Versailles, Chartres, and Amboise

Due to a lack of internet at our hotel in Amboise, I am late in writing about Tuesday's adventures. We got our rental car--a Renault Trafic (the size of a VW bus, but the shape of a Honda Element), loaded up in the very narrow street outside our hotel in Paris as other cars managed to squeeze their way past. We hit the road around 9:30 and headed for the Palace at Versailles. In Versailles, we toured the Royal apartments, the chapel, and headed out the the gardens, where we opted to see the sights with the aid of a golf cart (since we were all tired of walking by that point). It also gave Jason the opportunity to drive in Europe ;-)

We drove through the gardens, saw the summer home of King Louis, and enjoyed a leisurly lunch at a local creperie before heading back on the road. Our next stop was the Cathedral at Chartres. A large, gothic style cathedral built in the middle of a relatively small town that is a popular Catholic pilgrimage destination. It was perhaps the most amazing cathedral I have ever seen. Over 12000 scenes depicted on stained glass, hundreds of carved statues, and the veil of the Virgin Mary on display were all sights worth seeing. This was also much quieter (fewer obnoxious tourists) as it is off the beaten track. We arrived in Amboise in the evening, and checked into our hotel. Our car barely fit through the entrance gate, which made for a funny story.

This morning we decided to go to the Da Vinci Museum here in Amboise. It is located at the home where Da Vinci retired and spent the last 3 years of his life and was well worth the visit. The gardens had life sized models built from his drawings and inside were smaller models of some of his ingenius inventions. After the museum, we had lunch, strolled down the pedestrian street, and went to a wine tasting room--the Loire valley is known for it's Rose and White wines.

Well, 15 minutes at the internet cafe is almost up. I will update tomorrow hopefully!