A fitting farewell to Vouvray

Our Vouvray apartment had all the essentials of the home of a fairly wealthy local in days gone by. It was high up on the hill, overlooking the village and le local docteur, was our neighbour. The views came at a price though, a narrow twisted timber staircase that circulated from the spacious ground floor living/dining room to our equally spacious attic room on the third floor! 34 steps in total, so luckily Roger's fitness routine has continued.

Vouvray was a well established French village on the outskirts of Tours, with a large primary school, highschool and local Catholic school just at the end of our street. The village had recently had a 'makeover' with new paved footpaths, artwork and landscaping, and there were lots of locals out and about most of the time - quite a different vibe to so many villages we've visited.

On our last day, we opted to explore Chateau du Clos Lucé, the home of Leonardo da Vinci for the final years of his life. He is actually buried in the nearby Chateau Royal d'Amboise. Chateau du Clos Lucé has been restored to pay tribute to this man, who after reviewing his inventions and artwork, can only be described as a genius, well ahead of his time. I had no idea of his incredibly diversity of talent, from military inventions, to town planning, the infamous double helix staircase, a plane, bicycle, bridges and a waterpump. Not forgetting his most obvious talent for painting and the famous Mona Lisa. I was simply in awe.

We had a loooong lunch at La Terrase restaurant, in the shadows of Chateau Royal d' Amboise - almost giving up on receiving our main courses. We were aware of the laidback French way and patience is always a virtue, but after 45 minutes of waiting, we intervened and 'voila' our food arrived. Others in the restaurant were not so patient and just stood up and left. Luckily the food was good or the review could have been much worse!

After five nights of food, wine and friendship, it was time to say our farewells and we dropped Gavan and Elaine off at the Tours railway station for their trip to Basel, Switzerland.

We headed down the A10 to La Rochelle Airport, where we collected Emma Louise, our maison owner, who has arrived for a couple of weeks to be on site for the start of the long awaited renovation - Le Projet.Læs mere