Train: Blois to Amboise, about 20 minutes
Accommodation: La Parenthese (Booking.com). Two-bedroom townhouse, a/c, kitchen, wifi, washer, garden.
It was raining when we woke up, and chilly, and the weather app predicted rain all day. Konur agreed that it was a good day to take the train instead of bike. I downloaded the SNCF app and booked us three people tickets plus three bike tickets, and Meghan led us to the train station. We had only two minutes from the time the train arrived until it departed, to locate a car with a bike and the number 3 painted on the side (indicating there were three bike spaces available), and load ourselves and our bikes. We made it! Meghan found a seat on the car ahead of ours.
A quick 20 minutes later, we arrived in Amboise. It was just sprinkling then, so we got on our bikes and rode the mile or so to our apartment in the middle of the city. We found ourselves on the main shopping street, where our host had instructed us to push open a white door, follow the alley to a large wooden gate, enter a key code to get into the garden, and then use a lockbox to get the key to the townhouse. What a lovely surprise at the end of all this: a newly renovated two-story townhouse with all the comforts you could imagine, including sliding glass doors to the garden and an outside table.
We quickly unpacked and showered. Ken and I located a large grocery store about a mile away and hiked over to load up on food and drinks. We made a big dinner when we got back, and then we did laundry and settled in for a quiet night. We were all tired and looking forward to a day off in the same place tomorrow.
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| Our own private garden in the middle of the city. |
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| Food, glorious food! We all pitched in to make dinner. |
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| Ken spotted this unusual flower on our walk to the grocery store. When he showed the photo to our host in Basel a couple weeks later, we found out it is a passionfruit flower. |
