Up and packed for another move. We wandered around looking for somewhere to have breakfast, but there was nothing on offer. There were markets being set up, fruit, veges, fish, meat and a guy cooking chooks and ham. Cafes were doing coffee, but not food, so we went back to the hotel and had the buffet there. It was quite nice, and we grabbed a couple of things to go for the road trip.
Before we had to check out we walked up the stairs to the top of the town . Our hotel is right near the Chinon castle. It is an old castle that has been turned into a tourist walk through attraction. There is an elevator taking you up from the street, but we took the stairs.
It was a little bit drizzly and we had limited time, so we breezed through. It is a strange place, touching on the history of Joan of Arc, who did frequent this area, and the legend of Arthur and Merlin. This is a more tenuous link. Apparently the Plantagenet dynasty was linked to the castle and Arthur was part of that. It did feel a bit contrived and the renovations give it a new feel in a crumbling wall. There were a lot of audio visual displays. Excellent views of the village. Of course the boys climbed one more set of steps than we did!
Quickly back down and checked out, we were soon in the car and on the road to Giverny.
We found our way to Monet's Gardens. Our GPS always seems to take us in an obscure way, where we will see very little traffic and then arrive at a crowded car park with thousands of others.
We had prepaid for our tickets online this morning, so just needed to flash the PDF on Ken's tablet and we were through . It didn't ease the crowds inside. We shuffled along with everyone else, admiring the gorgeous gardens. The flowers are spectacular, with lots of little bees buzzing around them. The line to go into his house was ridiculous and we decided to leave that to the masses. We followed the signs to the all important lily ponds, which took us through a tunnel under the road. This was a really beautiful area, as expected. There were still an awful lot of people here, but it is quite a large area and you are able to get a bit of space. Except on the pretty bridges, they are prime position.
We had a lovely tour here, took lots of photos and then headed back to the car.
We had noticed a small scratch on the front of the car when we came home yesterday. Someone must have bumped us in one of the tight car parks. Ken decided to even it up and reversed into a bollard that the reversing camera somehow missed. Anyway, not too much damage for 3 weeks of very narrow driving He wouldn't be so casual if he was in his own Audi!!
We drove towards our next destination - a night in a chateau.

Steps 14,573
Kms walked 10.6
toll ¢18.20