Last day of castles...I promise

1 juin

We visited the castle of Blois today!  This castle was unique as it had 4 different sections from 4 different periods: Gothic, Classic, Romantic, and something else I can't remember

  

  

 This is Prof. LeBras and his wife.  They are a funny couple.  He is French and she is Vietnamese.  They both immigrated to America and have raised 6 children in Provo.  

  Another king chose a porcupine as his symbol...much better choice than a salamander.

All the girls bowing to M. LeBras in the king's throne

I never thought I could get castled out...but it happened.  It was just a lot of castles that I stopped really appreciating them.  But they were still gorgeous nonetheless.  Our last castle of the tour was Chambord.  Chambord is in the middle of a big forest and was built as a hunting lodge for royals and nobles.  There are 380 chimneys here!  All of the smokestacks give this castle a lot of character. 

There is a double helix staircase at Chambord. Two people can go up the different staircases and never see each other.

  

 The view on the roof was gorgeous!

 

We drove back to Paris that afternoon and stayed in an hotel in the ugly part of Paris on the outskirts.  I went to the train station and got some train tickets that I need for later summer travels.  I got a delicious pizza and ate it in a local park for dinner.  Overall it was a great week long trip through Normandy, Brittany, and the Loire valley.  We saw a lot of things that would have been hard for me to find and see on my own.  It was fun for M. LeBras to show off some of his homeland as he is from Bretagne (Brittany).