A Rude Encounter and Glamping in Amboise

I have to tell you about an interesting episode that happened yesterday just after we checked into our campground in the historic town of Amboise.

We sat down to have a beer in the bar by the office and were sitting outside with a few other folk. One was a 40-something dapper-looking french guy who had a friend come to join him, and the dapper guy was showing his friend his very new-looking carbon e-bike. Mr Dapper had a nice dog with him, some kind of cocker spaniel. The dog wanted to play and there was a nice lawn in front of us. He had a big pine-cone in his mouth and he obviously wanted someone to throw it for him. When he placed the pine-cone at Frank's feet, of course Frank started to play with him. I threw his cone a couple of times too when he came to me with pleading eyes.

Then, Mr Dapper spoke very sternly to Frank in strongly-accented english and said: "Do not play with my dog. I do not play with your lady, so you do not play with my dog. Go play with your lady". It took a moment to clue in that he was very serious, and I said "do you mean stop it?" He replied "Yes, stop it".

We were both rather gob-smacked and didn't have a quick comeback for the guy. If he really didn't want people playing with his dog for whatever reason, I can think of more polite ways to get the message across!

What do you think we should have said to him? What would you have said to him?! We want to know!!!

Anyway, we proceeded to check into our tented home, still scratching our heads.

Campground in Amboise, very close to the town centre.
Most campers are French, with a few German, the odd Swiss and Dutch.
And generally a few biker/tenter types like us

We're glamping here for two nights due to the rain forcast for the
 weekend, and having a rest day to check out the town's history

It has a little propane stove, fridge and dishes, pots and cutlery.

Comfy beds and lots of room to move around
 and lock our bikes inside.


Another comfy bed just up the street from ours!
This one belonged to Leonardo da Vinci in his home
at Chateau du Clos Luce in Amboise. We visited there today.
It felt surreal to be in da Vinci''s actual workshop
where he was still painting and designing stuff
during the last three years of his life spent here.
It's all about Leonardo in this town

Tomorrow may still be rainy, but we plan to press on anyway. We have places to go and more chateaux to see!

Comments

  1. Iveta bxMay 18, 2019 at 4:42 PM

    Maybe I would tell him: Your dog is sending out a different message.
    The glamping seems very comfy.
    That must be amazing to visit Leonardo's place!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JiriMay 18, 2019 at 4:47 PM

    I would tell him keep your dog on leash if you don't want other people to play with him . But I would be probably speechless after his comment.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Big Plans Ahead! Another European Bike Tour

Image
 The count-down is on for our next cycle tour! On Sat Aug 24th (that is tomorrow!) we leave for yet another cycle tour in Europe. This one will see us flying to Frankfurt and riding from there south towards the Alps via Bavaria, a little part of the west of Austria (Tyrol) and on into Italy, eventually ending up in Venice. Lots of similarities to our last tour two years ago, but quite a different route. We have set aside six weeks for this journey. The main goal of this tour is to cycle a route called the Via Claudia Augusta . This route starts in Donauworth, Germany (located on the River Danube) and ends either in Venice or at the Po River south of Verona (depending which fork of the road you take). The attraction here is that it follows an old Roman road that once connected the northern part of the Empire via the River Danube, with the Adriatic Sea via the River Po or the Venetian lagoon. So there's lots of history attached to it, and it takes you through a lot of beautiful scene...
Read more

We reached the Danube!

Image
  Yesterday's ride on the last day of August will be memorable because of the village we reached halfway through the day, called Harburg. Here an impressive castle sits atop the hill, this one dating from the 11-12 th century, and said to be one of Germany's oldest castle fortifications. Hamburg and its hilltop castle We didn't climb up to the castle (these hilltop establishments are oft best viewed from afar in our opinion, especially when you're on a heavily loaded bike). Instead we stumbled on a delightful little café on the old stone bridge over the slow-moving Wornitz River where we had coffee and the most delicious pieces of homemade cake. We had quite the chat with the owners who seemed quite surprised to have Canadians on bikes in their place. Our large pieces of apple cake and plum cake Chilling in the heat of the day   Anyway the eating was followed by a good hour just relaxing in the shade under the trees along the river, resting up before hitting the ...
Read more

Complications at Reschen Pass: Italy here we come!

Image
 Monday morning Sep 9th Pfunds, at the foot of Reschen Pass, the route to Italy Before leaving home, I had read about a road closure here at Pfunds that would affect the main road, causing the diversion for traffic to use the minor road up the pass that is the official Via Claudia route for bikes. So it sounded like our bike route would not be affected, although it might have a lot of traffic. However, at breakfast this morning we learned that it's actually the cycling road that is completely closed for the building of a rockfall shed, effective Sep 1st. There is apparently an alternative signed diversion for bikes that follows a really rough gravel path. Not the best for heavily loaded bikes, although we did it over Fern Pass in good weather. Fortunately, there is a Via Claudia bike shuttle service, and we've just secured ourselves 3 spots at 12.00. This will save us a ton of hard, unpleasant riding in damp weather up the pass, and get us to the town of Nauders, several km bel...
Read more