Leonardo, street fairs, and men in tights.

Clos Luce, Leonardo da Vinci's home
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Saturday, September 15:

The square is crowded today. I have scrambled eggs, and pack my new backpack for a day out. The sun is still shining. Yay!

It is like Cirque de Soliel and Club Med rolled into One

I walk to Leonardo's home, Clos Luce. The French were fascinated with the Italians, and the Renaissance, so Francoise I lured him to France by promising him a home and offering a chance to build a canal off the Loire, help renovate the castle, and have nothing but free time to develop his inventions, plus respect. The house is nice, but the basement is full of versions of his inventions and machines built by IBM from his drawings, and the park surrounding the house has full size versions of his rotating brige (to swing away so ships could pass),  a catapult, a water-"dipper" to bring water up to an irrigation canal, a cannon and a multibarrel machine gun, a tank. A lot of his ideas were about getting the upper hand in warfare...an extension ladder (like our firemen have) to climb inpenetrable walls, multi firing guns, an ancient humvee shaped like a chinese a-frame hat (with guns, it could roll and float). But he also invented stepped down cogs and wheels to run power, (like a precursor to our transmissions), waterskis, underwater divers helmets with air, life preservers, parachutes, flying machines, printing presses. The man was a genius and we use his stuff everyday.

the back of clos luce
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I do more exploring on foot. I find churches and interesting funky architecture. I look at hotels and restaurants, so if I write about Amboise I can make recommendations. A lot of the hotels are in old mansions with gardens and pools, pretty nice. I am perfecting my question, "Avez-vouz un chambre pour regarder? Je suis un journaliste American" (do you have a room I can look at, I am an American journalist). I find one hotel that is having an art exhibit in the old limestone caves built into the foundation of the castle for 1 euro. The art is weird, but the cave is magnificent. Apparently during the war in the 40's , many men died defending the bridge over the Loire, and they hid, lived and stashed things in these extensive caverns.

hotel gardens
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I end my day back at the bistro across the street, Anne de Bretagne. After my historical tour of the castle, the name makes more sense. Anne of Brittany was married to Charles VIII (Brittany was considered Celtic/Irish, not French...it's right across the water from Ireland). I order mussles (moule), the plat du jour, but they never show up. Darn. I order ricollette (a local sausage) instead and drink beer. I'm sitting outside on a Saturday night, and it is perfect for people watching. Observation: contrary to our american belief, there are alot of chubby french women. Also, the men are often smaller than the women, and the chicks are pretty much telling them what to do. This is a surprise.

hotel
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It's about 9pm when a woman dressed in red, with a white fur coat (it's 75 degrees outside), and big hair walks by, followed by a racket in the street as a bunch of guys in red leotards push a giant iron bed down the street. We are apparently in for a show, as I've heard them talk about street animee'. It is like Cirque de Soliel and Club Med rolled into one! There are characters with wigs that fly through the air, giant red giraffe type puppets and opera singers. I cannot even begin to describe it! Things explode and red confetti floats through the air. This is also the evening of some annual bike ride du Roy through the town, and suddenly thousands of bikers are trying to pass through the red giraffes and fireworks. It is all in good humor...they are ringing their bicycle bells, tooting their horns, throwing water and laughing. It is beyond entertaining, even with the obvious miscommunication of two major events happening on the same little street at the same time. Observation: french men do not mind wearing tights.

a wine cave in the limestone
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I sleep the best tonight.