Despite my intentions to sleep in this morning, the usual loud noises of the workers woke me up at 9:30. Whhhhy. They always stop again at like 10 or 10:30, but by then it’s either too late to stay asleep, or I’m just too awake. Don’t they know college kids live here? You can’t be making noise all hours of the morning.
So, anyways, we left Chartre and fell asleep on the bus again. We woke up at a weird European rest station. There was a big bounce house out front for little kids, and inside the rest station itself there were the usual bathrooms and vending machines, but no souvenir stop, and very few options for lunch. We all decided on a cafeteria style place. I was starving so I took an appetizer (the lady said it was tabuleh? It tasted like couscous with vegetables and Italian dressing, very yummy), an entree (roasted chicken and french fries… I will NEVER eat french fries again!!!), and a dessert (a big piece of fudgey chocolate cake, yum). All that, plus a water, wound up costing me an astronomical 16.50 Euro. I couldn’t believe it. All of my other friends were in shock as well. We thought that the meal included the appetizer and dessert, but it turns out everything was priced individually. I was really upset about it until I tasted it. Everything was delicious!!
Back on the bus we went, all still sleeping, until Chambord. Chambord is a beautiful, unusual chateau designed by King Francis I as a retreat. The area around it was prime for hunting, and a good place for him to sneak off, which the audio guide told me he was fond of doing. If I were a king and I wanted to sneak off somewhere, this would certainly be the place. It made a great contrast to Versailles, which is all bedecked with gold, carved mouldings, heavy oil paintings, elaborately patterned walls and carpets, everything in velvet and silk. This place is cool, light stone, with spacious rooms, laid out in an orderly fashion, with a double helix staircase designed by Leonardo di Vinci. The walls and rooms were simple, kept rather functional instead of made lavish. Iley was a bit disturbed by the constant displays of hunting trophies, including a hall entirely covered in stag horns, and there were a couple rooms that were really odd, with new age displays that didn’t seem to make any sense, but other than that, I loved it.
Roaming around on my own, I finally found Iley and stuck with her as we explored. On the way back, we stopped for ice cream, since it was in the 80′s with a bright summer sun radiating down on us. I put up my umbrella like a little Asian lady as we walked. It was nice to get back to the air conditioned bus.
Our next and last stop of the day was Loche, where we spent the night. Another one of those towns with mideval style houses and coblestone side streets, it was beautiful. We stayed in a nice hotel, the girls all four to a room, with a glass and wood patio and no air conditioning. We ate dinner across the way, and then split up to find something to do for a little while before bed. Francheska, Rachel, Kristen and I found a small garden, checked on a few tabacs (all of which were closed), and then finally settled on a bar with cheap drinks and a friendly waitress. I didn’t know it at the time, but the bar turned out to be directly across the street from our hotel. I was confused about how all of our friends managed to find the place, but excited to see them. We basically took over the bar, dancing while the DJ played our favorite American tunes. It was fun, but I had to head back at 12:30 to shower and hit the hay. We had to be up for breakfast by 7:30.
The lack of A/C began to bother Malika and I. We were sharing a small room with two twin beds that had an A/C unit, but it refused to turn on. We couldn’t open the window because the music from the bar across the street was already coming through and keeping us awake. So we just slept with barely any covers on, and I was so exhausted from the day, it wasn’t so bad. I only woke up once, cold and surprised to hear thunder and rain.
At 7, Malikaand I woke up and got ready to go. Stephanie H and Lauren, our other room mates, were still sleeping when we left. They insisted they’d get up at 8, meaning they would miss breakfast. I thought that was silly but when I walked outside and found it chilly and rainy, I couldn’t blame them.
Breakfast was a croissant, a piece of baguette, jam, coffee or hot chocolate, and orange juice. That’s it. Iley stared at her plate covered in bread, and said, “I don’t get it. What am I supposed to do with this?” It was free though and there was coffee, so no one complained too much.
The rain stopped by the time we made our way back to the hotel. We met in the lobby and waited for the stragglers, who never came. LeRoy was sent up to find them. Their cell phones had died in the middle of the night, leaving them with no alarm. And just our luck, the stragglers were Caitlin and Amanda, two girls not likely to leave no matter what the rush without putting on make-up and selecting an appropriate outfit. We waited a long time for them and people were getting annoyed. But one look at their hung-over faces and we decided to keep our complaints to ourselves.
Our next stop was another beautiful chateau called Chenonceau. It had two sprawling, beautiful gardens out front of it, and a walkway lined with big shady trees. More scenes from a fairy tale. Our tour guide told us as the bus parked that the castle was famous because it was given to a mistress of King Henri II. After his death, his queen Cahterine de Medicis, kicked her out and took it over. One of the bedrooms is painted all black to show her mourning, and the double gardens are a testament to the rivalry between the women. The bigger of the two gardens was designed by the mistress, and shows her expensive tastes. The more intimate garden was designed by the queen.
We didn’t have an audio guidethis time, but we did have a little brochure giving a brief history of each room. Kristen was complaining about the situation and I offered to play tour guide. I stood in the busy hallway and read the introductory information about the castle to Kristin in a pretty decent fake British accent. She laughed, and I was getting a big kick out of it, so we decided to keep going. We entered the first room to the right, and I began to read again. I wasn’t shouting out every sentence or anything, but nor was I whispering. I didn’t think it was necessary. We weren’t in a church, or a library, but a chateau, filled with people taking pictures and talking and little children running around with excitement. Unfortunately, there weren’t many people in the room we had first entered, and apparently, for some reason, my reading got on people’s nerves. Some guy actually came up to me with a sour face and said, “Shut your mouth!” Kristen and I were completely stunned and unable to protest this injustice, made worse by the fact that another sour faced French woman thanked him loudly and harshly. When I finally regained my composure, I said loudly, still in my fake British accent, “Well if they don’t want me to read, I shan’t,” and I put the brochure in my purse and stalked out, nose high. Kristen was giggling at me and we made fun of the uptight man the rest of the way. The castle was so noisy in some other rooms, he must’ve had a horrible time, if he came expecting silence. We came up with many things to say in retort after the fact, but it’s probably best that we didn’t say anything. It was amusing though that whenever Kristen asked me where we were, I could say, “I don’t know. If only SOME PEOPLE would let me tell you.”
After touring the many rooms, Kristen and I found Spratt, who took us through the gardens and then through the woods to a hedge maze. Then we headed back to the bus.
Next stop was lunch in a cave. It was a fairly nice restaurant, which made us all feel out of place in our regular t-shirts and jeans. It was a really neat place though, the ceilings and walls all left rock, but with some wood supports giving the rooms a more geometrical feel. The big debacle at lunch was that some people had pre-ordered a vegetarian meal, and then upon finding out what the vegetarian meal was going to be, decided they weren’t so vegetarian after all. The kitchen had pre-made a certain number of each plate, and everyone knew that, but selfishly one of the vegetarians told the waiter she was supposed to get the chicken. This resulted in Malika, poor Malika, not getting her plate for quite some time. I was sitting at her table and all of us, in solidarity and protest, decided not to eat until she was served. We also sent waves of shame towards the girl who had stolen her meal, and waves of sympathy for the waiters who were frantic at their “mistake”. The wait was well worth it – the food was delicious. And the staff made sure that Malika was served her dessert first.
After dinner it was time to visit the winery. The wine was kept in caves to keep it cool and dry, and one of the 9 family employees described to us the fermentation, aging, and bottling processes. Of course, through it all, Alyx and Sarah made fun of someone, God only knows who, giggling and being obnoxious. I heard some of the other girls complaining about them. And they went ahead and repeated to Spratt that someone in the other tour group had said he was gay, which I think was unnecessary. But whatever.
We also did a wine tasting, two reds, one rose, two whites, and a champagne (or as they legally have to call it, “sparkling wine”. Champagne is copy righted by the Champagne region.) The wine was delicious and it was so neat learning how to check the color and the taste. I always thought that stuff was a bunch of crap but I learned a couple interesting things. For example, if you check the color on a red and it’s more purple, it’s an older and stronger wine. And there is actually a REASON people swirl their wine. We smelled it, swirled it, and smelled it again and surprisingly, there was a difference! You have to stick your whole nose in the glass, too. You should only swirl and smell three times before you taste. When you taste, you should swish the wine around a bit in your mouth because each part of your mouth registers a different taste: sour, sweet, salty, etc. It was really interesting, and almost everyone wound up buying a bottle (or three!). I bought the rose for myself and stood for a while in a conundrum about what to do for my parents and family. I don’t really know what anyone likes. So despite the excellent quality and the cheap price I just headed home with my rose. I wouldn’t know how to get that kind of thing home without smashing it into a bazillion pieces anyways. Keep your eyes out for some Touraine wine though. It’s amazing!!
And then home again, home again, after a three hour drive. And there, we’re all caught up!
Here are the pictures…. There are 275 of them. Feel free to skip around.
http://picasaweb.google.com/PixieSticker/LoireValleyWeekend
P.S. Picasa decided to not let me add any more captions after a certain point so I’m sorry. I’ll try again later. But I think you can mostly figure out what things are on your own…
