the Loire River from Amboise. It has a cozy and charming double room for guests, with bathtub and sink, and a private water closet just a few steps down the hall.

The B&B is somewhat difficult to find, as there are no signs, but Alexis met us up the street where we had parked our car, and helped us carry our bags up the steep walkway that leads to the front door.

The troglodyte sits atop a couple of other occupied dwellings and some buildings, so it has a view over the rooftops.

The government had put this troglodyte up for auction, but apparently, the caves were in danger of collapsing and destroying the dwellings below, so the purchaser would be responsible for reinforcing the whole hillside, which turned out to be quite expensive, and consequently, they received no bids other than the €1 Alexis had offered. Here is an article with photos of the before and after. 

And here are pictures of Alexis and Lotte's living space. They also showed us their private bedroom/bathroom/laundry and a huge storage room (which I didn't shoot). They have plans to finish another guest room, and eventually, a separate apartment.

The door on the right opens to their bedroom/bathroom/laundry, and the white door with window above, is the entrance to a storage space that is bigger than this room.

This window looks out onto their patio and garden, where they grow vegetables and hang laundry.

Alexis carrying both of our bags down the walkway to our car when we reluctantly departed.

While we stayed at the troglodyte, we spent a good bit of time exploring the pretty town of Amboise. There were so many flowers everywhere, it almost looked like Disneyland!

Sam shooting close-up video of the flowers.

Just to the left of those two people walking, is the restaurant where we ate dinner, Le Patio, which I can recommend highly!

Loire River Bridge

In Amboise, we found delicious gelato, fashioned into ice cream roses!

Much of our exploration of Amboise was done on a Segway tour! If you've never tried it, believe me, it is so much fun and really easy! We signed up for a two hour tour, along with a French couple, that took us up and down the hilly streets, and even on some very narrow pathways, ending with a wine tasting at a winery built into another cave. The wine was delicious, and it made the ride back to our starting point just a little more interesting! If you'd like to see a short video Sam made of our Segway adventure, click here.

Near Amboise there are several castles worth visiting, but we only had time for one: the Château de Chenonceau on the River Cher.

It is a beautiful castle, filled with amazing floral arrangements. Apparently, there is a competition every couple of weeks where contestants create these gorgeous arrangements.

The grounds are also quite beautiful, and I especially liked the coach house covered in wisteria.

Any visit to the Loire River Valley should include a day spent exploring Château de Chenonceau and it's lovely gardens. But one thing I do regret not doing while we were in Amboise, was to visit the Château du Clos Lucé, where Leonardo DaVinci spent the last three years of his life. It now houses a museum and park displaying models of DaVinci's machine designs. Aahh, maybe next time!

If you would like to see more of the photos I took in the Loire Valley, check out my Flickr page.