Our second class excursion took us to two chateaux of the Loire River Valley. The Loire Valley is about two hours southwest of Paris by bus. We all woke up early and met in the lobby of our building. There our professor collected us and walked us down the street to a small minibus that was waiting for us. The bus was the most comfortable I've ever been on, and I got a set of two seats to myself. I dozed the whole way to the Loire Valley. It was dark out, so there wasn't anything to see anyway.
The first chateau we visited was Chenonceau. Chenonceau is pretty famous, because it is built over a river. I guarantee you it is featured in every French textbook ever. Our professor, Arnaud, set us up with the audio tour, and set us loose on Chenonceau. The tour was really intersting. It took us through all the different rooms of the chateau, explaining the usage and history of each. My favorite room we visited was the kitchen. It was on the lowest level, and it was absolutely huge. You could seriously fit a person in the big stone fireplace. Like standing up. After the audio tour we had a little extra time, so I wandered around the castle gardens a bit. I even found a really cool hedge maze in the woods. From the garden of Diane de Poitiers you can see a really good view of the chateau. Unfortunately they were restoring it, so there was scaffolding on a large part of it. It was still really beautiful, and cool to visit a building so old.
We had lunch at the chateau as well, in the Orangerie, which is in a building outside of Catherine de Medici's garden. The meal was incredible. It started with a salmon appetizer. It was literally salmon with olive oil on it. But delicious. The next meal was a steak. I don't really eat beef, and I don't really like it, but the steak was quite tasty. It came with a variety of fresh greens, which was delicious as well. The next course was a salad and cheese. In France the salad typically comes after the main course, to cleanse the palet. The cheeses featured were a pretty tasty bleu, a brie, and a chevre (goat cheese). Afterwards we had dessert. It was a chocalate tartine with cheeries. It was exquiste. The last course was coffee, which was so nice, because I still had another chateau to visit.
It was about an hour bus ride to the next chateau, Chambord. A large part of the ride went right along the Loire River. It was gorgeous, and we passed through the old town of Blois, which was very pretty. Unfortunately the bus was really hot, and my belly was full, so I just wanted to doze the whole way. I tried to look out the window as much as I coult though.
The chateau Chambord was impressive. It looked like every Disney Princess dream come to life. It was huge, it had towers and turrets, and someone said it looked exactly like the castle in the film Ever After. I have no idea if that is true, but it was worthy of being in a film. We took a tour from a guide at Chambord. The guide was impressed that we all spoke french, as most foreigners that visit Chambord do not. We started by enjoying the view of Chambord from inside the castle gates. Our guide explained that it was mostly symmetrical, around a spiral staircase in the center of the building. Upon entering the foyer one can see the staircase. It is actually a double staircase, that winds around in double helix fashion. The guide took us up to the second floor to see a set of appartments. The downer about Chambord is that its is completely unfurnished, as the French government acquired in that fashion. That makes it hard to visualize what it would look like to live there. Instead we kept exclaiming how great it would be to play hide and seek there. We went up to the terrace level and got a breath taking view of Chambord forest. The leaves are just starting to change right now in France, so it was a beautiful array of yellows, greens, and reds. Our group found its way onto the grounds and we took a class picture in front of the chateau. It seriously looks fake, thats how beautiful it is.
After Chambord we boarded the bus to head home. We ended up stuck in Paris traffic, so our arrival time was about 8:30 in the evening. Although long, it was a really fun day.
PHOTOS:
Chenonceau:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009808&l=f0f65&id=1599570086
Chambord:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009811&l=27219&id=1599570086
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