Day 74 - Les Châteaux de France

We got up early again, got back on the bus, and headed to the third castle - Château de Chenonceau. It was beautiful. I've got a lot of pictures, so hold tight.

Bread oven

After that, we headed to Amboise. We got some lunch there at this really cool restaurant.

It was really fun. Shaina and Courtney had fun trying to ruin my pictures... :)

:D good times. Then off to the castle!

We had a really fun guide here. She was french so her English was very accented. It was so interesting to listen to her. Also, she talked with her hands a lot, which was cute :) And she said "hein" a lot, which is just a french filler word after you say something. It was so fun! I learned a lot from her. I don't really remember everything, but it was a great tour! Now for the avalanche of pictures...

Leonardo Da Vinci is buried here.

Here is a picture that I snuck of the guide.

This chateau used to be a lot larger. The black parts are the parts that are still in existence whereas the red parts are the parts of the castle that were destroyed. Mostly they were knocked down so that the bricks and parts could be used to build other things.

Fire! It was so cold and it felt good to snuggle up in front of the fire. And take pictures...

I love fire :)

Max loving the castle.

Trompe l'oeil.

Bust of Da Vinci. The old chapel used to be here and that is where he was originally buried. But the chapel was destroyed so he was moved to the other chapel where he is now resting.

The castle is made of very soft limestone.

Strange bushes...

Climbing up the wall with the wind blowing my hair in my face. Awesome.

:D

Then we headed to Chateau du Clos Lucé, the home of Da Vinci. It is very close to the Amboise chateau, so we walked.

This is the place.

We ventured inside. Pictures were not allowed, which I think is really lame. It seems strange to me that they allow pictures in the chateaus, but not in the home of Da Vinci. Eh whatever. I don't make the rules.

Then the heavens opened and it began to downpour. This was a very sad thing because the garden area around Clos Lucé is enormous and very beautiful, but that's alright. While we were walking, we spotted a playground. It had this toy where you grab a chain and then you spin around so that you can fly in the air. Make sense? Even though it was raining, I had to try it out and it was so much fun! I'll have to get one for my future backyard. Then off to Blois for our hotel.

We got some dinner and we noticed something unusual. The people were smiling. This was a very unusual phenomenon. What we deduced is this - it isn't the French that don't smile, it's the Parisians! They are probably just uptight because they live in such a busy city. I probably would be too if I lived here for years. I digress.

This is the view from our hotel window!

When we got back to the hotel after dinner, several of us girls watched a show on Shaina's computer. Courtney massaged my back during this and it felt so good! I needed it so badly! After the show, while we were talking, we received a note under our door. It was written in French, English, and Portuguese. It said something along the lines of wanting to hang out with us and make noise (they had a guitar). Well, we knew immediately that it was Mike and Richard, but we wrote back "Who are you and why should we hang out with you? Give us 5 reasons." Well, we got a note back. It said, "We are Gio, Greg, and Vinny! We came from Brazil, ok, we think that there are 3 goods reasons already!! (plus the guitar) We and you need to know each other!! (Maybe) this is the last and only opportunity!!! And we must enjoy the life bcz it is short!!! And who are you???" Well, we still thought it was Mike and Richard being factitious. Until we looked at the paper it was written on. It said that the reservation was in the name of a certain Gregory de Almeida Carlos. HA! We didn't write back now that we knew that it wasn't the boys, but it was just funny!

More tomorrow!