les chateaux de la loire, part 2

On Saturday morning Abby and I woke up a bit early so that we could go into town and find a replacement memory card for me. Thankfully, we were successful, so from now on all of the following pictures were taken by me.



Testing out the new memory card: this is the view of Blois from the top of the hill, with the Loire River in the distance.



These little symbols are all around Blois; they mark out a path for tourists to follow in order to see different parts of the city. There are four different types. This one is a porcupine, one of the symbols of Blois.

That day we were visiting Chenonceau, the Chateau that Henri II gave to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers.





Sadly, because it's winter time and thus not peak tourist season, the facade of the castle was being reconstructed and we couldn't quite fully appreciate it as we would have liked to. It was a bit obnoxious, but there were many other aspects of Chenonceau to enjoy.



One of the most interesting things about Chenonceau is that it's built over the river Cher.



Also, we got these nifty video iPods as part of our audio tour. Definitely the coolest and most helpful audio tour I've seen so far.



Diane de Poitiers' room, with a portrait of Catherine de Medici (Henri II's wife) hanging over the mantle. Awkward.



The gallery.

During World War I, the gallery was used as a hospital. (Now I'm basically going to translate what the Chenonceau pamphlet says because it's really interesting.) During World War II, the Cher River was the demarcation line. The entrance of the Chateau was part of the occupied zone (on the right bank). The gallery, with the southern door giving access to the left bank, allowed the Resistence to pass numerous people over to the free zone. Throughout the war, the German army nearly destroyed Chenonceau.



The kitchens. I had a lot of fun in these rooms.







Maybe a little too much fun.



The Louis XIV Room.

On the mantle are a salamander and an ermine which are, incidentally, not the symbols of Louis XIV but of Francois I and his wife, respectively.



I believe the room was named after this portrait, which Louis XIV gave to his uncle after having visited Chenonceau a long time before. I don't know. I just thought the red was pretty.



The Room of Five Queens, named for Catherine de Medici's five daughters and daughters-in-law: La Reine Margot, Elisabeth de France, Marie Stuart, Elisabeth d'Autriche, Louise de Lorraine.



Catherine de Medici's room.



I love this room. It's decorated entirely in drawings of Chenonceau.



This room was fascinating. It belonged to Louise de Lorraine, whose husband, Henri III, was assassinated. After his death, she came to Chenonceau to live a secluded and pious life in this black room.



Garden of Diane de Poitiers

Outside the Chateau are the gardens, (there are two on opposite sides of the castle, one for the mistress and one for the wife) which were beautiful but made me wish we could be there during the springtime to see everything in bloom.



There was also a labyrinth!



Not a very difficult one.





We had a bit of the photo shoot, again.

We fooled around so much in the labyrinth that Nathalie had to change our lunch plans, but she was completely fine with it and so were we. We had a delicious lunch of crèpes in a restaurant right near another Chateau which we didn't visit.

Instead we went to see the last house that Leonardo Da Vinci lived in.



It was a pretty neat place to walk through, trying to picture all that genius wandering around the rooms.



There were quotes like this all over the house.





Da Vinci's desk!



One of the rooms was filled with descriptions and representations of Da Vinci's many inventions, from water screws to machine guns. To say the least, it was pretty impressive.

Around the house were expansive gardens that we could explore. Scattered around were various other inventions



Like this. I don't actually remember what it is though.



Apparently, Da Vinci kept pigeons. Like, thousands of pigeons. They were useful for something. (Can you tell I was a little over it at this point?)

That night we had a dinner with much giggling and probably a bit too much alcohol. (However, Emma, Amanda, Erica and I still managed to keep our pact to try to speak French throughout the whole dinner!) It was all in preparation for our night at the discothèque! In fact, it was an Irish pub/discothèque. I don't even know. It was a fun night, I'll leave it at that.

Consequently, it was not such a fun morning. However, we all managed to get up, successfully check out of the swanky Holiday Inn and take one last walk around Blois before we had to leave that afternoon.



We decided to follow the fleurs de lys around for a while. (Those were the ones closest to our hotel.)





Ah Loch Ness, how you treated us well.



This, I suppose, is where all the walks meet up: the porcupine, the fleur de lys, the boat (for the river) and the church.



The other side of the stairs, just to bring things full circle.

Thus with our train ride back to reality ended our magical weekend of exploring castles and getting lost in history, and also alcohol.

les chateaux de la loire, part 1

Just as Burgundy is the wine region of France, the idyllic Loire valley hides a veritable gold mine of chateaux. (Don't mind me, I'm just practicing my travel-writer-speak.) Thus, we were off to the quaint little town of Blois (pronounced somewhat like a French person vomiting) this weekend to find out what all the fuss is about these history-riddled castles. Secretly, I was also hoping to come accross Beauxbatons since I never did find Hogwarts while I was in Scotland.

I won't lie, as exciting as the prospect of castles and wine and history was, I was almost just as excited to miss three (i.e. five hours of) classes. By Thursday morning we were all incredibly relieved to be done and free to prepare for our departure that afternoon. What a wonderful feeling -- no crazy Frenchman rattling on about statistics and French slang, just a relaxing train ride and a long weekend of castles.

We stayed at what had to be the swankiest Holiday In I've ever encountered. There was odd modern furniture and art all over -- including a display of giant egg cartons, or possibly many pregnant women standing in a line, if you talk to Amanda. At any rate it was strange, but there was pretty decent food (including an amazing breakfast buffet) and some English television.

Friday was our first full day and we were scheduled for three events: Le Chateau de Blois, Le Cheateau de Chambourd and another wine tasting.

It was right before we left for our first chateau that I realized what an utter failure I am -- though I had remembered this time to charge and bring both of my batteries, I had left my memory card in my computer at Dijon, meaning I tragically have no pictures from the first day. However, because this entry would be devastatingly boring for you, my faithful readers (hi, parents) and basically pointless without photographic illustration, Abby has kindly agreed to let me borrow her brilliant photos from the day. Thus, all the following photos from Friday are property of Abby Kaufman, copywrite and etcetera.



I had to disagree with our guide who claimed that Blois was the most beautiful of the chateaux, it did have some very interesting aspects. It's made up of four different buildings built during different time periods, meaning that the whole chateaux consists of four different archiectectural styles. Above and straight ahead is the classical part which is the most recent, dating from 1635-1638. To the right, with the beautiful staircase, is the section from the Renaissance, dating from 1515-1520.



This is the gothic part, built around 1498-1503. It's not even the oldest part of the chateaux -- Abby didn't get a picture, but there is a also tiny little white building that was built all the way back in the tenth century.



The inside was splendid, each room ornately decorated literally from ceiling to floor. This is, afterall, where French royalty lived.



It's hard to tell from this picture, but the tiles in the rooms were amazing. I want to have this pattern in my kitchen someday.



This was one of my favorite rooms. I believe it was the study of Henry IV, who apparently loved books, because the panels on the walls actually opened up to reveal bookshelves that lined the room from ceiling to floor. Also, this is the only room to have maintained its original decoration.

When we were finished looking around the interior we went back outside where there was a terrace overlooking the town of Blois -- a perfect place to take in the view and take pictures. And this is where it got a little weird.



My French alter-ego, Marie-Chantal.

When the photographer is without her camera, she finds another, stranger way to contribute. Meet Marie-Chantal. She is far too superior to show any enjoyment at this castle. Besides, she has three of her own that are much bigger.

We were quickly off to our next castle destination -- Chambourd!



This one was definitely my favorite. It was immense. I spent most of my time there getting lost on one of the floors -- I would walk around and around feeling like I'd covered most of it, only to discover an entirely different section I hadn't seen before. To be honest, I was a bit glad not to have my camera at this place: it was overwhelming enough trying to take it all in without having to worry about getting good photos. This way I was able to just walk about in a daze and enjoy it.



I loved this room; it made me think Marie-Antoinette meets the tropics. I dediced that this would be my room if I lived here.



The tiny room that made up the servent's quarters.



What a pretty church.



There was graffiti like this all over and Abby and I were musing over whether or not it was authentic. I don't think we came to a conclusion.



Chambourd was originally a hunting lodge for Louis IVX. You know, just a small weekend home for a short trip to the countryside.



"Look at me, I'm in a castle!"

Before Abby and I even got a chance to peek at the third floor, we realized that we could go up to the roof and this became our priority.



I think it was one of the most amazing parts.



"There's an actual moat! This really is a castle!"

I could have easily spend many more hours there, but we had another wine tasting planned and so, alas, we left. (Leaving a castle to go taste wine -- yeah, it's a rough life here in France.) The wine wasn't anything compared to our first experience (the Loire Valley is not in Burgundy, which means the wine isn't as good) but it was still interesting. The man there showed us around the winery.



One of the vineyards, obviously.



This is where they make the wine. He told us how they make the different types of wine, and I don't remember everything he said specifically but basically it takes a lot of waiting. (Even though none of the wines they make are older than four or five years, I believe.)

Just as we were finishing up the tasting, I looked out the window and noticed the beautiful light of the sun setting over the vineyard and forced Abby outside with her camera.



I think it was a good decision.



Hey look, it's a picture I took! It was Abby's turn to play model.



The lovely Lauren joined us for a bit of frolicking.



And Amanda looks good in a field.

I've done many great photo shoots in my day, but I think a vineyard in France has to top them all. (Sorry, hillside field of poppies.)


I believe I must place a bookmark here for now, as this entry has already gotten monstrous and I still have two days and two monuments to get through.