Mes adventures en France: Over the Hill

And through the woods to Paris in France we go!

Less art & architecture and more sightseeing: Tuesday we visited the Victor Hugo museum (if you’re ever in Paris, don’t stress about making it there, it’s not that amazing) and after we headed to the Marais to take a quick 2 hour walk. I honestly cannot remember everywhere we stopped by, it was more of an “absorb the atmosphere” day. Wed, we headed to the Orsay Museum which is known for its impressionist collections. Too bad they’re doing construction and a good portion of them were elsewhere; also, they don’t allow pictures . . . but it wasn’t a bad visit – there was still a lot to see! Finally on Thursday, we visited the Gustave Moreau Museum (it used to be Moreau’s studio and now it holds his works) and Montmartre, aka my favorite place ever. That was my third visit, there are a jillion steps to climb, but I always enjoy myself immensely when I’m there. The view is just so perfect and the area is so adorable, I can’t help but be in love! I really liked this week - it was informative yet so relaxing!

We had time to notice things like Mario chilling on the side of a building!

A secret beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre.

They don’t use the “my dog at my homework” excuse over here: All week I’d been waiting eagerly for my test score (we had taken a test the previous Thursday.) After the weekend passed by as well as Monday, we figured we’d get them on Tuesday for sure, but alas, we showed up for class and she told us we’d get them on Wednesday for sure. However, on Wednesday instead of our corrected tests, we got blank ones – some guy had stolen our professor’s bag of schoolwork on the Metro (probably thinking he’d get some good merchandise to sell instead of the schoolwork he got instead!) So we had to retake the test L Only in Paris!

La valley de la Loire: This weekend we went to the Loire Valley as a group. It was magnificent! A lot of my friends liked it better than the Normandy excursion, but it’s too hard to compare apples and oranges for me to decide between the two excursions. There was so much History at Normandy and Mt. St. Michel was a dream come true, but on the other hand the Loire Valley had very neat castles and we got a really nice bus this time where we weren’t sitting on each other’s laps. We visited three castles: Chateau de Blois, Chateau de Chenonceau and Chateau de Chambord.

Château de Blois was used as a royal palace. We had the option of a tour in French or English, and thinking « when in France » I joined the French tour guide. Thankfully, she was very aware that we were all learning French so she used common words, had ample pictures, and was super patient with us. She was wonderful and I understood at least 90% of what was said – I was so proud of myself after! Chateau de Blois is interesting because it has four different types of architecture from when it was constructed. Also, Catherine de Medici (a queen renown for her scandals) lived there and had secret compartments that we got to see. It was quite interesting, and we had some free time for lunch so my friends and I grabbed a quick sandwich and found the garden – it was a great visit!

The castle from its inside square (they were built in fort styles as protection.) Notice the different architecture types.

Fireplace :)

Catherine de Medici's secret cabinets. On the floorboard, there's the secret foot pedal.

The Salamander was thought to be able to breath fire and was hence a royal symbol.

These guys were at the head of the war between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Largest existing medieval room. (Even though the wallpaper is new . . .)

We got lost and found this view :D

We also discovered this garden by hazard.

At Chateau de Chenonceau, we had a very quick stay – we had only an hour and a half! It gave us just enough time to run around taking as many pictures as possible and run through the maze they had there. Mazes used to represent working through obstacles to achieve your goal, it wasn’t a triwizard tournament like I’d hoped. The surprise of the day was wine-tasting. I didn’t like their champagne (it wasn’t real champagne, because that has to come from the area, Champagne,) but I did like their white wine and rosé (although to be honest I’ve loved all of the rosé’s here.)

Its incredible.

Way wicked.

Only remaining part of the original castle - people kept it up to prove how cool their castle was.

The kitchen.

What an incredible view outside the study!

Maze!

At the winery: The squeezer (no I Love Lucy stomping at this place!)

The fermenting tanks

The wine is stored in these barrels.

An old time packaging set-up.

The next day we set off to Chateau de Chambord. It was absolutely magnificent! It’s the castle that inspired the story of the Beauty and the Beast. The architecture was incredible, we had 4 entire hours to explore, plus we had two surprises: one we got to choose between a free bike or boat rental and two we had cookie tasting! It was the best castle of the three by far.

ooooo

ahhhh

wow!!

I'm pretty sure this was a king's crown at some point or another, but it's been a while since I read the sign.

Twisting staircases. Two people can start at the bottom of each one and never cross paths on their way up. We actually lost Kristin when Stephanie and I tested this with her!