Amboise

I only just arrived here today and will be staying for the next two days to see the castles here in the East part of the Loire Valley. I think that I may book into a tour tomorrow to see Chambord and Cheverny with a few other quick stops, just so that it's easy because I would otherwise have to take a train to Blois tomorrow before finding out if other options are available. Then on Thursday I think I may rent a bike and cycle to Chenonceau(x) (the town is with an x, the castle without and x). I could still take a train, but biking isn't very far and they recommend it, kind of, on the map so I thought it could be fun! We'll see how the weather holds up though, it's pretty windy so far.
Already today, after I checked into my excitingly super cheap hostel, I went and checked out Clois Luce. That's the chateau/large house that da Vinci spent his last years and days designing and painting things. It was expectedly awesome, I must say! There was the place itself, and then there were models of his inventions in the house as well as funtioning in the garden. I took a bunch of pictures of myself playing with the stuff, turning wheels and such. The first one I got into was the model of a tank and I wasn't expecting it to do much but it was super exciting when it started to turn! Anyway, as you can tell, I was thoroughly entertained this evening.
I spent the last two days getting to and hanging out in Perigueux. I had gone in order to see the Lascaux caves, but I don't have a car, so that didn't work out. I spent the day wandering around the town on these mapped out tours they had at the tourist information. There was ancient roman stuff and renaissance stuff. It was pretty cool, but there was enough of it that I eventually just skipped the end and cut straight to the giant church that I knew I wanted to see. Oh, and because I had no where in particular to go, I refused to get out of bed before 9:30 just because I could. I was up long before that, but read in bed because lying in bed is something that I haven't been able to do in a long time.
I've been on for a while though, trying to figure out some logistical stuff and so I think I should probably go eat or something. It is definitely a cool little place here!
Aurevoir!