Chateau, Chateau, Chateau, MOTH!

Thursday, June 3, 2010
Day 36

This morning I was rudely awakened at 6:30am by one of the girls in our group, who shall remain unnamed, who went outside her room, which was directly next to ours, to chat on skype with her friend. She was talking extremely loudly and wasn’t using headphones so we could also hear her friend. The volume on the computer must have been up all the way because it sounded like the girl was standing right there, instead of being on skype in Mexico. She chatted for about forty minutes. Zut. To make matters worse I had gone to bed at 2am trying to download pictures (it didn’t work, I only got about 25 online) so I only got about four hours of sleep. Oh well.

After getting ready and having the same breakfast as yesterday (lots of apple sauce and a bowl of cereal--no bread!) we got on the bus and left at about 8:45 for the Chateau d’Azay le Rideau. It is a beautiful castle situated on the bank of small river, equipped with a bridge and everything! It looks like a Disney princess castle to be honest. It is white with several towers that have pointed domes on top. The roof is blue as well, just like in the movies! It was one of the more picturesque things I’ve seen thus far. And the town of Azay is so quaint! It also falls under the category of a “Bonjour!” town (my new name for all towns that look like Belle’s opening scene in Beauty and the Beast). I do have a confession to make: I barely listened to any of the audio guide tour. But that’s just because its getting so boring. I’d rather just walk through and take pretty pictures and imagine myself as a beautiful Disney princess--yes, the dress is included in that dream, no laughing.

Example of a "Bonjour!" town.
Can you just picture the people singing from the windows?

Chateau d'Azay le Rideau:
Notice the white and blue and the round towers...Disney princess anyone?

After going through the inside rooms of the chateau we came back outside and had a short photo taking spree. Let’s just say there was a lot of jumping and smiling involved. And Betsy may or may not have looked like a chimpanzee in one of the pictures...

Jumping in front of Alzay Castle

One of my favorite pictures, for sentimental purposes, is of Sarah sitting under a big tree. The story behind this? As we’re walking back we pass this beautiful huge tree and Sarah comments how it looks like the tree in Lord of the Rings (Fellowship) when Frodo is sitting under a tree reading. I exclaim that it does indeed look like that and we keep walking a few more feet looking at the tree longingly. Within a few moments I mention that it makes me want to take a picture....pause....look at each other...Me: Do you want to take a picture of it? Sarah: Yes. Me: Okay.

It took a lot of convincing obviously.

Frodo Baggins Shire Reenactment

So that’s the story behind that picture. I had Sarah sit under it reading my pamphlet on the chateau and voila! Frodo in the Shire impersonation.

After our Shire reminiscing we followed the others into town and searched for lunch. I was lucky enough to find a place that served quiche (not just sandwiches) so I was able to once again avoid bread! Huzzah! Ironically enough Katherine (who is unaware of our LOTR moment) commented that she was considering having two small lunches since it was still a little early, like in Lord of the Rings...to which I replied that she was having her elevensies (it being 11:15). It was a really good moment in my day.
Yes, I do love France.


After Azay le Rideau we took a short twenty minute drive to the Chateau Chenonceau which is a really beautiful castle on a river. It has a few towers, one of which looks like its from Rapunzel, and a wishing well so it looks like its straight out of Snow White. Pretty much every Disney princess could find a part of the castle that belonged to her. It was great. I especially liked the gardens and a little "village" on the castle grounds. So picturesque. It felt medieval and I was all ready to don a peasant dress...or a princess dress. Basically I was ready to reenact all of Beauty and the Beast...Besides the castle being asthetically pleasing, it was also cool to imagine that a lot of important monarchs and members of the royal family came through here, including Francois I and Louise of Lorraine. One random thing that I liked about this chateau was the kitchens. They were located in the basement and there were about six different rooms dedicated to all kinds of cooking and food preparation, including a bread oven, a room for cooking on a stove, an area for chopping meat etc...it was just very grand and that was the first large kitchen I've seen in a chateau thus far so it was kind of neat.

Had to check for food...

At 2:45 we headed to the Chateau Amboise where we were given a guided tour with a real tourguide (not this silly audio guide business). Unfortunately by the time we're on the third chateau I'm not in the mood to hear about it...because honestly how different are castles from each other really? Also, I hadn't had much to eat today and basically no water so I was hit by a wave a fatigue, likely due to the combination of hunger and dehydration, and probably the general stress of seeing amazing sites all day long! What a hard life I lead...

Chateau Amboise, view from the top...

Anyways, a few cool things I will mention about the Chateau Amboise are that this is where Leonardo da Vinci is buried! Yeah, I know, its awesome. We were listening to our tourguide in the small chapel next to the castle and I was zoning in and out when I caught the name Leonardo da Vinci and heard her mention that he asked to be buried at this castle. At first I thought it was just a memorial to him, but no, its his actual final resting place! I didn't realize he was buried in France (or I had forgotten that fact) so that was cool to see. Another funny story is that it was at this castle that King Charles VIII died when he was on his way to attend a medieval tennis match (which is more like handball) when he hit his head on the doorway and died from his injuries. How embarrassing...I mean, tragic.

It just Leo, no big deal...

View of town and river below...

Livin' the dream

After visiting the chateau, which was of course very beautiful, etc. etc., we went to our hotel (the Etap Hotel) in Bloise, which is a block away from another castle, incidently named Chateau Bloise. We walked to dinner which was at an outdoor restaurant in a courtyard outside the castle, so it was a lovely picturesque setting in which to dine. The dinner itself wasn't as fancy or pretty as last night's, but it was good. My favorite part was that there was a salad in two of the courses, instead of just one! And it was a good salad that actually had dressing on it (aka. it was salad greens with two slices of tomato and a light dressing--not much substance but more than usual). The first course was the salad and a quiche with chevre cheese and vegetables. Luckily the chevre was suprisingly mild so I actually really liked the quiche. Also, Mom you would be proud, I ate my tomatoes and those of the other girls who didn't like theirs. They weren't amazing but except for the last one I was able to eat them without grimacing! Yes, progress!

The second, and main course, was chicken with a side of fries and the same salad. Quite good, and I made a point of not finishing the fries (and I didn't eat the appetizer bread either!). Success. And for dessert we had a tasty chocolate cake morsel that was not fully cooked in the middles so it melted onto the plate--someone called it volcano cake, or maybe lava cake. Very tasty.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and a little while later about ten of us girls (we're all on the same floor) went out into the hall and did "8 minute abs" and a couple of us went for a run around the town. While we were running I thought to myself how funny it was that no guys had hit on us here and figured it must be a Parisian thing. However, afterwards I learned that a lot of guys had apparently been calling out to us but I had had my ipod in so I couldn't hear anything. Ignorance is bliss. We passed Giles on our way back and he was with a bunch of strange boys. When we asked him about it later he said that he had gone out to find a soda and those guys had come up to him and asked if he knew any girls. He bragged that he was studying abroad with 24 girls and they proceeded to follow him to the hotel so they could pick us up. He said he tried to lose them but they didn't leave until he got to the hotel and the concierge sent them away when Giles said they were bothering him. Haha, that kid was going to lead them right to us! Good thing we're fast runners! Ps. The run was amazing. I haven't felt this good since I've been in France. Why did I not think of exercising sooner? Pastries do not a healthy person make.

After taking a shower I worked on downloading my pictures and happened to check to see if we had internet (it has been down all evening) and made the brilliant discovery that it was finally working. Hence this blog entry. Marissa is now in bed so we turned off the lights and a few mintues later I scream because of a pesky moth flying into my face. This inevitably lead to a moth hunt (there were two) which consisted of me luring the moths to my computer screen then turning on the light and chasing it to the wall. There I made good use of a shoe that ended in the sudden demise of the nasty intrusive voleurs and the shutting of our window (which has no screen--what savages, I was told France was not a third world country! No screens on the windows, psh).

And so concludes my day in Western France. Started in Tours and ended in Bloise. Tomorrow we see Bloise Chateau and another one I think and by the evening we'll be back in Paris to spend the night and fly out Saturday morning for a beautiful (I hope) week in Nice on the southern coast of France!