Musings of a Princess

Last weekend was the ISA Loire Valley excursion, which meant an early AM, which not sure if you guys know this or not, but that is kind of hard after a late night at the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower

Never coming home...

But, managed to make it to the bus stop and get on the bus, where everyone passed out and slept until we got to our first destination: Château de Blois. It is located in the center of the city - so it was a tad weird to be driving into the city and taking all this tightly weaving streets in a big bus, but our bus drive was awesome and managed to get us there all in one piece - I have decided that I should take up bus driving because it would make driving a horse trailer look like child's play. But, back to the château - it was really cool! We had a guided tour, it rained of course, and then had free time for lunch. Best part was when we walked out the city's market was still going, and right outside of the castle were pens that had goats, sheep and a calf! I might have started to jump up and down and requested multiple pictures of me and the calf.

Château de Blois

View from inside

View from the courtyard

After that we loaded back onto the bus and went to our next castle: Château de Chenonceau. This château is built over a river and has both an Italian and French garden. It was gorgeous and I really enjoyed that we were just turned loose with a small paper guide instead of a tour guide so that we could wander at our own pace. Once again, it had animals but we didn't get to see them - no one really wanted to go with me to the 16th century farm or the donkey park. After we got back on the bus, we all napped again - all this outdoor activities, fresh air and rain meant that all of us were exhausted. We then got a surprise trip to a winery for a tour and some wine tasting. It was really cool. We got to taste seven different varieties: four whites, two reds and a sparkling white wine that was much like a champagne but since we weren't in the Champagne region it technically couldn't be classified as such. We also got to have some local goat cheese and bread. Pretty much qualified as dinner. We then bused to our hotel and were left on our own to find dinner, which we did, and then went to bed early.

Château de Chenonceau

View from Garden entrance

View from Inside

The next morning we got breakfast at the hotel and pretty much stuffed our faces - I mean, unlimited breakfast that was basically free?! Then we had a guided visit at our third and final château: Château de Chambord. And the weather was fantastic! It was gorgeous!! After our tour, we got time to eat and then had the option to either motorboat the moat in a group of 5 or take bikes. We took the bikes. And that was kind of a bad choice. The bikes take four people - the two in back pedal and steer, while the two in front enjoy the view. We didn't really figure that out until we tried to go and found that we couldn't move the dang thing. So we split into two groups of two, but still, it was a lot of work. But then we figured out that it meant it was ok to stuff our faces at the cookie tasting that happened afterwards, where we also got to have some kir. Once that was over, back on the bus and back to Paris.

Château de Chambord

View from Courtyard

I am moving here! 

Princess in her castle 

Château de Chambord (view from the bike ride)

Since then, nothing much has gone on, except for midterms and the theatre. Had a french midterm today and have a fashion one on Thursday. Went to the theatre last night with ISA to see "How to Become a Parisian in an Hour" and it was hilarious. Well, I would say that I would try and post before I leave for Morocco, but that isn't very likely to happen at all, so no updates until after Morocco!