Oct. 26
We were up early four our full-day of chateau touring around Tours. We went into the city centre where we were to meet our guide, Pascale. His English was good, but he had a strange accent, kind of like the movie announcer-voice. He also drove a sketchy auto-bus. The day started out very chilly and foggy, which was disappointing at first. Our first chateau was Chenonceau, the most visited in the Loire valley. It would have been prettier if there wasn't a bunch of scaffolding upon the facade. I enjoyed walking through the chateau, visiting the various bed chambers, some of which held French kings when they visited.
Our second chateau was Clos Luce & Amboise. Here, Leonardo da Vinci spent the remainder of his life, and it was the main residence of King Francois I. We ate lunch at a cafe nearby the chateau and we had two different types of crepes. For the main meal, we all had hearty, savory crepes, called gallettes: mine was filled with cheese, eggs and ham. Then we all had yummy chocolate crepes for dessert.
The third chateau of the day was Cheverny, a private home for the past seven centuries. It had an unusual furniture collection, but the family is LOADED. This was Martha, Rachel and my favorite chateau of the day. They even had current family photos in one room that was open to the public. The chateau has only been closed for three times in the past few decades: for the marriage of the current owners, when Queen Elizabeth visited, and when one of the past French prime ministers hosted a gala there.
Lastly, we visited Chambord, the largest chateau in France after Versailles. Unfortunately, most of it was closed for renovations. Waaah waaaah. It was a loooong day but very fun and historical! Uncle Francois was out to dinner with his fiancee and friends, so what do three college girls resort to for an easy dinner? FAST-FOOD KEBABS! They were so delicious and comforting. They took a while to get since they were roasting a fresh hunk of meat, but we had a nice time catching up and talking about school and our abroad experiences. We came back to Uncle Francois' to hang out and sleep in a little bit for tomorrow.
Oct. 27
We slept in to catch up on some much deserved sleep, which was nice. Then "Uncle Francois" showed us around Tours and we went into St. Martin's Basilica and St. Gatien's Cathedral. In France, we haven't done so much "castle-hunting", but rather "cathedral hunting". We got French pizzas for lunch, which was very good! The French sure do know how make delicious bread and cheese! The crust was excellent. We then came "home" for lunch and hung out. We even watched "Twilight", which was strange for us to see that Francois suggested it and liked it. Not too many straight men in the States would have suggested a movie about vampire love, but we didn't complain!
Francois' fiancee took the meat that he had prepared for us to work with her so we got to-go pasta for dinner instead; the pasta place was similar to a Subway: you could choose the type of pasta, sauce, cheese and fixins. It was pretty good for some fast food in France.
We then packed up and got snacks for our 11-hour overnight train to Avignon. Woof! It was such a bad sleep, even with taking some Benadryl to knock us out. Since we were all about saving money, we didn't get a sleeper-car, just seats that reclined a lot.
Now on to Avignon and Marseilles! Such a whirlwind adventure in France!
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