Towering facades of bright white stone, spiral staircases awash in early morning light, towers worthy of Rapunzel, and tree-lined pathways that somehow preserve the majesty of arriving at a castle, even without horse-drawn carriages. Those are just a few snapshots of our weekend in the Loire Valley (I should also probably add in porcupines, the best tour guide ever, getting married, jumping a lot and stinky trees for any Dijonettes listening in ;) ). We left Thursday for Blois (pronounced Blwah, much to our delight), a town on the Loire River. The train ride was fun, and all we did Thursday was have dinner at the hotel (the Holiday Inn), which made for an evening filled with laughter and relaxation.
Friday morning we set off for Blois, château number one. It was only a short walk from the hotel and we were all excited to start castle-exploring. When you arrive at Blois, you walk into a courtyard, and you're surrounded by the four walls of the castle. Each side was built by a different king in a different time period and in a different architectural style. It's pretty rare to see so many different architectural periods just by turning in a circle. Blois was the castle of King Louis XII, whose symbol was the porcupine, so there were porcupines sculpted into all the walls. It was also where Catherine de Medici lived with King Henry II. After we toured the rooms, we walked across the grounds to the wall, where there was a gorgeous view of the village and river below.
amazing view #1
the gamma phi betas at the castle :)
the sun came out just in time for our visit!!!
After we were done at Blois, we went downtown to the find the crèperie where we were supposed to have lunch, but it was unexpectedly closed! This turned out to be a happy accident, though, because we stumbled upon the cutest bruschetta restaurant instead. It was all decorated with hearts and birds and other cute things in turquoise and white, and it was entirely run by one woman! Her ability to serve the eleven of us as well as the two other couples who came in just after we did was pretty impressive. I had a tomato, mozzarella and basil bruschetta with a green salad, and we had elaborate crepes for dessert! Mine was apple-chocolate with caramel ice cream. I don't think I actually like crepes that much, but it was fun! Then we walked along the river to meet our taxi drivers, who we had for the whole weekend and who were really nice.
It was about a twenty-minute drive to Chambord, our next château. This is probably one of my favorite places in the entire world. It is definitely top on my list of visits/activities I have ever done. We followed a pretty pathway towards the castle, which led past the castle to a forest. We turned at the château, however, and went inside to meet our tour guide, François. He told us about Chambord's mysterious history-- no one knows who the architect was (although, as we discovered during the tour, they think it was da Vinci) or why it was built. The castle holds a lot of secrets, and it felt like we were unwrapping a gift or something over the course of the tour as we discovered one thing after another. Our guide was hilarious and dynamic, and he would give us just enough clues to get us guessing and then wouldn't tell us the answer until later on. We learned a lot about François I, who built the castle; about his plans to build a canal system through France (the reason why the castle was built on water); about his symbol, the salamander; and about the meanings behind all the different sculptures on the castle walls. It was extremely interesting and lots of fun. Since historians knew almost nothing about Chambord, they analyzed every inch of the castle, and they actually discovered a lot of information. For example, they figured out that one room was used as a chapel just because on one of the salamander sculptures, there is a baby salamander biting the toe of the big salamander, and that represents the Catholic idea that the adult nourishes the child (I think there is a little more to it, but I don't remember-- you get the point, though). It was amazing to see how all these very tiny, sometimes unnoticeable details told the story of a king hundreds of years ago.
All in all, Chambord was simply fascinating. The castle itself was beautiful, as well, and we were running around it like giddy children, taking pictures like crazy. It was one of the most fun things I have done since I got here-- and probably also in my life! Our tour was two hours long, but we hardly even realized it. We left just as the castle closed, and the late afternoon sun was illuminating the castle as we left. It was gorgeous (and a perfect opportunity for more photos!).
the amazing Chambord. François only spent forty days here total after building it-- can you believe that?! it was finished in 1547, and since then, it has only been inhabited for twenty years altogether. um, i'll take it if no one else wants it!
amazing view #2
the castle was really cold inside, but they had fires going to warm us up! it made me feel even more medieval :)
ahhh.
an example of the sculptures-- lots of F's and salamanders. Each salamander is slightly different
Needless to say, we were somewhat exhausted after Chambord, and it was nice to head back to the hotel and relax before dinner, which wasn't good enough to warrant talking about. After dinner, a bunch of us hung out in one of the hotel rooms and watched French tv. We stumbled upon a spectacle that was apparently a charity concert but was really just a bunch of French people dressed up like crazy people. It was hilarious. There was even a battle between a Lady Gaga impersonator and a midget Madonna. Oh, the French. One thing that I discovered this weekend, though, is that my French has really improved (as has everybody's!). I could tell, of course, that I was getting better at speaking and more comfortable, but this trip was the first time I had watched French TV or had a tour guide since we were in Paris... and I understood almost everything. It was amazing! When we were in the train station, I heard the announcements about trains over the loudspeaker and understood them without even thinking about it, and then I realized that when we were arriving in Paris, I had strained to hear them and struggled to understand. I remember thinking that it seemed like the woman was speaking impossibly fast and I was worried I wouldn't understand enough when we got to Dijon because I couldn't understand the announcements. That was a pretty cool moment in the train station. I also could understand the TV shows for the most part, and I understood our guides completely, both things that had been difficult in Paris. It was really cool to actually be conscious of our development of language.
The next morning, we set out for Chaumont-sur-Loire. It was a bit farther, but the drive through the countryside was nice. The green hills and vineyards always remind me of Sonoma County. :) We followed a lot of very shallow steps up into the hill on top of which Chaumont-sur-Loire is built, but it was worth it when the castle came into view. Out of all the ones we saw, this one was most like a fairy tale princess' castle. A drawbridge led to the plump, tall towers and a bright green lawn sloped down to trees below the castle. In the other direction, quaint buildings once used for horses and servants marked the way to an expansive field and some gardens. We half-expected Rapunzel's hair to come tumbling out of a window above. There was even a wishing well in the courtyard. We didn't have a guide for this castle, and it was pretty small (haha), so it didn't actually make for a very exciting visit, but it was pretty nonetheless! As we left, it got humid and overcast, and it started to rain on our drive to the next château.
the cute well! and behind me, amazing but less easily photographed view #3
chaumont-sur-loire!
From Chaumont, we drove to our last castle, Chenonceau. It had my favorite entrance out of all the castles-- a very long tree-lined path with a large iron gate at the entrance. We ate lunch at the castle's cafeteria before heading to the castle itself. Chambord had the most inviting surroundings, but Chenonceau had the most beautiful gardens. Unfortunately, it had just started raining and the sun had disappeared, so we ducked into the castle gratefully.
We had an audio guide for this one-- just a pre-recorded thing that took us through all the rooms, and I didn't really like it. We were on our own, and all isolated from each other because we were wearing headphones listening to the guide, so I wanted to go at my own pace, but I couldn't because I had to keep with the guide. It was also a lot harder to pay attention to than a real person, so I didn't really get much out of it. Anyway, the castle was mostly filled with replica beds and dressers and portraits, so I didn't feel like I really saw anything new, although Catherine de Medici's study was beautiful. We warmed up in front of the fire once we'd gone through all the rooms, and then we headed outside to walk through one of the gardens and take pictures in front of the castle. It was really pretty, but I think I would have had a much better time if it hadn't been wet and gray and freezing. It wasn't actually raining, but it was still disagreeable. We went to the labyrinth after that, which was cool but would probably have been infinitely more fun had we been ten years younger and two feet shorter. :)
where's your horse-drawn carriage when you need it?
amazing view #4. i wished we had more time and better weather to explore the gardens
!
On the way home, we stopped for a wine tasting, but it isn't really worth mentioning since it consisted of a fifteen-minute tour in the freezing cold caves, during which we just looked at a lot of bottles, and then a glass of champagne for everyone, which I didn't want. However, the four castles had made for an amazing weekend, and I happily dozed off in the car on the way back as real rain started to come down. We relaxed (I took a bath!) and then had dinner, which was also not good enough to merit description, but was uproariously hilarious. I'm pretty sure every person in that restaurant was very happy when the eleven of us finally left, but we didn't care-- you only study abroad in France once, right?
kisses from the Loire!
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