Amboise in The Loire Valley to Honfleur in Normandy

On the Loire River, walking to dinner in Amboise

Dinner outside with the Amboise Royal Chateau above us

The keys and gate opener to Chateau Belleroche, our B+B in Amboise

The spectacular grounds of Belleroche B+B

Looking down at the gates of Belleroche and our rental car

Belleroche grounds

Belleroche grounds

Belleroche!

Inside the little building in previous photo, at Belleroche

Belleroche

The chateau Belleroche

After breakfast at the lovely chateau Belleroche, B+B in Amboise, we explored the grounds. There is a large cliff running most of the length of the property and it is full of caves at ground level and below and some 40 feet off the ground. Steve would know what the cliffs consist of (limestone??). The owners of Belleroche, believe that the area was mined for the rocks to build the Royal Chateau of Amboise. There is a sketch of Belleroche dated 1790! It looks much the same. One of the eccentricities of Belleroche is the solid metal doors that open with a device much like a garage door opener which is required to enter with the car onto the grounds to park. We were given such device along with the instructions for use, in French by Antoine who speaks little English, along with two skeleton keys that are needed for various doors. The only direction in which to enter thru the doors with the car is from the uphill side of the road because it's on a blind curve, the doors are narrow and the car, though tiny, wouldn't clear when approached from the downhill side. When Linda and I returned from a day of visiting chateaux, I drove up the hill past Belleroche while Linda was to open the metal gates with the device. Well, it didn't work and we couldn't stop because a car was behind us, so we continued up the hill about 3/4 of a mile, until we could turn around and head back down the hill to Belleroche. This time we stopped just past Belleroche's gate while Linda, after a couple false starts opened the gate, but another car came up behind us and forced us to continue down the hill. The Loire River was straight ahead so we turned to the right onto the main road, where we had to drive until we could find a spot to turn around and then again head back towards Belleroche, head up the hill, past Belleroche with its open gate, turn around again to make our final downhill approach through the opened gates! In the driveway, Antoine was standing in the driving watching as the crazy American women came driving through his gate that had been wide open for 5 minutes! Linda and I walked into Amboise at dusk and had dinner at an outside table below the Royal Chateau. We had a hamburger which we both had been craving.