It was still dark when we left. We had a 3ish hour bus ride before we reached Amboise, where we saw our first château.
We took some pictures from the road, because once you go close it was too big to get in the picture
Also in Amboise is Close Luce, da Vinci's home where he eventually died.
It's the big old brick one back there. This is Close Luce as seen from Château d'Amboise
Because he died in Amboise, da Vinci was actually buried on the grounds of the château. Eventually the grounds were disrupted and his bones were moved into the chapel
The chapel was small but beautiful. All of the stained glass windows were re-done following WWII when they were destroyed by bombings.
Pictures weren't allowed in the chateau, since it's privately owned, but here is a picture of me and my roommates, Lia and Jennifer, from the château. That's the Loire river behind us!
After the château visit, we went out into Amboise for lunch. Lia and I got mousse aux fruits. The only food picture of this trip, I believe
After Amboise we headed to Chenonceau.
You like that scaffolding? Yeah, me too.
History break: Henry II gave the chateau to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. After Henry died, though, his wife Catherine de Medici took the castle back. The first ever fireworks display in France happened here, too. You know how I feel about fireworks.
Here I am standing in my favorite thing ever:
A human size fireplace. There were beaucoup de human sized fireplaces this weekend, and it only reinforced my strong desire to have one. When I am broke and living in a run down apartment, I will somehow build a human sized fireplace in it. I don't even care. It will happen.
Cane we get a boar's head for Fife Lake?
Martha Stewart, eat your heart out. There are flower arrangements all over the chateau and they are all done with flowers and plants grown on the grounds.
The chateau is built over the river Cher. So cool.
Check this out, Amelia:
The bedroom of Louise de Lorraine.
"Following the assassination of her husband King Henri III by the monk Jacques Clément on August 1, 1589, Louise of Lorraine retired to Chenonceau in meditation and prayer.
Surrounded by nuns who lived in the château as in a convent, and always dressed in white in compliance with the etiquette of royal mourning, she was known as "the White Queen". Her bedroom has been reconstructed around the original ceiling. It is decorated with mourning objects : silver tears, widows' cordons, crowns of thorns and the Greek letter - l - lambda, Louise's initial, intertwined with the H of Henri III."
BADASS, RIGHT?
After we finished in the chateau we headed outside.
The grounds had two formal gardens, a farm, some forest-y stuff and A MAZE.
j/k, we were crouching. The hedges are actually pretty low.
Also, donkeys
That night, our program rented out an entire Château for us to stay in, Château de Razay
Not too shabby
We stayed in the Chateau, but they also had "chalets"
AND TREE HOUSES
I think we should build these on the cousin property at Fife Lake. Treehouses laugh at the threat of wetlands.
And they had animals!
This mini-horse and donkey were bffs. Everywhere the mini-horse went, the donkey followed.
The view from my window at the chateau.
That night we had dinner at a local restaurant, paid for by CEA. We had kir, salad with duck, bread, fish and rice, cheese, dessert and wine.
After dinner we all headed back to the chateau and hung out in the common room playing Psychologist and word games like, "Grandpa likes..." and "What's behind the green glass doors?" Everyone went to their own rooms around midnight except for Lia, Jennifer and I, and two guys who were sharing a room. The guys thought it would be hilarious to try and scare us, and they did a pretty good job of it.
The chateau is in the middle of nowhere, and someone's idea of pleasant decor includes DOLLS. Most notably, a creepy WITCH DOLL
SERIOUSLY, WHAT? I did not take this picture, I had no desire to document it, but luckily Matt did so I can share the horror with you all.
Anyway, Matt and Lee kept saying creepy stuff and Matt actually followed us with the doll at some point and we were pretty much terrified. I made Jennifer and Lia walk me to my room so I could get my bags, because I was going to stay in Jennifer's room. I didn't want to be alone. So then we walked Lia to her room, where Vicky was already waiting to protect her. By the time we got back to Jennifer's room, though, I had calmed down enough that I was ready to tackle sleeping alone.
It didn't help that my room had a fly problem. I have seen one to many An American Haunting episodes to just let that slide. For those who don't know, FLIES ARE A MAJOR SIGN OF IMPENDING EVIL. So I turned on the TV and watched about an hour of Law & Order SVU (dubbed in French) while slowly turning off each light in my room. I slept fine, no ghosts.
I'll have to update about Sunday at another time because this is taking forever and I have to go to class.
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