Friday, July 29, 2011

This is where we started

When Ken and I decided to buy a house in France, our first idea was to look for one in or around Amboise. We had vacationed across the river in Vouvray a couple of times and really liked the area. Amboise is a good sized town with a population of about 12,500.

Central Amboise, looking down river, seen from the château's terraces.

The town itself is very pretty. It's a big tourist destination because of the château and consequently is filled with restaurants and shops and a significant pedestrian section in the heart of town. Amboise's Sunday market on the banks of the Loire river is a huge regional attraction; it's easily the largest weekly market around us.

We looked at three houses in Amboise back in 2002, but none of them interested us for one reason or another. Our realtor told us that we could get more of what we had in mind, along with more for our money, if we looked a little farther afield. It was because of him that we found Saint-Aignan, about twenty-five miles from Amboise, and the rest is history!

11 comments:

  1. We also 1st looked at Amboise back in '95. At the time it was for a maison secundaire. Found a great house but were outbid by another party. Never thought then we'd end up living in Touraine permanently 15 yrs later.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I may need the name of that Realtor one day.
    m.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this photo, Walt. The small figures in the foreground and the beautiful countryside in the distance gives me such a strong sense of what the area is like. I'd love to leap into the picture and walk around town.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tis a lovely town though. I can see why you're so happy living in France.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hadn't noticed so many brightly colored awnings when I last visited France on market days. Lovely. Seeing the variety of rooves (roofs?) makes the photo quite intriguing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amboise is lovely, I'm sure, but I think you ended up in the perfect place for you and Ken.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Walt,
    How did you get your header picture to widen? I can't figure this out. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. n&a, amazing!

    mark, whenever you're ready. ;)

    judy, seems like another lifetime ago.

    anon, and it's just as nice as you'd imagine.

    ron, yes. As for the header, you have to go into your template's html code and determine the width (idn pixels) of the blog header, then size your photo (using whatever photo processing software you use) to that size. Then you re-import the photo into your header the normal way.

    mary, the awnings you see in this shot are restaurants and shops. The market is along the banks of the river, which is just beyond the buildings.

    ginny, we think so, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. ron, that should be "width in pixels."

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've always liked the look of Amboise. The overhead shot from the helicopter during the TDF was excellent.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think!