Okay, bare with me because these pictures, for whatever reason, didn't upload in order. Right, now that that's been discussed we can move on amicably. For the first time since I've been traveling I can honestly say that words cannot describe how beautiful my trip was. The Loire Valley was beautiful in its entirety. It seems that every town we entered, every chateau we visited, was more beautiful than the last. I kept thinking that the next one would surely disappoint (and, my add getting the better of me, the last one did... but I think that was more my attention span's fault than anything else).
We arrived in Tours Monday and walked outside realizing we hadn't figured out how to get from the airport (so small that there was only one flight in and one flight out... we're talking middle of nowhere tiny airport, so cute) to our hotel. Luckily I had Jenni with me and she speaks a bit of french. We got a taxi to the main train station in Tours thinking that we'd have to take a bus somewhere and found out that our hotel was around the corner from the station, which was really convenient. We immediately found some yummy French pastries to eat and dropped our stuff off before wandering the town for a few hours. Like true party animals we ended up in bed and asleep at 7pm... how sad. There were full intentions of waking up at 10 and going out, we just never actually got up when the alarm went off. Needless to say we were well rested for our first full day of exploration.
We attempted to prod the tourism office for wine tasting information and were largely unsuccessful. While we received a map of vineyards as well as wine houses we didn't receive any information on how to get there or any tours that might run there. We were actually told that the best way to do wine tasting, because of their spread out locations, would be to rent a car (who rents a car to spend a day with alcohol?!). So we picked Saumur from the map, known for their red wines, and took a train there hoping to figure it out. We got there and saw the Chateau Saumur from the station at the top of the city and it looked absolutely stunning. We got a glass of wine in a local bar and found both liquor and wine tasting venues on our place mats so we asked the bartender how to get to them. Before heading there we hiked to the chateau and walked around a bit. After that we went to the liquor house, which turned out to be a really neat experience because we tried some local spirits and learned a bit about how the French enjoy their alcohol compared to how others do so. I ended up buying a bottle of Fruits des Bois, which is a dark mixed berry liquor that is typically mixed with white or sparkling wines, delicious. After that we realized we didn't have time to venture to the winery, which was a bit further away, so we just shared a bottle of wine at a bar before catching our train home to have crepes for dinner. (SO GOOD!)
Our last full day was our big day as we'd booked an all day tour of the chateaus. From 9:30 to 7:00 we took a van to 5 chateaus around the Loire Valley region. It was really the most amazing experience. Our first stop was probably my favorite because of the gardens. The Chateau Villandry is also known as "Little Versailles" because the gardens were constructed to mimic those of Versailles. Both places are typical of Renaissance structures in that they mimic the Greek/Roman styles by being very geometric. The gardens weren't in full bloom but even so I could have wandered them all day. The second stop was Azay-le-Rideau, there was a beautiful lake and Jenni and I got to sit and eat our gummy eggs on the water. The nice thing about the morning tour was that we were the only two in the van so we left when we were done and got back to Tours to eat lunch and wait for the afternoon portion of the tour to start.
In the afternoon there were 5 others with us, two sisters from Australia were among them and were really fun to hang out with and talk a bit with later in the day. We visited some of the bigger and more famous chateaus in the afternoon. First we went to my other favorite, (mainly because of it's really rich history) Chenonceau. It's also called the Chateau of the Dames because of the many famous women who, at one time or another, lived there (including Diane de Poitier and Catherine de Medici). One of the most interesting rooms was Louise of Lorraine's room where she stayed after the assassination of King Henry III. It was her mourning room and it was decorated entirely in black: black walls, ceiling, bedding, rug... yeah, everything. She was known as the White Queen because, as customary for royals in mourning, she was always seen in white. Anyways, point being... the room was pretty amazing. This particular chateau is built over the water and has archways allowing the water to flow through, very beautiful. Jenni and I went running through the maze in the forrest, she beat me out. The fourth house was the Chateau du Clos Luce, which was Da Vinci's place. There were replicas of a lot of his inventions all over the gardens and it was so interesting to read all about them. The man was such a genius! Last we went to the Chateau Roal D'Amboise, where there is the bust of Da Vinci in the garden. The view from this place was amazing but by then it was unfortunately a bit cloudy. At the end we had a mini wine tasting session that was included with the tour but we weren't impressed by the wines.
We got home and relaxed a bit, had pizza for dinner and drank a bit more wine. We figured since we missed the wine tasting we'd make up for it by independently sampling the local wines throughout our vacation... none were all that good (clearly because we didn't buy any to bring home). The weekend wasn't without minor incident, really more just minor embarrassment (because when do I NOT embarrass myself somehow?). So we went to a pizza place for dinner the last night and I had to use the toilet so Jenni asked where it was and relayed that it was the second on the right. So I go into the other room and the first door says toilettes above it, so I turn the handle and it doesn't open. Remembering Jenni's words I continue walking and turn the corner rather fast and run straight into an antique stove that was clearly there just for decoration. Not so bad, but as I turn around our waiter takes my arm and guides me to the bathroom, where he opens the door for me as though I'm one of the dumbest people he's ever met (which, at that moment, I might be). I sat down and told Jenni we should leave... but instead we stayed for dessert.
Which reminds me, last week I went out with Phoebe for high tea and left her at Tottenham Court Road station. I walk down the stairs into the station and somehow decided that the last step didn't exist and I kid you not I did a complete face plant during rush hour in the middle of a huge central station, skinned my knees and everything. I'm pretty sure I was laughing before I even hit the floor. Unfortunately, no one I know was there to see it, although hundreds of people I DON'T know got a very clear view. Enjoy my minor misfortunes! In other news, I came home to an email from Nike saying that I have officially been picked to be in the Nike women's marathon in San Francisco on October 19th so I'm super excited to start training for that! Mom and Dad get here next Thursday and I can't wait to see them. I'm pretty sure Jenni got sick of me mentioning how excited I was every time I thought about it... On to the pictures!
This is Jenni and I in front of Chenonceau, aka the Chateau of the Dames.
The back of Jenni in front of Da Vinci's country home. There were children everywhere screaming like banshees... grrr.
The Chateau Royal D'Amboise. This is where my attention span failed me, I blame the weather...
One of the town squares in Tours where we had most of our evening meals. It seemed that most of the young people were here either in the restaurants or bars so it was a great place to be and the building were so neat! You can't really see, but just to the left there was a really neat black building in the corner of the square, very cool.
My snobby-flared-nostril-wine-tasting face. Too bad we weren't ACTUALLY wine tasting. :)
These are some beautiful tulips outside the Chateau Saumur, they were such a vibrant red and looked wonderful surrounding the grey stones of the chateau walls.
My favorite, Chateau Villandry, none of my pictures even do this place justice. It's not fair that not everyone gets to see a place like this, I was in absolute awe.
The Chateau D'Azay Le Rideau. Also wonderful. The ceilings above the staircases had faces carved into it... creepy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment