Chateaux de la Loire

Bonjour tout le monde!

This weekend I took a trip with the student association (Zephyr) to the Chateaux de la Loire (the castles of the Loire valley). It started off as you would expect any trip organized by the French...late. At first I felt bad stereotyping these things as I should be keeping an open mind while experiencing a new culture, etc., but every time I count on them to arrive on time I am, sadly, disappointed. In this case, it was more frustration as we were told to arrive at the meeting place at 5:30 in the morning and to make sure that we are on time. So, we arrived at 5:20, just to be safe, and we were the only people there. At 5:25, the German students arrived, and in the next five minutes some more of the international students arrived. At 5:30, there were about 30 of the 65 people attending, none of whom were French. In fact, the first French student arrived around 5:45 and the bus did not arrive until 6. While this was slightly annoying as I had woken up at 4 to be sure that I arrived on time, I cannot say I was very surprised.

So, at 6:30 we pulled away on our bus for the trip. We arrived at the Chateau de Chambord around 10:30 and visited for about 2 hours. This particular chateau was an absolutely amazing feat of architecture. It was a bit rainy, but still a very enjoyable visit. While I could attempt to describe it to you, that would take quite some time, so I am going to take the lazier route and show you the pictures.

 View from the path on the way to the castle.

 The winding staircase. There are two staircases that go to each floor and wind around each other, but never meet. Sadly, we could not go all the way to the top of them because the last floor was under construction, but it was still very cool.

 Just one example of the many, many rooms in this castle. They were all fairly extravagant, with gold lining, hand-woven rugs covering entire walls, massive bed frames, etc. with the exception of the servants quarters, which could barely a 4 foot long bed and a small dresser.

 Just one of the many cool crests around the castle. They very much liked putting a representation of their awesomeness in as many places as they could.

 The hunting room. Every wall was covered with the mounts you see to the left of the structure in the middle. There were probably 100 of them surrounding this room.

 Old-school crossbow. Yes, it has a crank on it. There was also a 6-foot tall spear and a bear trap three times the size of my head. They were clearly very prominent hunters.

 A view from the top of the castle. Rainy, but still amazing.

 The center piece at the top of the castle. As you can see, the architecture on this piece alone is absolutely amazing, and this is one of many towers on the castle.

Another view from the the top of the castle. It was quite breathtaking to be up at the top of the castle and see all the open land beyond the castle.

That concludes the trip to castle number one. I would like to show you more pictures of it, but I took 100 so they would take forever to load and take up way too much space. If you would like to see more of them, just comment and I can send them to you.

So, we hopped back on the bus after a short visit to the gift shop and took a two hour bus ride to our second destination: Chateau de Chenonceau. This one was far smaller than the first, but had a much more intricate garden area, farm, and a few other separate buildings. It was also directly on a river, which provided us with some more great views and pictures that are below. They normally do boat rides and night tours with lights in the gardens and castle, but they were not available when we were there. Again, if you would like to see more, just comment and I can send them to you. 

 The path on the way to the castle.

 The moat on the front side of the castle. I imagine it is much more beautiful (and effective) when it is full.

 View from across the bridge of the main building and the gatehouse.

 Side-view from the garden.

 The crest on the door.

 An example of one of the enormous rugs on the wall. They were all over the castle and amazingly intricate.

 View of the river from inside the castle.

 Just one room in the kitchen area. From the looks of things, these people really loved to eat.

Just one of the many garden areas outside the castle. As you can see, they put quite a bit of work into the design.

A painting of what the castle would look like on a nicer day.

From here, we drove another hour or so into the middle of nowhere to the youth hostel where we stayed. The zephyr students cooked us dinner and provided snacks for a night of music and some odd French games. It was a surprisingly nice place, where we stayed in rooms of four, but each got our own bed and closet. There was also a bathroom and shower in each room. After another early morning (8 am) and a complimentary breakfast of bread, coffee and warm milk (which the Europeans love, while we all worried it would put is back to sleep), we headed for the vineyard.

At the vineyard, we got a tour of the facilities and I learned quite a lot about the process of making wine, including some of the biological aspects that go into the creation of different kinds of wine. After the tour, we were lucky enough to participate in a wine tasting for about 5 different wines. The first was a "Methode traditionelle" which they made clear was not champagne (because champagne is made the same way but is legally only from the Champagne region). We also got to try some dry and semi-dry wines, but no reds. This particular vineyard produces only white wines, but they do a very good job of it (Many of their wines received medals from around France). The amazing thing is, unlike in the states, about 95% of them could be bought for under 10 euros! Here are some pictures.

 Outside the "cave" where they make the wine after the grapes come in.

 Our tour guide showing us the special wine made using the old methods. When done, these produce the more expensive wines.

 Yea, they have a ton of wine.

 Wine tasting!

The Not Champagne that we tried. The price is cut off in this picture, but it only costs 5.25 euros.

Following the wine tasting, we had a short picnic and left for our final destination: The village of Azay-le-Rideau. After two more hours on a bus, we arrived and visited the castle, had some ice cream in the village and prepared to head home. After two other castles the day before, this one was beginning to look very similar. Still, it was very beautiful day which made wandering around the inside and outside of the castle much more enjoyable. Enjoy the photos!

 Front of the castle.

 Another moat.

 Yet another crest. They really love these things, huh?

 View of the path leading up to the castle and the village behind it.

 The lake and field behind the castle.

Back of the castle.

Following a four hour bus ride we made it back around 8:30 and crashed in our rooms after an exhausting trips. Nevertheless, it was very enjoyable and definitely worth the 30 euros to see a very important part of European history. I hope this has been an interesting post, and there will be more to follow this weekend. 

A plus,

Tom