Day #4: Azay-le-Rideau, Villandry, Clos Luce

*Unfortunately our last hotel did not have internet, so I had to wait until we arrived in Paris today to update you all. This will be less comprehensive than I would have liked, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.*

Today was light on the history and heavy on the beautiful photos. So I'm going to include more of those and less of the dialogue. For some reason all of a sudden it takes much less time for me to upload photos to Blogger, that's why I have included so many more of late.

This is Azay-le-Rideau, the fourth chateau we have seen so far. I think it was my favorite. I had never been there before and I was pleasantly surprised. It combines all of my favorite elements of other chateaux we have seen: pleasant scenery (lots of trees and a river nearby), a manageable size, and fewer tourists. Instead of having formal French gardens like Chenonceau, this one just has a "Romantic" British-style park (read lots of grass and trees).

Then in the afternoon we went to chateau #5: Villandry. I have already been there before, but it was interesting to see the flowers in the early fall rather than the late spring. Neither last time nor this time did I go inside the chateau, because the gardens are better worth the time. Last time I went it was June and the arbors were covered with grape vines, but no grapes. Of course, right now is the vendage (grape harvest to make wine) so the arbors along the gardens of Villandry were full of plump bunches of grapes. Since it was mid-to-late afternoon at this point, the sunlight was streaming in sideways through the wooden arbors and the gravel path underneath the arbor's arches was downright magical. I felt like a little kid, a princess, a Greek goddess. I just wanted to reach up and pick some.And once I saw Jenn do exactly that, I followed suit. And my reward was that the fat grape burst right in my fingers, spraying juice in my hair. Undaunted, I grabbed another, but more carefully. I was astounded by the variety of colors: pale yellow to supermarket-grape-green to rosey pink to deep burgundy red to violet. And sometimes there were multiple colors in a single cluster of grapes. This probably doesn't seem earth-shattering for you, but I found it pretty neat. I've now added "an arbor with grape vines" to my list of future desires.

After Villandry we went to Close Luce, Leonardo da Vinci's home near the chateau of Amboise (we didn't go inside, so I can't really count this as chateau #6). I have also been to Leonardo's home before, but yet again I discovered things I had not seen before. This time we got to spend some time wandering in the garden, which has life-scale models of his inventions. We also discovered, to our extreme pleasure, a play-ground. Even better, it was not occupied. So we made good use of the hanging/swinging/human-tetherball thing. Clockwise from the back: me, Miles, Kara, Carolyn.

Day #3: Blois and Chenonceau

So today was chateaux #2 and #3. This was my first time visiting Blois, and I found it really interesting. It's a great example of the four main types of architecture in France from the 13th-17th centuries because there are four separate sections which were built at different times. This photo shows three of the four different sections. The white structure in the middle is the oldest, it was built in the 13th century. It's an example of simple gothic architecture. The brick and stone section on the right (L'aile Louis XII) is an example of flamboyant gothic architecture (it's called flamboyant because some of the designs look like intricate flames). There are even some Renaissance elements, because at the end of the 15th century France was still in the gothic period while Italy was in the Renaissance. The white stone structure on the left is part of L'aile Francois I and it's a great example of Renaissance (Renaissance art being the rediscovery of Roman/Greek themes in decoration...characterized by lots of flowers and verdure, lots of naked figures who were supposed to ressemble Roman/Greek gods or goddesses). The protruding spiral part on the outside is a staircase, because in France in the 16th century when this was constructed they were still building staircases outside to maximize the space inside. The fourth wing is "L'aile Gaston d'Orleans" and it was built in the 17th century in Classical style. The wings were supposed to form a complete square, but the construction of "L'aile Gaston d'Orleans" was never completed, so there's a 50 foot gap or so that allows people to walk up to the edge of the chateau's walls and see the Loire River below.


Our tour this morning was guided, but brief, and we had a chance to look around for ourselves too. We had lunch at a cute little restaurant in Blois (unfortunately I forgot to get their card). I skipped the entree for lunch because their special dessert of the day was tarte au citron which happens to be my favorite. It's odd that a fruity dessert should usurp chocolate as my favorite, but apparently not impossible. My plat principal was a cut of steak (I am perpetually guessing which cut, I know what entrecote looks like but the rest are a mystery to me). It was tasty though, and that's what counts.


Then on to chateau #3, Chenonceau. I'd already seen it before when I toured the Loire Valley with Mimi M., Mom, Trey, and Holly. Like Mont St. Michel and other parts of Normandie, it was interesting to go back a second time. We did not have a guided tour of Chenonceau (Dr. Barbor thinks one per day is enough). I've already heard the tour schtick once, so I focused on enjoying the views and taking some cool pictures. The one below is a giant cutting board which was down in the kitchens (which were cavernous and filled with lots of very shiny copper pots). Actually the whole Chenonceau experience seemed a little Disney-esque to me. The kitchen was brightly lit and all of the wood was polished to a shine and there were baskets of fake vegetables featured under subtle recessed lighting. It seemed just a little too clean for a chateau that is hundreds of years old. But I guess that's how they get to many visitors - there were infintely more people there than at Blois. The sort of funky picture is the brand name on one of the copper pots...and afterwards I realized my face is Picasso-esque in the reflection.


So then we found a labyrinth. It wasn't very difficult to reach the gazebo in the center, so we had a photoshoot once we all got there. Oh, also, while we were exploring we found a few grape vines near the Cher (the river which the chateau sits on top of) and Peter and Wright proceeded to start chucking some at me. So, of course, I retaliated and one of the small grapes I threw lodged itself in Peter's ear! Talk about serious aim! I think it's all the practice I have tossing pretzel nuggets to my dad... Kara was using my camera to take pictures of the group and she snapped this photo of me, sort of candid. Yes, it's a little vain, but I think it turned out all right, so I put it up here too. Tonight for dinner we went to "Le Buffet" again (the same place as Monday night). Our dinner on Monday wasn't extraordinary, so I wasn't super excited. But I ordered the risotto with asperagus and olives and it was downright tasty. It had hearty flakes (more like medium-thinly sliced squares) of Parmesean Reggiano on top and the whole dish had a lot more depth of flavor than I was anticipating. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised.
Now it's time for bed. Tomorrow we have two more chateaux and then on Friday morning we're departing from Tours. We'll be in Paris on Sunday! Yay!

Day #2: A Tour of Tours

So this morning we had a tour of the city of Tours. I really like this town a lot. There are about 180,000 people living within the city limits and a total of 300,000 living in the suburbs surrounding the city. It's also a center for students: there are 30,000 students. Our hotel is right off of one of the main streets (Boulevard Heurteloup) and down the center are tree-lined walkways for pedestrians. It is so visually pleasing! The picture at the top is Carleigh, me, and Mary-Kate in front of the Hotel de Ville. There's a beautiful square with a fountain and flowers in front of this 19th century building, designed by the same guy who did the Gare de Tours (Tours train station) and the new Basilica St. Martin, Victor Laloux. The picture to the right is the the gare. There are four large statues in the front, designating the four destinations one could reach from the original train station: Nantes, Toulouse, Limoge, and Bordeaux (all cities in France).

There is, of course, a cathedral in Tours. It's La Cathedrale Saint-Gatien and it is much shorter and narrower than many of the other cathedrals we have seen. It appears to be taller than it is because it is so narrow. This poor cathedral has seen a lot of conflict; between the Hundred Year's War, the French Revolution, WWI, and WWII, it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Inside you can see stained glass windows from every century since the 13th century. It's neat to see how the styles have changed throughout the years.

We also saw the new Basilique St. Martin, which was built in the 19th century in the roman-byzantine style. The original basilica was destroyed, but they rebuilt the new one to overlap with tomb of St. Martin so that the crypt was not moved.

So after the tour finished around 11:30am, we headed to Les Halles (the city's covered market). Les Halles in Tours are spiffier than those in Dijon. Carleigh, Jennifer and I bought a baguette, some Chaource (cheese which Carleigh recommended and I really enjoyed), raspberries, a mini quiche, and drinks and took them to Le Jardin de la Préfecture (a park near our hotel). It was a perfect lunch! Afterwards I read some more of my book ("La Dame a La Licorne"). It's a French translation of the book by Tracy Chevalier, who also wrote "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." I've been enjoying it so far and I think it's been good for my French vocabulary.

Speaking of French vocabulary, I've taken on a new challenge. I am going to try and see a French film once a week. My goal is to not only get more exposure to the French language/culture in context (in case I'm not getting enough by living here). But I'm also hoping that after seeing 8-9 films I might have some kind of perspective on French cinema. Who knows? I'm always game for a new project/adventure. This afternoon I saw "Les Regrets" (yes I know, it seems like a very dramatic choice). There was definitely a lot of drama. It was directed by Cedric Kahn. I am throwing this information out there in case you're interested, but I am not pretending to be an expert. I had never heard of Cedric Kahn before today. He also directed "L'Ennui" (1998). The movie itself was really interesting. I was pleased by how much of the dialogue I could understand. The theatre was similar to the one I went to in Dijon, although slightly larger. Again there weren't very many seats and they were covered in a red, felt-like material. I went to a 5pm show and there were only 3 other people in the theater with me.

Now it's time for dinner!

This is the tree-lined walkway which runs down the center of the Boulevard Heurteloup.

Day #1 in La Loire: Chambord

Bonjour! Today was the day #1 and chateau #1 of our tour of the Loire Valley. We left Dijon this morning and ate lunch en route. We arrived at Chambord at around 3:30pm and spent two hours exploring it on our own. Sometimes its nice to see a sight without a guided tour, you can spend more or less time on the things that are more or less interesting for you personally. I had never seen Chambord before and it is magnificent. Construction began under François I, who wanted somewhere to stay when he went hunting (this is 1519). It was not finished within his lifetime, nor within that of his son Henri II. Louis XIV, who also loved hunting, spent plenty of time there when he reigned later. Leonardi da Vinci designed the double spiral staircase in the center, which allows two people to walk upstairs simultaneously without seeing each other.The second double spiral staircase (I'm pretty sure this one, which is on the exterior, was added later when Louis XIV moved his royal chambers to another wing of the chateau). But it's modeled after the one Leonardo da Vinci designed, which is in the interior of another wing.

A portrait of Francois I which is located in his bedchamber. The stripes on the walls are narrow tapestries.

Moi, on the ramparts surrounding the top of the chateau. The view from the top was stunning. I would have loved to take a horse-back riding tour of the land surrounding the chateau. There is a huge park surrounding the chateau (almost 1,360 acres) and the longest wall in France encircles it.


These are 17th century tapestries. The pic on the left gives you a sense of how big they are, the pic on the right gives you a sense of the detail.

Things I Visited, Saw, and Ate in Geneva

This past weekend I took a train to Geneva to visit my friend Claire O'Brien. For those of you who might not know, Claire was my roommate last year and is one of my best friends at Wake. She's studying in Geneva through the BU program.

So, to get to the gist of it. Things I saw, visited, and ate in Geneva:

Look closely in the jet d'eau for the rainbow

• Lac Leman: This is the technical name for Lake Geneva. Apparently "Lake Geneva" doesn't exist. Lac Leman has a giant fountain near one bank called the "jet d'eau." I have not yet heard why it's there, I'm pretty sure it's just to add to the scenery, but I hope whoever in the city government/tourism bureau came up with that idea got a hefty bonus - it's really cool. It shoots water 450 feet into the air and when the sun is shining you can see huge rainbows. I had to wait until Saturday to see one, but it was totally worth it.

• Parks! Geneva has lots of parks and they're all spacious and flower-filled. Three of the big ones we visited are Jardin Anglais, which has the famous flower-clock in it. It's just a clock inside a flower bed, which celebrates how Geneva is known for its clocks and watches. Another park was Parc des Bastions which contains the Reformation Wall - a huge wall with statues of all of the leaders of the Reformation. It's probably less known for its giant, over-sized chess and checkers sets, but I thought those were pretty cool. Friday afternoon Claire and I took a Frisbee there and threw for a little while. It was great! I haven't had someone to throw a Frisbee with me in a long time! My favorite park of all though was La Grange, where we went for lunch on Saturday. It's a huge park with an 18th century mansion in the center on a hill and a long sprawling lawn in front of it, overlooking Lac Leman. It also has two rose gardens. Claire and I took a small loaf of bread, some gruyère cheese (my new favorite), and some cookies and soaked in the peace and tranquility. This is Claire with our picnic lunch in La Grange.

• Old Town: The name is self-explanatory. On Friday we explored the Cathedrale Saint-Pierre. Claire likes cathedrals and so she enjoyed it, but I particularly liked it because (thanks to French civilization course I am taking with Dr. Barbour) I could identify lots of architectural elements and even identified that the cathedral had originally been done in the roman style, then gothic elements were added later, then Renaissance elements even later. I thought this one was particularly interesting because the front has Greco-Roman columns and a Pantheon-esque dome on the top. *This is the decidedly "un-cathedral-like" exterior of Cathedrale St. Pierre.* It was re-done in the 18th century, after it became a Protestant house of worship. Someone told us that night that you can go all the way to the top of the towers, so we went back on Saturday afternoon and climbed all 157 stairs to the top. The view was unbelievable. We also checked out the Hotel de Ville (historically the town hall, built in the 15th century, now houses Geneva's Parliament) and the arsenal (they had 5 cannons from the 17th-18th centuries and three big mosaics with scenes from Geneva's history).
  

• Fondue and raclette: on Friday night Claire and I went out to a Swiss restaurant to try these two traditional Swiss dishes. To make fondue, Emmental and Gruyere are melted together with white wine and served in a large pot, along with bread. You dip the bread cubes in the cheese and swirl them around to make su re the cheeses and wine are completely mixed. Yum! Raclette is a mild melted cheese served on a plate, along with bowls of boiled potatoes, pickles, and pearl onions, which you're supposed to dip into the cheese (they put a small amount on your plate and keep refilling it). Claire and I also tried Paien Dumoulin, an aperatif wine. It was very sweet and very light. We both prefered the fondue to the raclette.
  

• Palais de Nations (U.N. Building): on Saturday morning Claire and I took a bus out to check out the art-deco building of the U.N. headquarters in Europe. More intriguing is the giant chair outside the gate, which is missing one leg (this is in support for amputees). Next time I'll take the tour, but we skipped it this time around.

• Patek Philippe Museum: Wow. Ignorant-old me had never even heard of Patek Philippe before this weekend, but Patek Philippe & Co. is a serious name in the world of luxury watches. But since I was in Geneva, I thought a museum all about time pieces would be a good idea. And it definitely was: think diamond and pearl encrusted watches, intricate gold and silver watches, and downright snazzy watches. The museum had two main levels: the first with the Patek Philippe collection (1839-1989) and th e second which held antique watches (1500-1850). There were also music boxes, snuff boxes, telescopes, vases, bird cages, and guns which were expressely created and decorated to house or display a Patek Philippe clock. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures. But if you ever go to Geneva, I recommend you check it out.

• Place Neuve: this is the square with the entrance to Parc des Bastions. There's also the Grand Théâtre the(Geneva's opera house), the Geneva Music Conservatory, and a light pole with a giant "Do Not Disturb" sign, like the ones they have for hotel room doors. I have no idea why, but I took a picture.
  

• Gelato Mania: Saturday night I had the best gelato I've ever had in my entire life. No joke. And I've had a lot of gelato. In Italy, in France, in the U.S. This took the cake. Claire took me to this little hole-in-the-wall place because not only is the gelato delicious, but they serve up "American-sized scoops" (her words, not theirs) for only 3.50 CHF. I got the chocolate and boy did I make the right choice. Bear with me here, but it tasted just like a hot, gooey brownie fresh out of the oven. Now how does gelato taste like a hot brownie, you might ask. Well the reason I use the hot brownie analogy is that this particular chocolate flavor was so smooth and so consistently tasty that it reminded me of homogenous sweetness of a hot chocolate dessert. Sometimes it seems only by apply heat can you make the ingredients blend together perfectly. Well, this was that harmony of ingredients. I'm just disappointed Claire didn't take me sooner, so we couldn't go again before I left. I want to go back just for the gelato. Oh, and the place is called "Gelato Mania."
  

• International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum: the guidebook authors warned us that it would be depressing, and we should have taken their word for it. They call it, "a compelling multimedia trawl through atrocities perpetuated by humanity in recent history," I call it, "a museum not to see on your last day." They exhibits were all on one floor, in a very dark, utilitarian building. As you approach the museum entrance you're greeted by a cluster of hooded figures cast in stone which represent "the violated and the abused" or something of that sort. Dementors as the welcome team, nice. But in all seriousness, the reason the Red Cross museum is there is because the organization was started in Geneva by Henry Dunant in 1863. The exhibits were informative, if a little heavy. It is now called the International Red Cross and Red Cresent Movement. In Muslim countries, the "Red Cross" logo is a red cresent on a white armband.

• Kebab: I had the best kebab I have had so far in the nicest kebab joint I have seen so far. I know, it seems kind of odd to go to Switzerland and eat a kebab, but this place was close to train station (we grabbed lunch before my train left at 1pm today) and not many places are open on Sunday. Not only did this place have nice seating, but you could add as much or as little "white sauce" (like tzatziki sauce) to your kebab as you wanted. So classy!
  

• Lots of dogs, lots of babies

• A pretty cool doorknocker. This one's just for Trey.
  
  

• Starbucks and McDonald's - always together! This part was a little weird. I saw at least three Starbucks stores and McDonald's restaurants and I always saw them together, on the same corner or place. The Starbucks buildings were huge and were usually very busy. Claire told me that a grande drink costs about 8 CHF (Swiss francs, which are approximately equal to the US$). Yikes! I am pleased there are no Starbucks in Dijon. There is a McDonald's, Subway, and Domino's. When I walk by Subway and get a whiff of that super-yeasty smell, it makes me think of Wake.

Tomorrow morning we're leaving for a week in the Loire Valley and then the next week in Paris!