Homeschool Happenings: Amboise, France

We stayed in this little village called Amboise (click me to find out more about this town) that dated back to the 1400's. Can you imagine? The buildings LOOK like they dated back that far. The streets were VERY narrow...not much more than 1 compact car could drive through.

The village was so 'sleepy' and exciting all at the same time! Here are some pictures from our adventure in Amboise.

I took this picture of the castle while we were sitting down eating dinner. Amazing!

This building (we were guessing it was town hall?) was next door to our hotel.

Across the street from our hotel.

See the castle above Ruthann? Our hotel was just to the left of the black roof that you see right after that.

While everybody else went to tour the castle, I had decided that Raelee and I were going to do something that didn't require her to be quiet. So, we shopped, and fed the ducks, and watched France's version of the 'Battle of the Bands'. It was simply amazing if you are a band nerd like me. There were brass bands that 'marched' up and down the little street. One after the other. It was neat, they would line up in the side streets, then march up to the base of the castle, play a song, and march back, then the next band would do the same. They were only marching about a half a block. There were people that lined the streets clapping to the beat. Raelee had a blast. We later found out that bands from all over Europe were competing. I think we saw 6 or 7 bands.

Raelee waiting on the next band...that's lined up behind her on the side street.

The band marched here and huddled in a circle and played a song while everybody lined up at the base of the castle to listen.

When everybody was done touring the castle, we walked through the village. We met a nice Frenchman that told us about the history of his home and the castle and village. This was his home, built in a rock.