Castles!

30 mai

We are now in the Loire valley.  There are lots of castles along the Loire river that are all super medieval age old.  We made it to two more castles today. The first was Azay-le-Rideau.  This castle had a fortified wall around the castle quarters as well as a draw bridge that led into the castle area.  Inside the fortified wall, there was the castle and a church as well as gardens.  All of these old walls have great views when you go up and walk along the top--this part of the wall is called the ramparts.  This word made me have Star Spangled banner stuck in my head every time I was on the ramparts.  

I loved this family tree with each family's coat of arms.

This castle is famous for this incredibly huge tapestry! We had an audioguide that took us through each panel telling us the story that it depicted.

I liked this gargoyle with personality on the chapel.

Gardens up on the ramparts.

Gardens down below

Castles have the coolest old doors

After the castle, we explored the surrounding town.  These little northern towns are so different from Paris.  They are so much smaller but cute and quaint all the same with gorgeous old and classically European architecture.  Inside the main cathedral, there was of course a gorgeous organ with these statues kind of holding it up.

Emily and I wandered around the town and got some much needed items at the pharmacy and grocery store.  Then a magical moment happened.  These three extremely attractive European men started walking towards us.  They were dressed in those incredible European tailored suits with the skinny black tie and the classic belt with European square toed shoes as well as Ray Bans.  It was like a Giorgio Armani ad walking straight towards me.  Emily and I both noticed them at the same time and started freaking out at these Greek gods walking towards us.  We fully enjoyed passing them on the sidewalk, but were too awestruck to think of asking them a dumb question like where's the post office or something of the like to start a conversation.  We made a pact to do that the next time this kind of situation presented itself.  Then we headed to a park to indulge in our favorite France activity--laying in a beautiful green park under a tree next to a river or a castle and lounging or sleeping.  In French, this activity is called pelousing.  Necessary and popular activity in the French life.

This gray cat came straight up to us as we were walking back through the town.  We tried to feed it our Petits Ecoliers, but I guess it wasn't as starving as we thought it was because it wouldn't eat it.  It let us pet it before it ran off.

Our next castle was Langeais.  This is where Charles VIII married 14 year old Anne of Britttany, gross.  In the room where it happened, they had creepy wax figures that would light up when that character's dialogue was going in the little show/story they had.  This experience was extremely creepy and laughable because of the creepy angry/bizarre faces of the wax figures and also because there was this huge thunderstorm going on while we were in this huge stone castle.  

The initials A and K were all over the castle in the wallpaper, stone engravings, and floor tiles to represent Anne and Charles.

My favorite part of this castle were the floor tiles and patterns.  There were lots of fleur de lis as well as creepy hybrid animals such as these bearded lizard swordfish creatures.

Up on the old wall with the Langeais behind me.

Out in the gardens behind the castle, they made it to look like a fairy castle with lots of little fairy/unicorn paintings.  They also had fun playgrounds and this incredible tree house!  This is all one tree but is huge with so many branches.  There were about 4 levels in this tree house.  On our way back to the bus, it started POURING!  We ran back and were completely soaked when we got back.

Tonight I had the best meal I've had in France so far...and I know I've probably said that several times, but this one was seriously the best.  It's probably because it's the most expensive restaurant I've been to--spending more money in France gives you better quality rather than an increased quantity.  It was a super nice restaurant with fancy champagne glasses.  We started out with hors d'oeuvres that consisted of little quiches and grape tomatoes presented in fancy ways.  They brought us fancy glasses of orange juice with a little orange fruit with a pretty dried leaf resting on the top rim of the glass.  Then for the entrée we had this shrimp avocado salad thing with a thin sheet of fried cheese on the top and bottom.  The meal sounds simple, but while eating it, I felt like Remy in Ratatouille where when he tastes certain mixes of flavors and ingredients, rejoicing music and happy patterns are drawn in the sky.  The meal consisted of a delicious peace of veal as well as pureed sweet potatoes and little potato patties/pancake things.  So so so so good.  For dessert, we had a delicious chocolate cake with caramel ice cream!  My taste buds and brain rejoiced.  I have come to love the French dinner process that takes 2 hours as each course is presented and fully enjoyed.  There is lots of time for talking and relaxing and refilling drinks 5 or 6 times.  After the meal, I felt extremely lethargic, but fully satisfied.