Le Clos Lucé (of Léonardo fame) is in Amboise so walking would be my preferred option if you are staying in Amboise.

However, if you are not renting a car, I would absolutely not stay in Amboise.* I would definitely stay in Tours with a far greater variety of restaurants, night-life, shopping and transportation options.

However, you can walk to the Amboise train station, which is not in town, take a train to Tours (or St Pierre des Corps), and connect to a train directly to Chenonceaux if you like.

As Sarastro said, if you are already in Amboise you can walk to Chateau du Clos Lucé, which is about 10-min walk from the center of Amboise.

To tour Chateau Chenouceau, I signed up with an afternoon tour starting from Ambroise and visited Chambord & Chenouceau. I see that the price is 40 Euros per person now (entrance fee to each chateau is extra). Or you may email your hotel to see if they can contract a taxi for you to drive your group to Chateau Chenouceau, and then pick you up 2 hours later.

While in Amboise, try to dine at Chez Bruno in the center of the town, but you need to call ahead to make reservation. I love their "Duck Breast with Armagnac Sauce". The duck was very tender and the sauce very flavorful.

If you are staying in Amboise (NOT Ambroise), you just walk to the Clos Lucé - a bit uphill, then down again; it's not much of a hike.

To get to Chenonceau, take a train to Tours and connect to a train to Chenonceau (please note the correct spelling - it's not Chenouceau). Probably a lot smarter just to stay in Tours. From there you can visit a variety of castles. And Tours is a pretty nice town.

The entrance fee for Chenonceau is 14.50 euros.

The best restaurant in Amboise is L'Epicerie.

You can also take minibus tours from Amboise and Tours on half-day or full-day transportation to chaateaus. Amboise has just about as good transit options as Tours as both are close to Tours' main station St-Pierre-des-Corps where you can catch any train anywhere. And if going to Chambord trains from Amboise to Blois for special bus to Loire's largest chateau. Amboise has plenty of restaurants and stores and IMO a much more mellow setting. Tours, for French cities is sweet.

Really PalenQ? Amboise is 23 km from St Pierre des Corps. It´s almost as far to walk to the Amboise train station from Amboise as it is to walk from Tours Centre to St Pierre des Corps.

The regional bus line hub is Tours. There is no comparison between the transportation options of Tours vs. Amboise.

Only stay in Amboise if you have a car.

I took a bus from Amboise to Chenonceau, it's not difficult. I don't see any problem whatsoever to staying in Amboise if your sole objective is to see stuff in it and to go to Chenonceau.

It's line C on the REMI website, takes about a half hour. If you aren't good at reading French bus schedules and don't know French at all, might not be as easy for you.

I think one of those minivan group tours sound like the best idea, as mentioned bove. They are reasonable ratres and convenient.

https://www.remi-centrevaldeloire.fr...ndre-et-loire/

Active adults can rent bikes and cycle thru a forest on nice paths to Chenonceaux -probably about 15miles