piles of tiles

There are many, many tile roofs in Amboise and this one is quite large and quite impressive.

cloud of yellow

Spotted next to the bridge Leclerc.

the garden with a view of the château

The space between the levee and the Loire cannot be built upon of course, but it makes for a great space for gardening.  This one across from the château has a nice gate that gave me this photo-op.

Sunday picnic and sunset

August has been a good month for sunsets here. And when you add in a nice picnic on the banks of the Loire, what could be better?

Live from ADP, it's Saturday night

And what would ADP be without its Saturday sunset?

concert guinguette

Historically, a guinguette is an open air performance complimented with eating and drinking.  These venues were wildly popular in the 18th and 19th centuries but had mostly disappeared by the end of the 20th.  The 21st century is seeing a bit of a comeback of the idea.  On a recent evening on the Place Debré, there was a little revival of the guinguette with a troop of accordion players entertaining the outdoor diners and onlookers.  It was a lively show and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

busy as

A bee on duty at a planter on the levee.

a balmy day in Amboise

We've had some wonderful weather here lately (although that's about to change).  High temperatures have been in the 20's C / 70-80's F and nice breezes. Still, since most homes do not have air conditioning, it's a good practice to close the shutters to the afternoon sun.

les martinets - the martins

These martins often make their mud nests in the protected niche above windows.  In this case, this window belongs to the Amboise city hall (hôtel de ville).  They generally do not make too much of a mess below the nests and so their nesting should not be a problem to home owners.  And the great benefit of having lots of martins in the area is that they consume huge amounts of flying insects.

In this photo there are five martins. If you maximize the photo you may find them (click on the photo and maximize your browser window). The two in the upper left corner are easy to find clinging to their nest.  A third and its shadow can be seen in flight on the lower right.  A fourth is difficult to see in the upper left but look for the little patch of white above and to the right of its shadow.  It's coming in for a landing.  The last one is just a tail sticking out of the entrance to a nest, it's in between the first two and the fourth.

ducks on the diagonal

It's Monday.  Time to get your ducks in a row.

peace on the levee

A rare moment on the levee without the crowds of tourists and one can look out over the Loire in peace.  Have a peaceful Sunday everyone.

August sunset

Time for another Saturday sunset.  This fiery one that set the Loire on fire as well is from two weeks ago.

so many directions

With a golden low setting sun, the shadow of the directional road signs caught my eye.  And while waiting for all those usual tourists who like to photo-bomb my shots to get out of the way, I noticed that, hey, their shadows are just as interesting.  So then I started waiting for them.  Here are some more:

la grille doré

The very low setting sun turned this grey steel gate into gold.

la rive gauche d'Amboise

While you may be thinking that the only rive gauche (left bank) is in Paris, it turns out there is a left (and right of course) bank on any river in France.  The "left" means with respect to going downstream. Going downstream from Paris on the Seine takes you to the English channel, while going downstream from Amboise on the Loire takes you to the Atlantic.  This will be on the final.

the sun-brushed facade

The angle of the setting sun perfectly brushed the front of this restaurant on Place Debré.

August snowflake

Spotted on the levee in Amboise.  If only it would cool things off.

Marché Nocturne d'Amboise

The Tuesday night market is held every year during July and August in front of the church Saint-Denis (which dates from the 12th century).  Of course, the sun sets between 9 and 10 pm at this time of year so there's still plenty of light for shopping the market's vendors and enjoying a nice meal of local food and wine.

fishing in cool waters

We'll at last I'm back from a little vacation from ADP, and now the vacationing tourists have also returned to Amboise in a big way.  This is a three day weekend in France and folks have come to taste the wine at the wine fair, see the Château and Clos Lucé, canoe and kayak the Loire river, and of course do a little fishin'.  This fisherman has a great view of the interesting sand patterns left by the now long-gone high waters of spring.