Anyways! Yesterday is definitely worth returning to! I woke up around 7am and briefly debated about staying in bed in the wonderful air conditioning, but decided to stick to my original plan and go for a run -- which was magnificent. Our hotel was only about a 2 minute jog away from the Loire "River" -- I saw that because at most points it's more like a little stream between the rocks because of the "sechesse" -- also known as drought. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful morning -- nice and brisk, and I got to run as the sun was coming up, which is always cool. I even passed a man who was out fishing (although I don't know how much luck he would have had), and someone's laundry laid out on the rocks!
After my run, I went back to the hotel and showered and changed and then went down to the salle a manger for le petit dejeuner! Where they had everything from hunks of baguette to eggs to little one-serving things of Nutella! It was hard to choose what to eat! We boarded the bus and headed off to the Chateau de Chenonceau where we walked through the forest to approach it -- if you are looking to visit, I highly recommend it! It's much more striking this way. We learned that it was one of the chateaux that was built by a woman (!) -- a mistress of one of the kings (I can't remember which one -- a Charles or Louis or something of that nature). It wasn't so bad to be a king's mistress back in the day! That is until the king died (which in this case he did -- from getting hit in the eye while jousting, whoops) and then Catherine de Medici (the king's real wife) kicked the mistress out of the castle (but to another castle -- boo hoo). But it's a pretty amazing place, and we couldn't have asked for better weather!
Pictures -- one of the castle with reflection in the water, and then one of me and one of my roommates Jennifer:
We ate lunch at the L'Orangerie at Chenonceau which was somewhat like a cafeteria (but in France, so it was actually good!). After Saturday's eating fest, I was good and got a piece of salmon, some sliced tomatoes, and then a bowl of fresh strawberries! All delicious.
From there, we had about an hour and a half bus ride to Chambord -- what an amazing place. This chateau was constructed by Francois 1er -- so his initial was everywhere along with his 'signature' animal -- the salamander. But it was clear after seeing Chenonceau that Chambord had much more of a man's touch. Much grander and striking, where I thought of Chenonceau as being more delicate.
When we arrived, Martine told us that she had rented bikes for us to use to ride around the property for about an hour which was lovely! Minus the fact that it was about 85 degrees out....So we all had a nice time riding around (which was interesting considering I was wearing a skirt and flip flops...). Around 3:30 we finally went into the castle -- really incredible. Perhaps what's most amazing is the staircase in the middle which is a double revolution staircase -- so you can get to each floor from each side and make it all the way to the top without seeing someone who took the other side! The inside, definitely incredible, but almost too big -- there are something like 32 "apartments" so the king and all of his buddies could come stay during hunting season.
Photos -- Chambord from afar and looking up through the staircase
After the final chateau, we drove to Blois to catch the train -- which this time was not a TGV so it took about two hours to get back to Paris. The cool part was that the train was divided into the little compartments, so we all felt like we were riding the Hogwarts Express -- I really wanted the trolley to roll by with the witch yelling "Annnnnything from the trolley?". But as I'm sure you can guess, no such thing happened. Maybe in my next life.
I made my way back home -- Marilu and Alain hadn't arrived back from their country house yet -- and made myself some scrambled eggs (with some ham, tomato, and swiss cheese). They got home around 9:30 with bags (big bags) full of apples that she had picked -- wow. They are incredible. She also had made some "compote de pommes" -- aka applesauce -- from them, which, don't worry mom -- I still think yours wins, but this is pretty darn close!
Today was a fairly low key day -- one of my new and exciting discoveries was that of podcasts! I subscribed to a few this morning and listened to a couple throughout the day on the bus and on my walk home from swimming tonight. The "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" was hilarious, and I started to listen to "This American Life", but haven't finished yet. It's a really wonderful way to spend the travel time -- I'll have to keep exploring, but I'm sure there are lots of interesting ones out there -- if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
Other than thatttt, I think it's bedtime for me -- Marilu and I got into watching Riverdance videos on YouTube...which are pretty addicting (yes, I know it's not a very French thing to be doing)...But it's just so cool!
A bientot!
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