le 18 juillet et le 19 juillet: Loire Valley Weekend

Saturday and Sunday was our excursion to the Loire Valley.

We got up bright and early to meet at the ISA office at 7:30 am. Whew. We were tired. Gabriel and Anamaria were coming with us. Gabriel was buying coffee out of the little coffee machines for anyone who wanted some which was nice. The machines are really cool. They are so much cheaper than buying a cafe at a cafe lol and they have all these different kinds of coffee and they have the best hot chocolate. I love the hot chocolate that comes from the coffee machines.

We rode a bus to the Chateaux du Blois, our first stop. The chateaux was interesting because it showed three different styles of architecture lol. It was inhabited by three different kings who like tore down parts of it then added on in different styles. It actually was kind of ugly all pieced together but the individual pieces were interesting. The back piece is late gothic style. The middle is Renaissance and the last piece is classical.

They had a little art museum there that was fun to see and when we got there, there was a little play in session. It was pretty hilarious, they brought the king to the stage in a man-drawn carriage thing. Ha ha with like music and the works. Here are some pictures from Blois:

A fancy violin like made of porcelain from the museum. I though Maddie would like this.

Pretty column.

Creepy gargoyles.

Ornate ceiling lol

A tapestry. I never really payed much attention to tapestries before but they are incredible. I am amazed at how beautiful they are, like a painting but the skill is incredible and the time it would take to make one... They are amazing. This is a close up of one and it is on its side so sorry lol but I just wanted to say I am a tapistry fan now.

For some reason, they had a whole section on oriental embroidery in the little art museum and these shoes. The little bitty ones are for women with bound feet. Yeah, look at the regular sized shoes compared to the bound feet shoes. Disgusting.

Some cute French kids looking out the window. I want a French baby. They are so cute and they seem littler than American children. They seem more innocent and playful. Like they stay little for longer. I think part of it might be the way they dress. Their clothes are very sweet and childlike and so are their toys. You see them skipping and singing while they hold their mother's hands in the streets.

O yes, kings used to choose animal symbols for themselves to like represent their power. Francois Ier I believe it was chose a... get this... a salamander. Weirdo lol. I guess salamander's have some mythical history of being magical or something. However, I still think it is hilarious.

I believe the porquipine was Henry 4em or some other Henry. Lol at least a porquipine has quills.

Another lovely ceiling.

The funny little play

Classical meets Rennaissance. Check out that staircase. It's a beauty.

Flamboyant Gothic. I love that it is called 'flamboyant'. Such a fabulous word.

This is a lovely stained glass window. I love stained glass and I have had the great fortune of seeing countless panes of it in France. All the Chateaux have some at least in their chapels.

After the Chateaux du Blois, we were on our way to Chenenceau but our bus was having technical difficulties so we stopped in a town on the way. I think it was Amboise but I really don't know. We got lunch there at a boulangerie. I had a really good sandwhich. It was chicken salade with walnuts and raisins and lettuce. Mmmm and it was the last sandwich of that variety that they had. I loved it. We did a little window shopping as well. It reminded me a little bit of Park City but not in the mountains but the little shops and streets were similar or rather Park City is similar to that place which was probably there long before Park City.

We hoped back on the bus and beacause of our lost time, the plans got slightly adjusted. We went to Chambord instead of Chenenceau. We were going to do the opposite, Chenenceau then Chambord but Chambord was closer or something and they thought we'd want more time at Chenenceau which I am glad they did because it was a really pretty one.

Chambord was amazing, however. We only saw a tiny portion of it but we of course saw the famous double staircase that Leonardo Da Vinci designed. We walked up it all the way to the top and came out on the roof of the Chateau. It reminded me very much of Beauty and the Beast. My pictures really cannot convey the beauty and grandeur of it all. We marveled at how big and extravagant it was. Louis I was an egoist for sure.

Courtney poking her head out a window in the double staircase. I will make a Smilebox album thing so you can see more pictures. This doesn't really demonstrate the staircase well but it is a fun picture.

Rooftop @ Chambord.

Front view! It was super gorgeous. There are so many fireplaces on that Chateau.

This is me at the top of the Chateau du Chambord. I bought that scarf at the Monoprix! It is like the French Target and it was amazingly on sale for like 3 euro. I think I am gonna go back and buy another one!

They had a little costume exhibit as well which was interesting and fun. Brittany is so fun. She would fit right in with my family. Jumping pictures and all and she asks silly questions like, if you could have one of these costumes which one would it be? lol. On the bus we were all saying who would be what animals and having a jolly good time of it.

After Chambord, we had a little surprise from the ISA office. They took us to a winery for a tour. The Chateau in the Loire Valley are mostly made of limestone for its color and maleability for carving so when the limestone was extracted, they made a bunch of caves. The caves are the perfect place to store wine because it is the same temperature all the time, day or night, winter or summer.

After our little tour of the winery and caves where the wine is stored, we got to go to a wine tasting. They had white, rose, red, and champagne (although it technically wasn't champagne because it doesn't come from the champagne region) and baguettes spread with the best goat cheese and pate from the area for us to try.

It was really funny to watch people get more and more relaxed and they started talking and laughing more. Christy who is normally rather uptight was being all funny and animated. She was so much fun lol. She and Alyson were the funniest. The pate was absolutely delicious and the goat cheese was pretty amazing as well.

The bus ride after the tasting was rather entertaining. Everyone was all happy and feeling good and Brittany put her iPod into the speakers on the bus so we listened to some 90s pop on our way to the Holiday Inn. Alyson was getting up and dancing lol until she got in trouble but everyone was singing along and having a great time.

Our hotel was nice. We checked in and settled down then headed out to find some food. Some girls in our group that we hang out with went to McDonalds. I didn't want to do that. It isn't even really cheap here. like you can eat a similar meal at a boulangerie for less. Like drink, sandwhich and pastry maybe for 7 or 8 euro and at McDonalds it is like 6,50 euro for a meal so it makes sense just to go to a boulangerie or somewhere else.

We saw a Vietnamese place that looked decent and one of the girls we were with was vegetarian and they had a whole sheet on their menu of vegetarian dishes so we decided to go there. It was a nice place and everything was good so it turned out great. I got the tofu noodles with veggies and was very happy with it but we all shared family style and got some rice to go around as well.

We went back to the hotel room and hung out for a few minutes with Courtney and Alison Best and Hillary. We just talked and laughed until we started getting tired. Brittany and I went up to our room and got ready for bed.

We woke up the next morning and I was so excited to take a shower because they had like a normal looking shower. But the water was still hard to get the right temperature and I felt guilty letting the water run so it wasn't as good as I had imagined. I think I will probably always feel guilty now keeping the water running while I am not like directly using it. Same with lights. My dad will be happy about that lol.

We had a special breakfast set up for our group and my oh my was it delicious. We were all freaking out about it lol because we eat the same thing for breakfast every day you know and Amanda poor thing always just has cookies for breakfast lol. There was bacon and scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, ham, a variety of cheeses, fruit salad, whole fruits, yogurt, jams, bread (both european style breads and like sliced breads), croissants, cereal, pain au chocolat, orange juice, milk, tea, hot chocolate, coffee, etc. Like we didn't know where to even start. I went back like three times. And I am not joking, I had at least 4 croissants and 2 pain au chocolat, two servings of scrambled eggs, three cups of hot chocolat, an apple, ham and cheese, cereal, and yogurt with jam. I ate like a PIG. I am gaining weight lol my tummy is getting fat and bloated. I should like slow down with the pastries and stuffing my face.

Anyways, after breakfast we went to Leonardo DaVinci's house. How cool is that? It was simple compared to the chateaux but there was a secret tunnel from the Chateaux D'Amboise to the house and in the basement, they had models of some of DaVinci's machine designs and in the gardens they had bigger ones. It was really cool to see and crazy to think that DaVinci like lived there.

Me in front of the house. CHEESE

Little kids playing w/ the cannon model. DaVinci was rather violent. There were like three models for cannons and a bunch of other weapons. I was like where is the love man? But he also had some cool bridge and gear designs and a conceptual first car idea. It was very cool to see.

A view of the garden. Pictures in the house were 'interdit' so I didn't take very many but snuck a few. Check the smilebox later to see a few.

This is Tianfang. She is Chinese and super cute. She doesn't talk much but she is really nice.

Looking out one of the windows on to DaVinci's garden/courtyard area.

We then went to Chenenceau where we had time for lunch and then time to look at the chateau. Chenenceau was a gift to a king's mistress. I can't remember if it was Louis the first or Henry the 3rd who gave the chateau to this woman but then Catherine Medici took it over after he died and there is all this history behind who owned it and what not. I should just look at my brochure but I am kind of lazy right now lol.

Anyways, the chateau is on a bridge over the river. It is really cool. Like the main halls overlook the river and you can see the gardens across the river looking out of the tower windows. It had a very cool kitchen in which I saw a waffle iron with the heart shapes like my mom has and loves. I wonder if it was authentic to the time period lol or if they just put it there for decoration. I took a picture anyways to show her.

Chenenceau was very picturesque and princess like. I would compare it to the Hameau at Versailles but it is like castle style whereas that was like peasant playland. They were really pretty though. I think the castles here are somewhat the equivalent to Disneyland. They all sell princess dresses and crowns in their gift shops and like little knight, dragon, and king toys for the boys. It is really funny but cute too.

Me in front of the castle! Yes, I am rewearing the scarf. I am being French and wearing the same thing two days in a row. Not really because my shirt is different but really, that is what they do. Madame wears at most like three outfits per week. It is pretty weird but I'm all in favor of doing it in the U.S. Less hassle and laundry.

The Chateau!

A pretty walkway that leads to the Chateau. That is Alison Best in the yellow on the right side of the image. She is taking a picture too lol.

We were pooped after the weekend and the ride home was long but they let us watch a movie on the ride. We watched Amelie. It was my first time seeing it. We watched it in French with French subtitles so I understood most of it but some things I didn't. It was good though, a very quirky movie but cute. Amelie was very pretty.

We got home and were completely exhausted. We just went home and had dinner with Madame. I can't remember what it was. Brittany will have to tell me. I'm sure it was good whatever.