I must say that driving to Tours is not a real breeze, however, we were soon greeted by this sight from the windscreen. If it had not been for the guide, I would have missed this abode for many of the French kings. It is a man made mountain and fortress. Amboise is its maiden name till today. On the TV watching the Tour De France, this place looked spectacular from the air, but little did I anticipate the air of excitement this place looms ahead of me till I reached out for the door and took in the view at surroundings and smelt the whimph of fresh spring blossom in this place.
At first glance, it did not look spectacular, nor does it look like a castle of any kind that we are familiar with. Till we turn off the A10 and inche towards its foot hills via a small off the beaten track type of cobble stoned trail for horse carriages. However, on entering pass the first row of shop houses that date back to the forteen century, the whole scene opened up to a wide expense.
This is the view from the A10, turn right into the corner now blocked by this Lavendar bush. And we will find a road with lots of payment carpark lots with the tiger machines on the sidewalks and a whole host of other "parang welding" shops!
Looking to the left from the place I took the Lavendar bush above, is this 8 arch bridge that marked the important river of Loire Valley, the river Loire of course.
Now, as I moved the van through this tight streets, I was astonished at the amount of people here. It looked deserted from the river bank! Streets here are extremely narrow and with iron bollards on the sides, one must not get too excited when met with an oncoming car, there is no going forward or backwards, only 1 lane! Someone has to give......being a die hard driver, it ain't gonna be me bro!
Finally, after much manuovre, I am out of the place and parked illegally! See, the white van. Some guy horned very loudly, so I went to shift the van into some spot when I saw the white lexus in the foreground moving off! Hahaha....just my day, praise the Lord!!!!!!
Getting off the van, I saw this nice cafe with all the front facade out grown with nice creepers. Very nice eh?
Went over to buy the tickets to enter. Can't figure where the rest went after I ran off to take this shot of the corner tower which is near the main entrance! Frantic, I ran like my tail was on fire, after all, the keys to the van was taken by the guide that we hired and I am 200 km from Paris where all my luggage was left....not a very nice place to get marooned!
Finally, found them at this entrance. Shouted for Hans and he came back with the ticket! I was about to be locked out after driving 200 km to Tours!
This is how it looked like on its way in. This is how the people of old, on horse backs rode into. Imagine from the scale of things, the thickness of this fortress!
The hallway where horses rode through spirally up to the main abode itself on top. This whole castle was carved out of the mountain or it was built with a 500 mega ton land fill! There is a story I was told in this hallway, one of the kings that rebuilt this place, Charles VIII, on eve of palm sunday, 1498, rode down this hallway with his queen after rebuilding this place in which he was born in 1470, after it lied in ruins resulting from war with Italy, at then, just 28 years of age, he hit his head on one of the lintel of his doorway on his way to bring the queen to watch players of tennis on the plains. The hallway was a filthy passage way, used as a lavatory, to the Hacquelebac gallery, then he fell ill, lost consiousness and died nine hours later on the straw mattress in the TOILET! Nobody dared to move him! KING DIED IN THE TOILET! ALAMAK! So the made a memorial GARGOGLE...or GARGLE...or GARRRR...oh, never mind, he still gargling his mouth till today with his hand over his forehead shouting ALAMAK.....KEPALA SAKIT LAH! See his expression?
Once out of the passage way, the thing opened up to a nice roof top garden...only 100 ft from the ground level.....it would have taken millions of man hours to do this landfill!
The rooms of the kings. Enjoy.....life, but never bath...I was told they were told water would be a vehicle of the devil to drown them, so, they usually towel themselves, and only bath once a year! The talcum and parfum themselves....that is the invention of the perfumes....the French and the English don't bathe! That is the truth!
Many of the royal family, to keep their blood "pure", they married their siblings. As a result, retarded and genetically deformed descendents appeared in succession! The piano is only symbolic, I am sure, not many who once lived here has enough intel to tell their toes from their elbows. They still don't nowadays. Airbus going bust, with thousands of jobs at stake, billions in the red, they protest to support some slave driving monks without understanding the underlying issues and risk China cancelling billions of orders, their largest on their books! Germany got it right this time! Don't do someone elses destabilisational efforts and pay the price for it. That is why BMW, Mercedes, EADS, Volkswagen, still tops in CHING CHONG LAND WHERE my dad came from! Kudos to the wise. With crackdown of their own in France on immigrants and youths just barely a ficker of time away, they want to tell the most powerful industrial power in Asia and 20% of the earth how to run their own country while Paris now soon becoming one of the most unfriendly cities on earth, with law enforcement issues, immigrant issues, employment issue, taxation issues, infrastructure overloading issues and with people turning right from the 4th lane on the left issues! Sometimes, I really wished they would not be accessory to a murder someone else plotted, simpletons with little deep perception, an education system gone really wrong, people easily hypnotised by lying media and manipulated by a force less saintly. French people are nice folks, sans those living in the capital city. Having been here 16 times over the last 20 years. I take pity on those scenes I see of protests, imported talents funded by seditious foreign elements seeking to control Asia's rise, inevitably, futile. Asia, the place where most of the world's best educate live, is a giant awaken, and never to be put to sleep again!
Back to the tour lah....long winded and self opinionated. Anyway, from the top garden, we see the carpark below. See how narrow the street was?
From the corner nearest to the river, I took this shot of the land fill top. Look at the cars below and you can appreciate how mammoth this construction must have been!
This is the Leonardo Da Vinci Chapel. Built by the king to invite the foreign talent to leave the ITALIANS and embrace the FRENCH.....they were at war with each other! But the chap rarely came! Busy on his back painting and making hot air balloons!
The entrance of the small chapel built for Da Vinci to have his devotionals.
Bust of Da Vinci and the BURST OF NORM'S TUMMY.....bursting at the seams, okay, okay....I have lost 6 kgs since then ok???? See, the guy in white, he is fatter than me ok, laugh at him, dead men don't bite!
Secret weapon of Da Vinci, world's first tank, problem is, the cannots generate so much smoke, the guy inside cannot breathe! Anyway, prototype and proof of concept!
The Armoury, corner building, furthest from the living quarters for obvious reasons. 
The entrance to the living quarters. This is the top floor some many. The thing spans out and pans to many rooms and floors below this protective land fill, almost like living in a carved out mountain.
View of the number of floors of living space carved out to the sides. Shot was taken from the extreme far end tower from the entrance.
View from the Armoury Tower. 
Another view of the main living quarters on the roof top.
Front view of the main living quarters with tea table in the garden.
Far view of the armoury tower
