There's an urban myth that during the space race Nasa spent millions of dollars inventing a pen that would work in orbit. The Russians, on the other hand, splashed out a couple of roubles and solved the same problem: they bought some pencils.

I’m thinking of this as I get increasingly annoyed with a new iPod video guide – of the Château de Chenonceau, 40 minutes’ drive from Tours – the first place in Europe where you can hire an iPod with a video rather than just audio.

As the screen revealed a panoramic shot of the 16th-century castle, before moving indoors, a voice explained that the first part of the tour was the guardroom.

This was confusing. Was the place I was in now (with the ticket desk) the guardroom or was that next door? I didn’t recognise any of the objects being described to me or shown on the screen. I followed a group of Russians. No, this was clearly the chapel. I exited, back past the ticket desk and through to the next room. Was this the guardroom? No, this, according to the sign on the wall, was Diane’s bedchamber. I went back to the ticket desk to find that this had been the guardroom all along and I started again.

I had got over blaming the gadget for my initial navigation errors when its screen faded to black. This, I discovered, is a battery-saving device that is easily fixed by momentarily touching the control dial, but it was annoying to have to keep doing it every few minutes.

Those grumbles over, and with my sense of direction now fixed, I began to enjoy meandering at my own pace, hitting the pause button for a closer inspection of the paintings, while Monsieur L’iPod led me through the rooms, accompanied by images and video. He pointed out portraits of the aristocracy and interesting titbits of history. It became quite engrossing, especially when I discovered extra features such as photos of First World War soldiers hospitalised at the château fishing in the grounds, architectural plans of the original château and paintings of its founder, Thomas Bohier.

The tours are, of course, designed to increase revenue, but the château’s curator and owner, Madame Laure Menier, sees them as more than that. “With the iPod, we turn history into memories that you take home with you, and children won’t get bored to death. It’s not something dead like the history you find in a stuffy old library.”

Twenty per cent of the 750,000 visitors a year to the château are now taking up the iPod tour (at about £2.75 a time), lasting either 45 or 90 minutes. Plans are afoot to allow users to download them from the internet.

But the iPod technology I saw needs to become more interactive and less reliant on the user for it to work smoothly. iPod technology may be space age, but tourists like me are still orbiting c 1987.

Château de Chenonceau (00 33 2 47 23 90 07, www.chenonceau.com). Entrance: 9 euros, iPod tour a further 4 euros. Further information: www.apple.com/uk.

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