Région de la Loire: The Loire Valley

It all started on Saturday, Sept. 24 with a 2 hour train ride out to Tours in the Loire Valley area which was spent making use of my Kindle. I haven't had as much time to read as I had hoped, plus I played games on it with our program director's 8-year-old son Blaise who came along for the trip. We went from the train directly into a big coach us and off we were to our first chateau! Let me say for the record that when I heard the word chateau I imagined cute little cottages in the woods with some flowers and such, maybe that was naive lol. Where the French are lacking in peanut butter they make it up with the size of these insane castles!

The first one we went to was Chateau de Villandry. This one had moats and fountains and a HUGE intricate garden. The many different sections of garden had various flowers, trees, bushes, vegetables, all carefully organized in special patterns and shapes. It was nice to be able to kind of wander around alone because I really do love to just wander quietly and absorb my surroundings. We were not, however, able to go inside this chateau, but I was happy enough in the gardens anyway. I got some great photos for my photography class, too, so hopefully those will turn out well! We had lunch at the restaurant at this chateau which featured fresh vegetables from the gardens and some incredible pork.

Next we were on to Azay-le-rideau. This one really looked like a castle and we spent most of our visit here inside the chateau. It was interesting to see all of the different rooms and secret staircases and it was all made of smooth white stone. It was hard to walk around these castles without imagining that I was in the movie Pride and Prejudice (which may sound very stupid, definitely the wrong part of Europe, and maybe the wrong time period, too, but you know what I mean).

The Chateau and the gardens of La Chatonniere. This was probably my favorite place we visited, not because the chateau was massive and incredible but because the gardens were so intricate and interesting. I loved how they were named: The Garden of Intelligence, the Garden of Romances (arches of roses), the Garden of Abundance (vegetables, shaped like a giant leaf!), the Garden of Sciences (mostly herbs), the Garden of Senses (brightly colored flowers), etc. All of these gardens had interesting overall shapes and designs within themselves and the chateau was more homey than the others we had seen so far, which I liked.

Next (yes, we went to 4 different chateaus in one day!) was le Chateau de la Roche for an organic wine tasting. There was not really a chateau there, per say,  but it was something fun and different in our trip. The tour of the barrels and small factory used to make the wine was great, and so was the tasting, but it would have been better if I actually liked any of the wines they made. I felt so bad, but some were too dry, some too bitter, some just not pleasing to my taste buds, and I was surprised because normally I am not super picky when it comes to wine. Hahaha!

After that long day we were ready to eat. We were able to stop by the hotel where we were staying so we could freshen up very quickly and drop off our bags. We went to Le Martin Bleu, which was in Tours right by our hotel and right around the corner from the train station. I had raw salmon with lime juice for an appetizer, an awesome steak and these super-thin cheesy potatoes for dinner and I was blown away. So nice to have a few good meals that we didn't have to pay extra for because the whole trip was included in the program! Needless to say we crashed pretty quickly once we got back to the hotel after dinner. I roomed with Leanne which was fun because we get along really well but don't end up getting to spend nearly enough time together.

We were provided with a great breakfast in the morning with crossaints (which I ate with apricot jam, yummmm) yogurts, hard-boiled eggs, and all kind of other treats. That was a great way to start the day. The first place we visited on Sunday was Chateau de Chenonceau. This was definitely the biggest castle we visited and, again, it had beautiful intricate gardens with fountains and such. This castle had a really serious moat though, those other castles had no idea what a real moat was haha. The rooms in this castle had pressed velvet on the walls in the study and black and white tiled floors. My favorite room was the kitchen in the basement because it had these beautiful copper pots and pans hanging on the walls and I can't even describe how much I loved all the old cast iron stoves and kitchen utensils. They made for some really great pictures for class, too! We had lunch in the restaurant here, chicken for me, which was alright, but I can't really be picky because pretty much all I have been eating are baguettes, apples, and pb&j. Haha!

Last, but certainly not least, we went to a garden festival/competition thing called Festival des Jardins au Chateau de Chaumont. There were 18 different garden beds that pre-screened gardeners were able to design with plants and sculptures and they all had different themes. That was pretty cool, but I was pretty tired from the weekend at that point. Still got great pics from class (am I sounding a little repetitive at this point?). Anyway we hopped the bus back to the train after this and headed "home" to Paris. Wow, that sounds like a weird phrase... "home to Paris"... haha still hard to grip the fact that I am living in France until December, I still have to keep reminding myself.

Anyway it was an amazing weekend overall and I never would have gotten to see these things without Anne Marsella (program director) and Charlotte, her assistant! Great trip and I am so thankful!

Bisous! Until next time!