Les Chateaux de la Loire

Last Tuesday's adventure involved a day trip to the Loire Valley. My mom and I decided that we wanted to get out of Paris for at least one day. I had studied several of the chateaux in French class junior year, and I'd always wanted to see them in person. I knew that I would appreciate the castles because I'm a history nerd, so I know all about Francois I and Henry II and all those French dudes.

My mom and I decided many movies could be made about riding on a tour bus. It was pretty hilarious/excruciating. We were on the bus for about three hours, because the Loire Valley is almost in the middle of France. Cramming more than 50 people of many different cultures onto one bus for three hours is not necessarily a pleasant experience. There were three different groups, each with a different guide with a different language: Spanish, Japanese, and English. So we got to hear the general info in all three.  It was fun to watch the guides flipping back and forth between languages with ease. We had to take the tour bus because it is impossible to do more than one in one day by yourself--the castles are too far apart.

But the actual castles were really cool! We went to Chenonceau, Cheverny, and Chambord. I had learned about Chenonceau and Chambord in class, and I didn't know much about Cheverny.

Apparently, Chenonceau is supposed to be the most beautiful of all the castles. We thought it was neat looking, but not overwhelming. You could actually live there. It was originally the home of Henry II's "favorite" (mistress), Diane de Poitiers. She was 20 years older than he was, but the real power behind the throne. After Henry II died (in a hunting accident when a lance went through his eye--gross!), his wife, Catherine de Medici, took over the castle. She was not happy playing second to Diane. They each built a garden around the castle, trying to outdo each other.  The upshot is the castle looked very lived-in and real.

Mom and me in front

Me in front of Chenonceau castle

Then we went to Cheverny, which I knew nothing about. It was more of a large fancy house than a castle. Its claim to fame is that the writer of Tintin based the castle in the cartoon on Cheverny. Also, there is a huge pack of hunting dogs, and they still go out on hunts periodically.

Mom and Cheverny

Part of the dog pack

Finally we went to Chambord, which looked exactly like the castle in Disney World--no kidding. This was definitely a CASTLE. My mom kept saying, "You are parked in "Doc." You are parked in "Sleepy." You are parked in "Bashful,"' (like the little parking tram voice in Disney World). However, there wasn't much there, since it was built as a hunting lodge (some hunting lodge!) and the kings never spent a huge amount of time there. So it was pretty empty inside. The coolest part was a special exhibit about Chambord during World War II, since the Vichy government kept all the paintings from Paris museums at Chambord to keep them safe from looting. There were some great pictures of the Mona Lisa in the castle!

The central tower

Me with Chambord

All in all, it was a really fun trip.