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.
They're very creative and resourceful in how they build these.
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